REVIEW: THE DRAMA
THE GIST
WTF is actually a perfect way to sum this up!
THE REVIEW
NO SPOILERS
I don’t say what the reveal is but I do allude to certain things about it. Like any movie it is best to go in not reading any reviews to avoid spoiling your experience.
EXPECTATIONS
When I first saw the poster for The Drama, I immediately dismissed it as something that was not for me. I like Zendaya and Robert Pattinson but I took the movie to be some kind of Meryl Streep/Alec Baldwin rom-com type of thing. Then I saw the trailer and have been waiting to see it ever since. The premise that the bride to be told a secret so bad to derail the wedding was enticing, and it was Alana Haim’s reaction saying “Emma what the fuck?” like she had killed someone sold me. I saw it at a night before release members screening at Matakana Cinemas.
CONTEXT
In August 2024, Deadline reported that Kristoffer Borgli would be responsible for writing and directing The Drama for A24. Ari Aster, Lars Knudsen, and Tyler Campellone were set to produce it under their Square Peg studio, with Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in early negotiations to star. In October 2024, Mamoudou Athie and Alana Haim joined the cast.
THE PLOT
It’s a romance-thriller focusing on a couple whose relationship is thrown into chaos just before their wedding. A shocking, dark revelation regarding Emma (Zendaya) causes Charlie (Pattinson) to question if he can love her past this truth, leading to an ending centered on personal choice.
THE EXPERIENCE
I loved this film. It surprised me where it went. It was thought provoking. It was funny. It was dark. It was heartfelt. It had a satisfying ending.
THE MEAT
The Editing: The first thing that comes to mind is the editing despite the story subject matter. It was edited by the director Kristoffer Borgli as well as Joshua Raymond Lee and they did an outstanding job. Jump scenes either cut to things that had happened or things that may happen depending on the character it was focusing on. At one stage I thought the future jump cut was telling us something that was actually going to happen and it was terrifying, it made me grip the seat even more when it actually got to that point in the movie.
The Performances: Alana Haim was a stand out. She always owns her roles and she plays being a bitch so well. I never thought of Robert Pattinson being funny but he was brilliant, I literally laughed out loud in the cinema. Zendaya played the sweet and innocent bride to be with a dark past perfectly. Early on you could see Zendaya’s character was someone willing to forgive someone and not to define someone for their mistakes in the past as easily as most, suggesting she knows what it is like to be in that situation. Mamoudou Athie looks familiar but I can’t remember what I have seen him in before. Apparently he was in Kinds of Kindness but I don’t remember. I liked him in this anyway, he fit all the other actors ability levels.
The Reveal: Bravo! I loved the fact they did not reveal it in the trailers as that is what made me want to go see it. But jesus f*%$ing christ it went somewhere I didn’t think anyone would go. You could see Zendaya’s thoughts playing out into how she thought that it would be a safe space to admit the thing she did. The others were practically egging her on to give her the juiciest thing they could hear and she thought that may be a good time to get that weight off her chest. In my eyes, the fact that she would admit this aloud to anyone shows she is not a terrible person. She wasn’t saying it to show off or impress anyone, if anything she was trying to shed some light on why any ordinary person could do this. Which is something that is beneficial to the good of humanity.
The film asks questions: The film asks: “If someone planned to do something utterly reprehensible in their youth but never went through with it, does that make them a terrible person?”. And “Should people still hold them accountable for the thing they never did?” It then even asks a bigger question, “How many people have nearly done the same thing but not admitted it?” And to me it tries to open a dialogue about the main question “Why would anyone even think about doing this?”
SUMMARY
The Drama somehow blends comedy with some pretty heavy and dark subject matter. It isn’t afraid to ask some pretty hard questions.
While I loved the film and recommend you go and see it, I am still on the fence about the subject matter and the ramifications it will have for people involved with it in real life.
MY CONCERNS
Throughout writing this I can’t help but feel there is a disconnect from the subject matter being used in this movie compared to the real life implications. I can see that from a survivor or family members/associates of victims point of view, having it used in a comedy movie with big name stars may seem trivialising to their cause and I don’t think anyone could disagree there. This film will be divisive in that manner, there is no avoiding that. What it hopefully does is get people thinking and talking in a productive way to try avoid this happening in the future. Unfortunately, I don’t have that much faith in humanity, I think this movie may have kicked a hornets nest for people to continue endlessly arguing with one another without ever achieving anything.
If you have seen the film and feel the same, please visit one of the links below and show your support.
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