The Fallout tackles traumatic topics; HBO Max releases award winning film

   On January 27 of this year, The Fallout premiered on HBO Max. The rated R movie focuses on 16-year-old Vada and the aftereffects of school shootings, and the trauma that follows her and others. The award-winning director Megan Park hoped to take a different approach to teenage domestic terrorism in film with this movie. 

    This is Park’s directorial debut and already has a 92 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Google users have given the film 4.5 out of five stars and she has won three awards for this movie as well. Main character Vada Cavell is played by actress Jenna Ortega, who has starred in the new film Scream 5, the TV show You, and more. Dance Moms star Maddie Zeigler plays Mia Reed and actress Shailene Woodley who has acted in the Divergent series and The Fault in Our Stars acts as Anna.  

    Junior Carmen Santoro says that she watched the film because she heard about it on TikTok. She says, “I thought it was very well written and gave a very accurate representation of teenagers.” She adds that it displayed, “different effects that traumatic events have on young people’s lives.” Santoro says she would watch The Fallout again and would recommend it to someone else. 

    On the other hand, junior Abigail Newton said that the film did not represent this generation well, “I feel like it was way too depressing and portrayed that all our generation is sad.” She watched it because she wanted to see what a movie about this generation was going to look like. Overall, she thought that the movie, “was just rushed and not thought out.”  

    Newton adds that something that could’ve been added such as, “having more transitions between scenes that make it easier to understand. She adds, “more context with what is going on instead of everything about depression and trauma […] maybe show healing time where they collect themselves from the incident and move on with their lives.” 

    Junior Emilie Frank says that the reason she watched the film is because, “I used to love Dance Moms and Maddie Ziegler is in it.” She thought that “it was really intense, and I think that it portrayed a very serious subject.”  Frank mentions, “I think that the timeline is a little deterring because for me at least, it was hard to tell how much time passed.” She says she would recommend it to someone else.