The charm of Robert Pattinson and Zendaya can’t mask the thematic miscalculations of Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama.
Writer/director Kristoffer Borgli’s film The Drama, much like one of its central characters, is more disruptive in theory than in practice. The film tries to approach something interesting with the questions it raises about selective outrage and who society permits to be flawed. Sadly, these glimmers of insight lose their impact thanks to a premise that ultimately feels like empty provocation. This premise, falsely identified as a “twist” by some, is revealed at the very beginning of the film and therefore must be mentioned if The Drama is to be properly discussed. If you continue reading this review, prepare to be spoiled.
One night, soon-to-be-wed couple Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) are sharing the worst thing they’ve ever done in a drunken game with fellow couple Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie). When Emma admits that she contemplated shooting up her school as an adolescent, it threatens to derail the life they’ve built together. The couple has to reckon with the fact that they might not truly know each other, and tension mounts as their special day approaches.
Failure to launch.
Race is certainly a factor in the response to the revelation that Emma harbored violent fantasies, but those violent fantasies are part of a pathology that is statistically white and male. That Borgli would apply this pathology to a Black woman, particularly with as little justification as he provides within the film, speaks to his prioritization of shock over substance. Not only is it shallow, but it speaks to a societal failure to reckon with white male violence.
Photo Credit: A24
That the film deals with race at all feels incidental to the casting of Zendaya as Emma rather than the result of thoughtful writing by Borgli. Frustratingly, the specifics of Emma’s secret bear little consequence in general which makes the hollow evocation of school shooter ideology and online radicalization that much more tasteless. That race factors into the consequences of the premise but not the premise itself feels like an enormous oversight.
Not clicking.
The easy chemistry between Zendaya and Pattinson goes to waste in this film, condemning the two to playing two-dimensional characters in an equally thinly-written relationship. The intrigue they inspire begins and ends with their gorgeous shared apartment in Boston, a marker of affluence that is yet another factor that goes unexplored. It’s difficult to feel invested in a romance as empty as theirs.
Worse is when Borgli employs certain directorial tactics to emphasize the disruption Emma’s secret has caused, it feels like an attempt to provoke an unearned response from the audience. One such tactic is a montage of Charlie with an adolescent Emma, clearly meant to communicate the way her past is haunting their relationship but merely serves as an uncomfortable reminder of Borgli’s recent controversy surrounding his own past.
The bottom line.
The Drama is shallow provocation at best, and irresponsible at worst. It primes itself for the same hollow discourse it’s aiming to criticize, which is emblematic of its failure as a film that aims to engage with taboo.
The Drama is now playing in theaters everywhere. Watch the trailer here.
Images courtesy of A24. Read more articles by Isabella Cantillano-Sanchez here.
REVIEW RATING
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The Drama - 3/10
3/10
