If there was ever a film to watch about mourning and learning to adjust to a new normal, it’s writer-director Hannah Peterson’s poignant masterpiece.
School shootings continue to happen. It’s tragic, heartbreaking, and it often feels rather hopeless watching as things unfold, and the cycle of violence repeats. Far from being a film that capitalizes on the shock value of such a devastating event, The Graduates is an understated story that focuses on the aftermath — healing, mourning, and attempting to move forward are at the center of this character-driven narrative.
The Graduates doesn’t build toward any particular conflict between its main characters. To be sure, their relationships are made complicated by the shooting, and Genevieve and Ben are especially affected by what happened, their interactions tainted by that fatal day. But it isn’t a film that heavily leans on any interpersonal drama to keep the story going. Rather, the film is a moving portrait of its characters’ everyday lives in the wake of a horrific tragedy.
The film is grounded, avoiding sensationalism and empty indulgences. With a story as heavy as this one, there’s a risk of overdoing it, but The Graduates paces itself, a gradual buildup that never teeters one way or the other. The film is poetic in its collective sadness, embracing the struggle without ever exploiting its characters or the tragedy at its center. That’s a feat unto itself considering how easy it could have been to do as much.
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