‘The Fallout’ lays bare the trauma of school shootings

The Fallout

Directed by Megan Park (SSS Entertainment, 2021)

“I feel so empty,” 16-year-old Vada (Jenna Ortega) tells her father in The Fallout, writer and director Megan Park’s debut film. Similar words are all that she will produce for anyone who asks, if she decides to say anything at all. She is only empty, numb, nothing. Once as sunny as the California climate she inhabits, that weather now serves as a stark contrast to Vada’s gloom: She’s now more comfortable in closed space and shadow, headphones in, phone on. The Fallout is a raw and revealing examination of a teenage girl’s psyche as she learns to cope with the intensity of her emotions, discovering in fits and starts that isolation and pain can give way to the hope and grace of human connection.

The catalyst for Vada’s altered perception is what the film’s characters can only euphemistically refer to as “the incident”: a school shooting and its aftermath. The chaos brings Vada together by chance with another girl, Mia (Maddie Ziegler), as they cower together in a bathroom stall. Their shared experience sets them apart from the rest of their world. Whereas others meet Vada with sarcasm and silence, Mia is only a text away. Different in looks, attitude, class, and composure, Mia does not seem like a natural friend to Vada; their languid encounters, often laying around together without speaking, might seem inscrutable to an outside observer.

Park’s gift as a director is in using body language and space to show a whole unsaid universe of feeling that develops between the two girls. Her ability to visualize emotion is a rare feat, matched by the skills of the actresses: In their hands the souls of contemporary young women are laid bare. The intensity of their connection is complicated, and they both lash out in their own ways. But in ultimately learning to be vulnerable, they find that trust and presence can counter a world of immense darkness.