The Drama

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. DO NOT READ UNTIL AFTER VIEWING. 

I’ve been saying for a while now that what cinema really needs in this critical moment is filmmakers who take more risks. To look at what you’re creating dead in the face and be completely unafraid: THAT IS FREEDOM. The Drama may very well be one of the most monumentally important films I’ve ever seen. Definitely a film to think over for hours and hours and discuss again and again with as many people as possible. 

Zendaya and Robert Pattinson knock it out of the park all the way to the moon as Emma and Charlie, a couple of days away from their wedding. After seeing what appears to be their DJ, Pauline (Sydney Lemmon), snorting heroin in public, Emma and Charlie debate whether or not they should fire her at a late-night wine tasting with best man Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and maid of honor Rachel (Alana Haim). Drunken laughter turns to each of them taking turns revealing the worst thing they’ve ever done. I don’t know exactly how many minutes this scene is, but it’s an absolute masterclass in screenwriting and acting, and a perfect example of how just a few people in a room are enough to create a full, substantial story. I was reminded of how I felt when I watched the dinner scene from Black Bag last year. Entirely different scenario, but it’s similar in the sense that more often than not, TONE is everything, and it’s not something you can create; you have to see it birth itself like a butterfly and then have the camera capture it as it flutters around brilliantly. 

Mike, in complete embarrassment, confesses he used his bitchy ex-girlfriend as a human shield during a dog attack on a vacation in Mexico. Rachel confesses that as a teenager, she locked her mentally disabled neighbor in a closet in an abandoned RV in the woods and left him there overnight. Charlie confesses that he cyberbullies a kid so severely that he and his family had to move away. Finally, Emma confesses that as a teenager, she was bullied to the point where she completely fell apart and, in her despair orchestrated a mass shooting at her high school and even brought her father’s AR-15 to school but didn’t go through with it after hearing one of her classmates died in a mall shooting that weekend and seeing how her school is grieving. She became a huge advocate for gun control upon realizing the damage she was about to inflict. She made friends within her new circle, turning her life around before crossing an irreversible line beyond the boundaries of human comprehension. 

Naturally, everyone is shocked. Charlie, still deeply in love, is left to battle all the ways in which he sees her differently, while Rachel abandons the friendship entirely, Mike is placed in the middle, and Emma is forced to reevaluate that awful period of her life, while fearing potential exposure. 

Amid all the drama, The Drama never sensationalizes or cheapens any of its subjects. 

There’s some violent imagery in certain moments, but never any gun violence in and of itself. It’s not relevant and would’ve been distracting. The Drama is more about the deeper layers of our society that allow this culture in which the broken are swallowed whole. Hypocrisy, complicity, and moral superiority are practically entities A24 has grabbed by the throat and roars in its face here. Zendaya and Pattinson have always had very magnetic and stoic presences on screen, and together here, they both deliver what may very well be 2026’s best acting duet. Some actors are so famous that audiences can’t help but see them before they see their characters. These two avoid that here with such effortless ease, and I truly can’t imagine anyone else in their roles pulling off what they have. The same can be said for Alana Haim, who is still relatively new after her breakout role in Licorice Pizza and her small turn last year as a fallen revolutionary in One Battle After Another. She delivers a flawless body of work here and emerges as The Drama’s ultimate villain. She embodies a very specific kind of coward without her pettiness ever being too on the nose. Most audiences probably know someone like Rachel whose level of moral superiority is through the roof. She lives in a little bubble where she can do no wrong and has crowned herself queen. Emma’s response to her trauma threatens her reign, and Queen Rachel doesn’t like that one bit. Rachel’s not very close to her paralyzed cousin (Love Lies Bleeding’s Anna Baryshnikov), who was a victim of gun violence but uses her as a pawn in her attempt to disown Emma and get away with weaponizing her “crocodile white woman tears.” Most audiences will be able to relate to this film as a whole, and that’s partly why many people are so up in arms over it, because we’re forced to reevaluate ourselves and our own behaviors. 

I’ve never been one of those cinephiles that thinks a film has to be seen by massive audiences, premiere at various film festivals, get rave reviews and gain lots of accolades to be successful but I do believe that reception matters because it’s a reflection on what the world cares about, what we judge, who we judge, what we prioritize and who we abandon. The Drama’s been received very well by lots of people and outlets, but the kind of controversy it’s also generated about gun violence, sadly, says a lot about where we are in our culture at the moment. The labeling of something as “exploitive” or "sensationalized" or “smugly juvenile” has always been one of the most effective ways to end conversations quickly or shut them down altogether. It’s fair and human to be uncomfortable and even traumatized by someone's work, but to imply or outright declare it should’ve been done differently, all because someone is frightened of how a culture is going to be impacted by it, has been a way for important stories to be scapegoated for far too long. 

The Drama really dives into the loneliness, anguish, despair, and violence that exists in our minds, especially young people who are increasingly left with no one to turn to because turning to people often results in the kind of alienation the film explores. A good chunk of our society looks at violence as “the cause of something” when we should be looking at it as “the effect of something”. Violence doesn’t just happen for no reason. No one randomly wakes up and decides to ruin multiple lives because they think it’s fun. There’s always something deeper going on. That doesn’t mean violence is acceptable. That doesn’t mean society shouldn’t be furious towards those who commit this kind of violence. 

It just means that we’d be a lot better off if most of us looked at the most uncomfortable of areas swirling around inside the human mind, rather than running from it. Culture doesn’t just happen; it’s built. It wouldn’t hurt to take some responsibility for participation in a culture where violence is so often the outcome. Especially for women who society doesn’t look at as capable of executing this level of violence. Women are blamed for acts of violence every single day, yet they’re not seen as fully developed human beings capable of enacting everything a human being has the mentality to fall into in the most broken of circumstances. Especially at such a vulnerable age in a woman’s life. 

Charlie finds himself haunted, flipping through a catalog of young women being fetishized as they hold guns and pose sexually. He finds himself unnerved by Emma’s outburst at an irresponsible driver. He throws away a cup with a gun on it. He’s falling apart and trying to absolve the problem in an unhealthy way, but he’s not running from the problem altogether. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an entire culture to take care of each other’s sanity, and we are consistently failing. 17

The Drama is a brutal wake-up call. Imagine refusing to get out of bed after partying all night and having your fed-up roommate respond by pouring a pot of cold water on your head. That’s the kind of urgency The Drama operates with, but does it in such a humane and nonjudgmental way, you may very well find yourselves relieved that someone in the world sees clearly what’s going on. A24 delivers masterpieces every year. They’ve truly created one of their best films, and I’m sure in time it will become as revered an A24 classic as Lady Bird, First Reformed, and even Midsommar. I hope as many audiences as possible find validation and relief in The Drama. What Zendaya and Pattinson deliver isn’t just a performance, it’s a public service. This is what the craft of acting has the power to do all the time. Films like The Drama are rare. THEY DO NOT HAVE TO BE. 

The Drama - Apple TV. (2026, April 3). tv.apple.com. https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Video211/v4/ff/d1/9b/ffd19bff-4a8f-9ca6-b248-e676dcdb9fb1/A24-Drama-ATV-3840x2160-CoverArt.png/1200x675.jpg