HBO Max released “Fallout” on Thursday and it was an eye opening experience.

The story follows high school student Vada (Jenna Ortega) who finds herself in a new friendship with fellow peer Mia (Maddie Ziegler) after having gone through a school shooting. Vada finds herself reevaluating her as well as the world around her. Vada pushes her limits with unhealthy coping mechanisms that move her in a different direction. While spending time with Mia she redefines herself through their shared experiences.

The filming of the movie felt quite interesting, in more of a good way, that I think director Megan Park did well, from the still shots where there’d be no music to the angles. In some ways it imersered you in everything going on allowing you to understand and get a feel for everything that the character, and sometimes characters, were going through without having actually been in that situation. 

In other moments of filming it felt weird or awkward turning all music off that wasn’t background noise and having the same kinds of filming that you’d see in student films you’d see on YouTube that gave it that uncomfortable tension during those uncomfortable moments which is a good element that was added.

The characters of the movie were interesting as well. Vada’s little sister Amelia (Lumi Pollack) brings in a lot of pestering or inconsiderate commentary throughout the movie, or even Nick (Will Ropp) who gives an opposite reaction to the incident being more on the “rally to solve this problem” side.

The movie allows people to understand the different ways people process and go through trauma, from their various routes to those who don’t ever get all the way through. The movie also showed how an outsider, to whatever the situation may be, can be toward people experiencing trauma as they often ask uncomfortable questions or say inconsiderate and questionable things that make you think or question how you’d treat someone in a situation. Amelia happened to have been a good example of how people on the outside react or talk about a traumatic situation. 

One character I enjoyed in this movie was Anna (Shailene Woodley) as she portrays a therapist very well, making her character pretty comforting. Another thing I enjoyed was the amount of understanding you could get at any moment, from nearly every character, from wanting to not have to remember whatever it was that put you in that uncomfortable situation, to that feeling of wanting your friend to be back to their “usual self,” to just wanting someone to understand where you’re coming from. 

Overall this movie was definitely impactful and had much more of a bigger effect on my thought process than I thought it would prior; it’s definitely worth at least one watch.