The Fallout (2022) Movie Review
You might recognize Megan Park from her acting career. Her most well known role is undoubtedly on the television show The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008), the same show where Shailene Woodley also first gained notoriety. But Park steps into the role of writer and director with her feature film debut, The Fallout. Park tackles an intense topic for her debut and this serves (ironically) as a trigger warning for the following piece, which discusses school shootings.
Vada (Jenna Ortega) is in high school, struggling with normal teenager things. She has two loving parents, Patricia (Julie Bowen) and Carlos (John Ortiz), and a younger sister Amelia (Lumi Pollack). Their family is seemingly “normal” and Vada goes to school worrying about homework and gossiping with her friend, Nick (Will Ropp). When she goes to the bathroom in the middle of class, tragedy strikes. Vada huddles in the bathroom with fellow students Mia (Maddie Ziegler) and Quinton (Niles Fitch) as we hear screams and the sounds of bullets.
In the aftermath of the event, Vada struggles to do much of anything other than sleep. That is, until Mia reaches out via Instagram. Vada and Mia are very different, Mia is the resident “popular” dancer while Vada runs around in oversized t-shirts. But they both need someone who understands what they’re going through so they gravitate towards each other. Vada begins hanging out at Mia’s quite often because her parents are conveniently never home. They get drunk and stoned together and hang out, most of the time doing nothing. There are plenty of sad moments with Mia asking Vada to stay over until she falls asleep and a variety of FaceTime calls where they leave their laptops on so they technically aren’t sleeping alone.
Park does an excellent job of showcasing how life can’t possibly go back to normal after experiencing something as traumatic, while simultaneously showing the desire for it to. Vada’s parents want her to be a “normal” kid again but she struggles to go to school without anxiety – mistaking someone stepping on a soda can for a gunshot. It’s this type of subtlety in the story that makes it so effective. There is no grand monologue about how anyone is feeling, although there is an interesting therapy session with Vada and her therapist, Anna (Shailene Woodley). It feels very much how a teenager would try to process an event like this. Much of that is due to Park’s writing but it can also be attributed to Ortega and Ziegler’s performances. They are both understated but show the tumultuousness of being a teenager and grappling with the idea that the world is unfair, unsafe, and uncontrollable.
The Fallout is such an important story, especially right now with school shootings becoming an unfortunate common occurrence in the U.S. Park’s directorial debut proves she is capable of handling delicate and difficult topics with ease. She does an excellent job of crafting a truly moving film that captures an experience that too many children have had to endure.
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like stories set in high school
2. You like stories that intersect with current events
3. You don’t mind movies that don’t have happy endings
