Before I Fall

Before I Fall (2017) is about a high school student living the same day over and over. Samantha is inside a popular group. She wakes on the morning of 12 February, goes to school with her friends, goes to a party, and there is a crash on the way home. Then she wakes on the same morning again. In the early days she tries to fix it: prevent the crash, take a different road, stay at home. None of it works. Then she turns her attention elsewhere. There is an outcast girl at school named Juliet whom her group has bullied for years. Samantha notices for the first time and moves a little closer to her with each repetition. The idea is that the repeating day is not a puzzle but a reckoning. Trying to save herself, she is forced to look at what she has done. It is adapted from Lauren Oliver's novel. It takes the Groundhog Day structure into teenage drama with no comedy; the tone is heavy throughout. Zoey Deutch stars. Ry Russo-Young directed. The resolution caused argument: some felt the ending saves the bully rather than solving the bullied girl's problem. The image is permanently foggy and blue, a little darker with each repetition. It is short with no wasted scenes. It runs 98 minutes. Good for: teenage drama, time loop constructions, and book adaptations. Less good for: suicide and bullying are central and the ending is contested.