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The Fallout, a thought-provoking tragic drama dealing with fermentation and trauma after a heart-breaking incident, was released this January 27, 2022, on HBO Max.
The feature debut of The Secret Life of the American Teenager star Megan Park as a writer and director. Since its release, it has been getting a lot of positive responses from both the audience and the critics. The refreshingly authentic representation of teenagers coping with trauma has pleased everyone.
Jenna Ortega as the protagonist Vada, shines bright with her intensely gripping portrayal of the character. Other cast members such as Maddie Ziegler as Mia Reed, Will Ropp as Nick Feinstein, Niles Fitch as Quinton Hasland, and Lumi Pollack as Amelia Cavell add to the profound impact the movie creates.
The Fallout: Left the questions unanswered
Megan Park chooses otherwise to reject immaculately resolved storylines and encircling movies that give assurance that everything would be alright in the end.
She is not afraid to leave all the essential questions raised at the movie's beginning unanswered. She intends to convey that it is okay to feel stunned and puzzled when life becomes a mess.
Most importantly, The Fallout recognizes the world as flawed, complex, and downright unfair. Rather than holding back and giving the goal-oriented and more proactive protagonists the scope to resolve their issues, the movie invites viewers to witness themselves on the screen or identify with people with imperfections and complications within.
This mood-centric movie is remarkable because it is confident enough to raise important questions and humbled sufficiently to leave them unanswered.
It remains a mess even after the end
Megan Park takes a unique chance of leaving this just like it should be, a mess. Throughout the movie, the audience sees the characters struggling in their ways to cope with what happened. The film is layered in a way that the audience is bound to feel the sound of the gun firing, heard in the very first scene of the movie, lingering until the very end.
The fear in the eyes of Vada, thinking she won't be able to be her old self ever again, and the fear of going back to school is quite haunting and gut-punching. Park's intention, however, is not to trigger viewers but to portray how unsettling an incident like this can be.
In the end, it feels like there's a chance that Vada might be starting to recover from her trauma and getting back to her everyday life. The movie deliberately throws a heart-wrenching scenario where news of another high-school shooting shows up on Vada's phone, leaving her all mortified and shrinking.
Therefore, the movie chooses not to fix things up. It validates the uncertainty of life and conveys that recovery is a long process, trauma does not go away that easily, and it is okay to be afraid.
Watch The Fallout on HBO Max, streaming from January 27, 2022.
