The Fallout

Name: The Fallout
Genre: Drama
Released: January 27, 2022
Duration: 92 min
Rating: 84
Cast: Austin Zajur, Christine Horn, Jenna Ortega, John Ortiz, Julie Bowen

2022

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 12 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Ratings

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7.0

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7.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Ratings

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The Fallout

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Movie Details & Credits

HBO Max | Release Date (Streaming): January 27, 2022 | R

Starring: Austin Zajur, Christine Horn, Jenna Ortega, John Ortiz, Julie Bowen, Lumi Pollack, Maddie Ziegler, Niles Fitch, Shailene Woodley, Will Ropp

Movie Facts:

Winner of both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for Narrative Feature at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival.

Summary: Bolstered by new friendships forged under sudden and tragic circumstances, high schooler Vada (Jenna Ortega) begins to reinvent herself, while re-evaluating her relationships with her family, friends and her view of the world. Moving away from her comfortable family routine, she starts taking chances with a series of quicksilver decisionsBolstered by new friendships forged under sudden and tragic circumstances, high schooler Vada (Jenna Ortega) begins to reinvent herself, while re-evaluating her relationships with her family, friends and her view of the world. Moving away from her comfortable family routine, she starts taking chances with a series of quicksilver decisions that test her own boundaries and push her in new directions. As she spends more time with Mia (Maddie Ziegler), they grow closer, and Vada slowly redefines herself through their shared experiences, leading her further away from that day and closer to living her life in the now.… Expand

Director: Megan Park

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 92 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Peter Debruge

Mar 20, 2021

It’s a remarkable accomplishment: a film with the confidence to pose big questions, and the humility to leave them unanswered. Read full review

Sheri Linden

Mar 20, 2021

Mainly Park lets her actors interact, their humor deadpan, their pain unfathomable, their hormones surging and their flirtations halting. Read full review

Claire Shaffer

Jan 27, 2022

Ortega nails her role as a levelheaded teen who, nevertheless, is still a teen, reeling from an unthinkable event on top of the usual growing pains. Read full review

Tim Grierson

Mar 20, 2021

Writer-director Megan Park’s unassuming feature debut sensitively argues that young people should never have to face such horrific circumstances — but, given enough time, they can prove stronger than their concerned parents imagine. Read full review

Rachel LaBonte

Jan 27, 2022

Grief and trauma don't provide easy answers and The Fallout doesn't either. But it does take viewers on a poignant journey right alongside its heroine. It can be heavy, but it can also hold moments of humor and joy. Read full review

The Playlist Robert Daniels

Mar 21, 2021

These young performers are always true to themselves. Honest and bare without inhibitions. Which is fitting for a movie that’s about rebuilding oneself and one’s connections to the world by telling yourself that the pain is okay. The hurt is real. And the love we give never dies. Park’s The Fallout is a resilient character study of grief in all its forms. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

Jan 27, 2022

It’s a school shooting movie for this particular moment and plays like a dispatch from the front lines. It’s past trying to figure out what these tragedies mean. It just wants to explore how a person might assimilate such a trauma and go forward in life. Read full review

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User Reviews

Kylofilm

Feb 3, 2022

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The Fallout hit at a bunch of festivals in 2020 to wide acclaim by many critics, so it was one of the most anticipated films for me. Luckily it came to HBO Max today, so i watched it with high expectations but they were exceeded.

The Fallout is the most heartbreaking film i have seen in a long time as it deals with themes of depression and trauma in different ways. The film has a very uniquely intrinsic way of weaving through character emotions, without feeling cheesy or tiresome.

Vada is played by Jenna Ortega who i wish is eligible for the Actress Oscar this year cos she nailed it. Her trauma is justified and Jenna depicts this in the bets way she ever could. Maddie Ziegler was great too, but didnt have as much urgency as Jenna with her performance. The themes of this film are some of the most difficult to depict in a film such as school shootings, but Megan Park understood the asignment. She weaves inbetween the themes like a car through heavy traffic in rush hour, it was fantastic. The underlying theme of socialism was very interesting to me as it was done in a non-evident way. Social life is important to Mia (Maddie Ziegler), so this tragedy ruined it for her, but it worked in her favour cos she became best friends with Vada (Jenna Ortega). Vada is the opposite; a character who only has one friend before Mia, who has a passion to change lives which she later mentions. Its also a deconstruction of the Gen Z era, as it shows how social media can affect them. Tik Tok and Instagram are used in the film by the characters, especially Mia and Amelia (Vada sister). Mia is a very propular presence on Instagram, but beneath that, she is a nervously reserved person after the event which is where she connects with Vada.

Dialogue is hard to write for Gen Z characters as it needs to sound natural and has to sound relateable for them, and Megan Park writes with precision. She understands how teens speak in this day in age and how they use social media, then writes relatable dialogue which anyone can understand. One of the things that makes this film so special is the characters discovery of identity and happiness. Vada is very confused in her feelings as she discusses with her therapist, who guides her through her grief.

As somebody with depression and anxiety, i could relate to them in ways which i cant with other movies. They glide through emotions in amazing ways, which i feel often cos i never know how to feel myself. Vada describes how numb she feels, of which they depicted incredibly well through her tremors and facial movements.

I was crying on several occasions as the film feels very raw in its execution of trauma which most people have been through. The trauma i have been through is not nearly as bad as theirs, but it affected me in many ways of which were present here. I wanna speak about the ending as i feel it is very important for this review. SPOILER

Vada finally starts to accept the past trauma, but as soon as the light is at the end of the tunnel, it fades again. She gets a notification from the news stating that 12 people were killed in the shooting which she was a survivor of. She starts crying and hyperventilating then it fades to white. This scene really hit me hard as i didnt expect it to happen, almost like a huge misdirect. Overall, The Fallout is another knockout to 2022's fatastic resume of films so far. It is a sudden burst of emotion which hits you like a dumptruck in so many different occassions and i cant recommend this film enough, bu t just be warned of its subject matter before watching… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

bfoore90

Jan 28, 2022

I really liked this film. It gives a look at the victims who don't get the publicity that others do and how a tragedy like this could affect them.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Zanemorrowusa

Jan 29, 2022

A emotional and touching film that hits deep and shows a portrayal of teenagers thats more accurate than most shows and movies made today.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

benjanzen

Feb 28, 2022

The Fallout is a relevant and honest portrayal of not just an all too common tragedy in our world today but the different ways in which it affects those involved. It's clear when watching that this is the directorial debut of Megan Park, as it has a somewhat messy start, but it flows muchThe Fallout is a relevant and honest portrayal of not just an all too common tragedy in our world today but the different ways in which it affects those involved. It's clear when watching that this is the directorial debut of Megan Park, as it has a somewhat messy start, but it flows much better as it goes along. Jenna Ortega, Maddie Ziegler, and Lumi Pollack are all really great here.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Vaxkang

Jan 30, 2022

There is no way this deserves an 8/10. It is a 6/10. It was just ok, mainly it felt like a made for TV movie. The actress was fine, the movie itself was just plain mediocre.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

JLuis_001

Feb 5, 2022

Stories about school shootings in the U.S. has almost become a genre in itself. Beyond the sad reality of what it represents, these stories sometimes also present an excellent opportunity to try to understand the trauma it embodies for the survivors.

The Fallout in my opinion does notStories about school shootings in the U.S. has almost become a genre in itself. Beyond the sad reality of what it represents, these stories sometimes also present an excellent opportunity to try to understand the trauma it embodies for the survivors.

The Fallout in my opinion does not represent something new under the perspective it presents, in fact if there was something that I disliked a lot is that in many moments it seems to have borrowed too much from Euphoria, the HBO series.
Not that it supposes to claim originality in a story like this, but I don't like being played so predictably either.

What I appreciate about its director's approach is that she avoids showing violence altogether. And the film doesn't shies away from it, but it really didn't need it.
The honesty of the emotional wounds is what this film it's all about and The Fallout gets it right by showing it in a way that feels genuine, regardless of each viewer's reading of it.
After all, each and every one of us deals with things in our own way.

The ending is quite sad and almost cruel, but not because it intends to be, but because at the same time it represents what is perhaps the worst characteristic that can be reached when it comes to a conclusion in a story like this.
The shootings will continue to happen, thousands upon thousands of lives will be shattered, but the rest of society will just shrug its shoulders and move on as long as the tragedy doesn't touch their own.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

bertobellamy

Feb 1, 2022

'The Fallout' distinguishes itself from other mass shootings movies by focusing on the aftermath of the event; on how those that survived deal with the immense trauma of losing someone they knew. But although Megan Park's approach is respectful, I couldn't get into her story. Jenna Ortega,'The Fallout' distinguishes itself from other mass shootings movies by focusing on the aftermath of the event; on how those that survived deal with the immense trauma of losing someone they knew. But although Megan Park's approach is respectful, I couldn't get into her story. Jenna Ortega, as Vada, a teenager that doesn't know how to react to what has happened, is the most convincing part of the film. Unfortunately, the rest of the characters are kind of forgettable, and the acting didn't help that much. Julie Bowen, for example, felt miscast; I couldn't stop thinking about Claire Dunphy doing something funny whenever she popped up. And Maddie Ziegler didn't transmit anything to me. On the other hand, Vada's sister, played by Lumi Pollack, gives a heartfelt performance, especially during one of the last scenes, when the bond between sisters finally emerges, offering relief to both of them.

But what distracted me the most was the feeling that I was watching a toned-down version of 'Euphoria'. I mean, the Sam Levinson show is not very good — it's just style over substance —, but 'The Fallout' seems to have only taken the same setting, characters, and situations and added a mass shooting story, with a PG-13 rating. I respect what Megan Park has done here, but I have to say that it didn't work for me. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing what she does next.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

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12	#12 Best Movie of 2022
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