Beautiful Disaster: How to Make Something Beautiful Out of the Already Disastrous

Abby Meacham ‘25 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

For every one piece of iconic media, there are a thousand spin-offs, parodies, fanfictions, and near replicas— and not all of them are as good as their predecessors. After The Hunger Games (2010) revived the dystopia genre, Divergent (2014) became its fierce competitor. After Twilight (2008) came Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), which has been critiqued to hell and back. And after After (2019) is Beautiful Disaster (2023). But somehow, it’s lightning in a bottle. 

Beautiful Disaster is based on a book of the same name by Jamie McGuire and has a simple enough premise. When mild-mannered Abby Abernathy (Virginia Gardner) goes to college to escape her troubled past, she quickly has her world turned upside down by bad boy Travis Maddox (Dylan Sprouse), a champion in the underground fighting circuit. As their interest in each other grows, the two strike a deal: if he wins his next fight without so much as a scratch on him, Abby must live in his apartment for a month. If he loses, he must abstain from sex for the same amount of time. 

When the trailer was released, viewers took to the internet to express their opinions on the original novel, and very specific observations were made about Beautiful Disaster—namely, its similarities to the infamous fanfiction-turned-franchise After, written by Anna Todd and officially published in 2014. Beyond the fact that genres have tropes, the movies are uncannily similar, down to the lead actresses’ sandy blonde hair. But instead of merely copying After, Beautiful Disaster leans hard into parody, which is fitting. Parody, in a way, is its own kind of fanfiction. 

So, how’s the movie?

Well, the title explains it all. It’s beautiful. It’s a disaster. But for this genre, it’s a breath of fresh air. 

In concept, Travis is the same brooding, snarky bad boy as his predecessors, but Sprouse brings something to the table that truly makes the character his own. Sprouse is a former child star, known for playing Zack Martin on the Disney Channel show The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-2008), alongside his twin brother Cole. Ironically enough, you may also know him from the second After film, After We Collided (2020). He plays Trevor, the token sequel love interest who, in his limited time on screen, shows that he would be a much better boyfriend than the main love interest, Hardin Scott.

In Beautiful Disaster, Sprouse reminds all of us that as much as we would love a fictional man who wears all black and rejects the system (what system? who knows), love interests are supposed to be… you know… likeable. Because Hardin is a bad boy caricature of Harry Styles with the serial numbers filed off, he has little variety in both his wardrobe and his emotional maturity. The bad boy archetype is nothing new, but it’s also one that is prone to toxicity. Sometimes the bad boy smokes a cigarette or two, and sometimes he’s a barely functioning alcoholic prone to fits of rage. He might make witty comments and lightly tease the main character, or he might harass and bully her until she’s too emotionally drained to express her boundaries. Is he so attractive and interesting that women throw themselves at him, or is he a stalker with no regard for consent? You don’t know, and he won’t tell you. 

But that’s not what we get in Beautiful Disaster. Travis may have a leather jacket, a penchant for violence, and a sleeve full of miscellaneous tattoos, but outside of the fighting ring, he’s earnest, toned down, and surprisingly sociable. He has four older brothers and a deceased mother? No problem, they have family dinners and pray for their mom over plates of Kentucky Fried Chicken. He has a reputation for sleeping around? Well, he’s an adult who’s allowed to have consensual one-night stands. 

In contrast, there’s the no-nonsense Abby, who functions as the straight man of the duo. While Travis firmly believes in the power of the “yes, and,” Abby’s funniest moments come from her initial unwillingness to be a part of her own story, like when she throws a lampshade over 31-year-old Sprouse’s age-inappropriate casting and asks if he even goes to college. Gardner, best known for playing Karolina Dean in the Hulu series Marvel’s Runaways (2017-2019), isn’t necessarily a comedic actress, but the more Abby’s relationship with Travis develops, the more she leans into their banter. Moreover, Gardner takes a series of textbook character traits and clichés and turns them into a real, somewhat likeable person. 

Let me be clear. This movie is not… good. The plot is convoluted, and the cinematography is average at best. It’s the kind of movie that makes you laugh, roll your eyes and say, “Okay, really?” But it’s also the kind of movie that plays a scene from After We Collided on the TV in Abby’s apartment, the kind of movie where an extra in the background of a party has a “F*cking Trevor” T-shirt. The kind of movie that is unabashedly sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken. And sometimes, that’s exactly what you want. 

A ridiculously self-aware take on the young adult romantic drama, Beautiful Disaster takes all of the worst parts of After and makes them way better—and also much, much worse.