A24’s The Drama is.. a lot.
It’s disturbing, unconventional and provocative — the kind of movie that demands a reaction. And to its credit, it gets one. I could feel the air sucked out of the room at a certain point.
But the discourse it creates may be better than the actual movie.
The Drama follows Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson), an engaged couple whose wedding week unravels after a pre-wedding confession cracks their relationship wide open. What starts as an offbeat rom-com quickly turns into a very dark, psychologically messy spiral about trust, shame, and whether love can survive a deeply disturbing truth. Overall, the film wrestles with the question of whether love can truly be unconditional.
Cinematically, this isn’t a bad movie. Director Kristoffer Borgli and cinematographer Arseni Khachaturan nail the auteur flare with interesting and eye catching camera shots and visual motifs — the long zooms, the lingering camera, the way it lets certain moments sit just long enough to make your skin crawl. It knows how to create tension. It knows how to look and feel like something.
But for a film with this much talent and heavy subject matter, it feels thinner than it should — and disappointingly shallow.
Read more at Brandon Pope’s film and TV site, Screening Room – Your Perfect Seat For Cinema.