"The Fallout" Review: An Honest Portrait of Trauma

PLATFORM: HBOMax

RELEASE DATE: January 27, 2022

Not the first instance of mainstream media centered around the tragedy of a school shooting, Megan Park's directorial debut does not tackle anything particularly new in its singular components, but when combined, spins an evocative reflection of trauma. As a former therapist, this film hit me in ways I was not expecting. Its raw, yet soft-natured, approach of unraveling such an inexplainable experience for multiple characters was genuine in concept, but kept clean enough for easy following. Trauma, a universal experience, is taught as such through the plot and through the conversations that the film warrants. This is not just a film for those with kids or who work at a school or for teenagers or those who have undergone unspeakable tragedies. This is a film for anyone. It is simply a human experience.

Knowing only her free-spirited and carefree lifestyle, Vada (Jenna Ortega) takes a “911” phone call from her younger sister, Amelia (Lumi Pollack), and provides sisterly comfort as Amelia reports getting her first period. It is a heart-warming tone that sets the stage for emotional downfall, as Vada enters the girls restroom to find her polar opposite, the popular Mia Reed (Maddie Ziegler), with whom she becomes entrapped in a toilet stall as gunshots ring through the immediate hallway. Words can not capture how it felt to watch this scene play out. The sound of muffled gunshots, high schoolers screaming outside, and a surprise entry into the girls bathroom, Quinton (Niles Fitch), covered in his brother's blood, seems captured in a never ending sequence. Just when I thought the shooting was done and the director got her point across, it continues, because this movie is less about getting a point across and more about the reality of tragedy. I can only imagine the amount of realism in this opening sequence and, as distasteful as it may sound, it was done to extreme effectiveness.

While the life around her has not changed, Vada's experience of it has, and she quickly separates herself from those with whom she was once close: her parents, her best friend Nick (Will Ropp), and most gut-wrenching, her little sister. Each of these characters, in their own way, attempt to reach out to Vada and offer a support. Her mother becomes overly-supportive, her best friend gives her space, and her sister tries to carry on as things once were. But Vada can not deliver a version of herself she thinks they expect, because that person does not exist anymore. Rather, in a plot point that emphasizes the traversive nature of trauma, Vada finds comfort in the two people who can understand her experience, her two bathroom mates, Mia and Quinton. Mia, whose parents are out of the country, is left without much support and looks to Mia as she struggles to sleep and drowns her feelings with alcohol (and a little weed). Quinton, who lost his brother to the shooting, seems to be the most honest and honoring of his feelings. The film is mostly filled with Vada and Mia, exploring different ways of pushing through their trauma, as their friendship blossoms and, for one night at least, become closer than ever.

The film does an excellent job of capturing different archetypes of trauma survivors. Vada experiences blunted emotions/numbness and turns to different substances, and people, to ignite some type of feeling. Mia, on the opposite, appears to drown away her feelings to make them easily avoidable. Quinton seems the best adjusted, though still deeply hurt, and the barely seen Nick, uses his experiences to fuel a political movement. This is all accompanied by the supporting cast of Vada's family, who serve as lost bystanders searching for a way to reach someone who is struggling with reaching herself. Ortega delivers an astounding performance in how she captures the all-encompassing impacts of the shooting. From her physiological demonstrations of lethargic movements and flat affect to the mental anguish captured in her emotional bluntness and isolating tendencies. This marks Ortega's second role in the past month with a spectacular, scene-stealing performance, further cementing herself as a young actress to which everyone should be paying attention.

The movie speaks a lot on the process of trauma recovery and the common misconceptions by those not impacted. One instance is when Vada meets with her therapist for the first time, played by Shailene Woodley, and she refers to the shooting as “the incident”. Vada chuckles at the phrase, as it simplifies and pulls the identity away from a very complicated experience, seemingly another way to avoid it. As a former therapist, I would find that it was hit and miss with clients who wanted to call traumas as they were and those who preferred to label their experience with a non-specific identifier. Through the two therapy scenes, there are also brief highlights of survivor's guilt, avoidance, and emotional suppression. Vada's mother (played by 'Modern Family's Julie Bowen), spends much of her screentime hanging her hope on the moment her daughter gets her “sparkle back”. A subplot serving another assumption of resolving trauma, that victims generally work their way back to how they were, but there is no back, there is no erasing what happened, there is only learning to live and manage this new mold of life. Vada eventually begins to capture that momentum towards learning deal with her new reality, but only after one of the biggest tearjerking moments in recent movie history.

Even though the film focuses most of its narrative on Vada and her bond with Mia, it is the damage in Vada and Amelia's relationship that best captures the heart of the story. Small scenes establish the differences in their relationship from the beginning of the movie and while Vada is trying to cope with the fears of her trauma, Amelia tries to cope with the loss of her sister. This is further exacerbated by paralleling with Quinton mourning the loss of his brother and Vada's sympathy for him, while ignoring her own sibling for much of the narrative. The story's bloom from tragic bud to hopeful petal rests on a late night scene when Amelia, in all her childlike perception, confronts Vada. Amelia opens up herself as a victim in her own right, and where the story could have easily overshadowed that fact with the weight of Vada's victimization, it does not. Rather, it unfolds a truly touching moment and the revelatory climax the movie would inevitably need to achieve. But, in its most honest acknowledgment, the film ends with a punch to the face, reminding the audience that trauma recovery is not a linear journey and Vada still has a lot left to heal.

One would think a movie with such heavy subject matter would be a difficult watch, and while there are some highly emotional sequences, it was highly digestable. The pacing and editing provides enough reprieve between its heavier scenes through Vada's teenage response to numbness: drugs. Her ecstasy-led self-discovery in the school stairwell provided one of the many serotonin boosts of fun, but tragic, character responses. The movie could have gone much deeper, including highly risky behaviors or self-injury, but rather maintains a mature presence, free from the shock of more taboo areas. This was smart, because this film is treated in a delicate way, not as a public service announcement, not as a political ploy, but as a brief snapshot of a healing process. It may be strange to say, but I look forward to experiencing this film again, for the performance, for the reality, and for the comfort that lies at its core. This is a film that, no doubt, will continue to garner well-deserved attention and discussion.

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RATING: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐. 5 / 5

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