Zendaya’s new film The Drama will provoke you – just as it should

*Some spoilers for The Drama below*
The Drama, with Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, is going to be one of the most talked about films of the year.

For as you’ve likely already realised, it isn’t merely a movie about a couple’s wedding; it’s a movie about the fallout from a truly shocking revelation that’s going to fill column inches on both sides of the Atlantic in the coming weeks.

Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli likes to push the envelope, as past films Dream Scenario (where Nicolas Cage appears in everyone’s dreams) and absurdist 2022 release Sick of Myself prove.

The Drama is no exception; it’s a deeply provocative, darkly humorous comedy-drama.

While it’s widely been described as a rom-com, this seems a knee-jerk label for the movie simply because it’s based around a wedding as any romance element quite quickly takes a back seat.

Instead, The Drama is more interested in exploring how well we can ever truly know someone, alongside the wildly inflated power that social commitments and losing face hold over humanity.

Opening with Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Pattinson) preparing their speeches with friends in the week ahead of their wedding, the star-powered duo makes a convincing couple, comfortable with each other and the idea of spending the rest of their lives together.

Anecdotes reveal Charlie was immediately enamoured, approaching Emma in a coffee shop with excruciating keenness.

He’s testing what he should and shouldn’t mention, and includes the sweet phrase: ‘I love how you always turn my drama into comedy’.

How hollow that will later ring!

As the trailer shows, they then get a little buzzed at a wine tasting with pals Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie), who introduce the idea of confessing the worst thing they’ve each ever done ahead of the impending nuptials – but no one is prepared for Emma’s revelation.

It’s one that has already provoked intense backlash, before the film is even out and despite the studio’s mission to keep the central twist under wraps.

But seeing as it’s broached just over 20 minutes in, it’s impossible to critique the film and not refer to it.

The Drama is a vital, even urgent, watch.

It will absolutely divide, particularly in the US, and we’ll all still be discussing it come end of year retrospectives.

This is likely another reason The Drama has had such a tightly controlled roll-out, especially internationally: producers knew it would be marketed, come release, beyond their wildest review dreams by reviews, an inevitable deluge of think pieces and the incoming social media frenzy, ready to dissect every aspect of the movie.

Pattinson becomes the audience surrogate, grappling with how he’s known his fiancée previously and the secret from her past that – to put it mildly – raises the reddest of red flags, calling into question her sanity, morality and even how she operates in society.

Stellar performances from both Zendaya and Pattinson help pull off the challenging balance of The Drama, with both actors expertly juggling the (bizarre) light and (darkest of) shade with their absurd situation in a way that – remarkably – rings completely true.

There are also very good supporting turns in the cast, including from a stable of A24 talent (The Moment’s Hailey Benton Gates and Materialists’ Zoë Winters).

Some particularly powerful yet uncomfortable moments stand out, such as Charlie imagining a teenage Emma (Jordyn Curet) with him and with a rifle, as he desperately tries to process information that’s turned both his relationship and his reality upside down.

Winters’ wedding photographer then later casually begins a long list of intended pictures with the explanation that she’s ‘going to shoot you first, then your parents, then your grandparents’ at a beyond-awkward appointment.

The Drama: Key details

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The tone here is different – it’s meant to provoke – and just because you laugh doesn’t mean the film isn’t taking this seriously.

In fact, The Drama clearly proffers a warning of how easy it could be to radicalise a lonely and depressed teenager who feels ostracised by her peers.

But it’s unpleasant to consider the possibility we could all be just a few steps away from committing mass violence, as the film suggests.

To some it will be offensive, certainly anyone who has lost a loved one in similar circumstances, and some are claiming that it glamorises, or at least humanises, gun violence by putting an unexpectedly popular and positive face to it with Zendaya.

There are of course other successful ways of covering this troubling issue in films, like 22 July, Bowling for Columbine and recent Oscar-winner for best documentary short, All the Empty Rooms.

But, let’s be frank, a glossy A24 drama starring two of the hottest A-List actors in the world right now, beloved of millennials and Gen Z alike, is going to be seen by far more people, more mainstream audiences, and spark way more discourse as it’s released and audiences get to react.

In my mind, this is only a good thing.

Yes, you’ll feel guilty laughing over the admittedly very funny parts of The Drama – but that’s the point.

Verdict

The Drama is daring, intelligent and expertly judged in its unexpected and taboo-breaking approach to a heavy and highly sensitive topic.

If you don’t watch it, you’re missing out.

The Drama releases in UK and US cinemas on Friday, April 3.
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