
In the movie “The Graduates,” Tyler’s death has caused Genevie, portrayed by Mina Sundwall, confusion about her future. It’s been a year since her boyfriend was murdered in gun violence and life has been very unclear since then. Times after a great loss can be very disorienting. But with the summer of graduating high school arriving around the corner, her decisions also are. With time, she deepens her bond with Ben, played by Alex Hibbert, also suffering the loss of his best friend, Tyler.
The past year has been tough for him as he switched schools, dropped out, and is now working towards his GED. When the time comes and Genevie can find someone else grieving Tyler alongside her, it forces her to once again reflect on the strong emotions she hid from her mother, friends, and teachers. John Cho, who portrays Tyler’s father, John, vividly remembers his son’s dreams and to honor him is coaching his friends at basketball, helping them prepare for a bright future, one that sadly Tyler will not be able to see. To a certain extent, all these characters share the same pain and void and share a connection where they need to figure out the significance of hope.
The film “The Graduates” is a sober amalgamation of emotions along with a soft touch of drama that is written and directed by Hannah Peterson. The film focuses on teenagers who are not troubled souls but are unsettled due to the sudden loss of their fellow mates and the struggles they face when trying to fill in SATs and college applications. Unfortunately, students such as Genevie and Ben along with parents like John increase every year due to the growing concerns surrounding violence in the classes. The film remains timeless, as it is set in the year preceding the pandemic while also acting as a memory capsule for students fogged by terror regularly due to the metal detectors, guards, and extra precautions. Furthermore, the narrative portrays adolescents who are left faceless owing to how normalized gun violence has become.
The disconnect creates a sense of chilling aloofness around Genevieve, Ben, and John around the time after the shooting, which Peterson chooses to rephrase as a massacre. Shying away from the incident is not just bad for the family politics, but it is downright excruciating for its ex-friends. Genevieve, in particular, isn’t even embarrassed, scoffing at her friends who tell her they get it. Having lost a loved one so suddenly is bound to make anyone cold. Guilt offers them a perfect shield.
That’s why for the three main characters of the story, snapping moments can give way to a flood of intense emotions as they try to hold it in; Emotions of sorrow laced with rage. The lack of apathy among the three is touched on within the film: Sorrow and anguish, and love and friendship do cohere. Taking Genevieve and Ben’s relationship as an example, the movie does not lose track of the amicable aspects, such as when the couple attempts to rekindle their friendship or when John’s niece plays with him. When life gives us teenage milestones, it often gives us trepidation instead of chagrin.
Unfortunately, Genevieve seems to be in the grip of a nightmare through Sundwall, who is supposed to be as casual as casually getting excited as many other teenagers are. She isn’t certain whether her fancy school will accept her, and with the untimely death of her boyfriend, most likely, her dislike of school will no longer be of any concern to her. She does not have the best relationship with her mother and friends as she is always on the defensive, but gets furious at Ben for abandoning her when she babysits.
Ben is portrayed as a more stoic character who deals with emotions privately. He used to talk with his late friend but now he leaves text messages on his voicemail. Although an adult, John constantly grieves about losing his son and instead focuses on his faith as well as his responsibility to the boy’s basketball team. His sister is pushing him to move to Texas alongside her and her daughter, however, John wants to stay in the last place where his son used to be.
While “The Graduates” offers a couple of laugh-worthy classroom dialogues, the shortcomings are insignificant compared to the movie’s goals. First and foremost, the movie about news coverage and cameras depicts the period marked by students’ struggle with loss. It depicts the sense of loss along with sheer overwhelm that follows an unfortunate event, and the struggles along with emotional turmoil that people close to the unfortunate incident experience. It includes the internal and external battles that one’s mind goes through that are never reported in the news.
The internal conflict one goes through through surviving friends and families. The movie portrays a fragment of this; the aftermath of a year-long shock combined with losing a loved one and never having the same chance to listen to their voice again. “The Graduates” gives one an emotional cinematic experience. The movie explains the nationwide but rather unspoken phenomena of mourning and how important it is to learn to coexist with others when thinking of the future.
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