Close Menu
  • Login
  • Support Us
  • Newsletter
  • News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Video Games
      • Previews
      • PC
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X/S
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Xbox One
      • PS4
      • Tabletop
    • Film
    • TV
    • Anime
    • Comics
      • BOOM! Studios
      • Dark Horse Comics
      • DC Comics
      • IDW Publishing
      • Image Comics
      • Indie Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • Oni-Lion Forge
      • Valiant Comics
      • Vault Comics
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Event Coverage
    • BWT Recommends
    • RSS Feeds
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Support Us
But Why Tho?
RSS Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube
Trending:
  • Features
    Battlefield 6 Classes - Support trailer image

    Battlefield 6 Really Wants You To Play Support (But Knows You Won’t)

    07/31/2025
    Battlefield 6 Multiplayer Reveal promotional image

    Battlefield 6 Classes, Maps, And More: Everything You Need To Know

    07/31/2025
    A glimpse at all the upcoming Star Wars stories coming to the galaxy

    Star Wars Stories: What We Learned At SDCC 2025

    07/25/2025
    Blindspot episode still

    It’s been 5 years since ‘Blindspot’ ended. Why haven’t you watched it yet?

    07/24/2025
    Strange Scaffold

    Strange Scaffold Summer Showcase Delivers Bizarre And Brilliant Games

    07/22/2025
  • Fantasia Festival
  • K-Dramas
  • Netflix
  • Switch 2 Games
But Why Tho?
Home » Film » SXSW 2021: ‘The Fallout’ is a Sobering Film About Trauma and Survival

SXSW 2021: ‘The Fallout’ is a Sobering Film About Trauma and Survival

Kate SánchezBy Kate Sánchez03/17/20215 Mins ReadUpdated:08/22/2022
The Fallout
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

The Fallout

The Fallout had its World Premiere at the virtual SXSW Film Festival 2021. A young adult story of trauma and healing, the film is written and directed by Megan Park and stars Jenna Ortega, Maddie Ziegler, Niles Fitch, Julie Bowen, Lumi Pollack, and John Ortiz.

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

The Fallout is centered on high schooler Vada (Jenna Ortega) as she navigates the emotional fallout she experiences in the wake of a school shooting. When the moment happens, Vada is together with a girl she’s never met before, Mia (Maddie Ziegler). Vada and Mia aren’t the same at all. Mia is a dancer, good with make-up, dresses to embrace her femininity. And Vada doesn’t fix her hair, wears baggy clothes and basketball shorts, and tries just to be herself. But in that moment of fear and trauma, they’re the same.

By focusing on the aftermath, The Fallout dives headfirst into discussing the lasting impact of trauma on individuals, families, and relationships. This isn’t a film about a school shooting, so much as it is a film about the recovery from one. Or, at the very least, a look at the way trauma sticks with you even when the event is over.

We see Vada struggle. She has unrelenting nightmares. She attempts to pack the trauma away in a little box, the same way she does with the memorial pamphlets she collects from funerals. We see her stay home, watching reality television instead of going to a march. Ortega is an emotional force on screen, bringing a sense of sadness to every moment after the shooting, something just resting beneath the surface. She tries hard to mask it when around her family to keep her parents from worrying.

When she’s told to go to therapy by her parents in order to stay home, we get a glimpse into her emotional state. She makes jokes, deflects, and tries everything she can to minimize what she’s going through. She presents calm at all times, even when she’s in pain. Numb for Vada is better than “drama.”

The film also highlights what happens when Vada returns to school. The first time she has to go back into the bathroom that she hid in. And the lasting impact of returning to the place where you were emotionally traumatized. We see Vada break but also hide that from everyone around her. She self-medicates in secret. She keeps hiding, unable to maintain happy relationships with her family. Reacting to every can crush, every bump on a door. While her life and relationships are difficult to manage, we see her rebuild them into something new as she learns how to process her trauma over the course of the film.

Additionally, Fitch, who plays Quentin, the boy who hid with Vada and Mia in the bathroom stall, is another powerful presence on screen. Having lost his brother, he has a very different experience than two girls. And even through that, he tries to be there for Vada.

We see them taking advantage of Mia’s dads being out of the country by drinking wine, but even in that moment, they’re children. Even when Vada uses drugs to self-medicate, there is never a push to make her or Mia into adults, even if their trauma took a sense of innocence from them. This is both a credit to the costuming, the music, and the dialogue.

I don’t know if there is ever a right time for a movie about a school shooting, but for my generation, we had Columbine survivors give speeches in our auditorium. Back then, it was still rare. Now, Gen Z lives in a time where it had one point been a monthly occurrence, only curved by COVID-19 closing schools. For them, this is reality. And like all trauma, sometimes film acts as a vital part of helping you process it. Whether it’s your own experiences or the fear you feel waiting for it to happen.

The powerful element of The Fallout is that it shows audiences what we don’t see, children trying to cope. The film also accomplishes this by juxtaposing the girls against others in their class marching, giving interviews, and doing the things we see on CNN. This film shows the pain that doesn’t make the news, the kind that hides, and shows that sometimes it’s okay not to carry the world on your shoulders.

The end of The Fallout is hopeful, but not for a world where shootings won’t happen. Hopeful that you can overcome the trauma or, at the very least, learn how to deal with it. Even if it takes a long time and even if it isn’t as overt as changing policy. The Fallout is a necessary and emotional look at survivor’s guilt and the invisible scars an event like that leaves on the children who experience it.

The Fallout is available now on HBO Max.

The Fallout
  • 10/10
    Rating - 10/10
10/10

TL;DR

The end of The Fallout is hopeful, but not for a world where shootings won’t happen. Hopeful that you can overcome the trauma or, at the very least, learn how to deal with it. Even if it takes a long time and even if it isn’t as overt as changing policy. The Fallout is a necessary and emotional look at survivor’s guilt and the invisible scars an event like that leaves on the children who experience it.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Previous ArticleREVIEW: ‘Bungo Stray Dogs,’ Volume 17
Next Article SXSW 2021: ‘Subjects of Desire’ is an Empowering & Provocative Documentary
Kate Sánchez
  • Website
  • X (Twitter)
  • Instagram

Kate Sánchez is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of But Why Tho? A Geek Community. There, she coordinates film, television, anime, and manga coverage. Kate is also a freelance journalist writing features on video games, anime, and film. Her focus as a critic is championing animation and international films and television series for inclusion in awards cycles. Find her on Bluesky @ohmymithrandir.bsky.social

Related Posts

Simon in An Honest Life But Why Tho
3.5

REVIEW: ‘An Honest Life’ Is Terribly Dishonest About Its Own Politics

08/02/2025
Brandon Routh and co in Ick
9.0

REVIEW: ‘Ick’ Is A Near Perfect Horror-Comedy

07/29/2025
Bad Bunny and Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore 2
5.0

REVIEW: ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ Earns More Shrugs Than Laughs

07/29/2025
Hi-Five
6.5

FANTASIA 2025: ‘Hi-Five’ Introduces A Scrappy, Superpowered Team Up

07/28/2025
Still from Haunted Mountains The Yellow Taboo
5.5

FANTASIA 2025: ‘Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo’ Gets A Little Lost In The Weeds

07/26/2025
Dakota Gorman in HELLCAT
6.5

FANTASIA 2025: ‘HELLCAT’ Runs High In Tension But Loses Steam

07/25/2025

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here
TRENDING POSTS
Wildgate promotional key art
9.0
PC

REVIEW: ‘Wildgate’ Is Co-Op Space Mayhem Done Right

By Adrian Ruiz07/25/2025Updated:07/30/2025

Built for friends and tuned for competition, Wildgate is messy in the best way: smart, surprising, and bursting with room to grow.

Glass Heart
7.0
TV

REVIEW: ‘Glass Heart’ Offers Messy, Musical Catharsis

By Allyson Johnson07/22/2025

The musical drama series ‘Glass Heart’ soars when it focuses on the epic performances of it’s fictional band, TENBLANK.

Simon in An Honest Life But Why Tho
3.5
Film

REVIEW: ‘An Honest Life’ Is Terribly Dishonest About Its Own Politics

By Jason Flatt08/02/2025

An Honest Life is an overly severe misfire about a law student who falls in with anarchist burglars that can’t decide who it resents more.

World of Warcraft The War Within Ghosts of Karesh But Why Tho Interviews

‘The War Within’ Patch 11.2 Addresses Raid Trash, Magic-Focused Comps, And More

By Mick Abrahamson07/31/2025Updated:07/31/2025

WoW Sr. Producer and Asst. Lead Quest Designer address The War Within 11.2’s Manaforge Omega, Reshii Wrap rewards, and Mythic+ balancing.

But Why Tho?
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest RSS YouTube Twitch
  • CONTACT US
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Review Score Guide
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small contribution.
Written Content is Copyright © 2025 But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

But Why Tho Logo

Support Us!

We're able to keep making content thanks to readers like YOU!
Support independent media today with
Click Here