One of my favorite things to do is pick a random movie to watch and go into the theatre completely blind. This weekend’s choice was The Drama, an A24 film written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson. I vaguely remember watching the first two trailers and thinking that the movie seemed like a fun watch, but nothing else stuck. So, armed with nothing but my annual popcorn bucket and a tiny Field Notes notebook, I entered my local theatre and tuned in for an hour and 45 minutes of pure chaos and suspense.

The Drama is a movie about an engaged couple finalizing their wedding plans. Just a week before the wedding, a bombshell drops that makes them question everything. Y’all…I fucking loved this movie. It was so ridiculous in the best way. I was absolutely glued to the screen the whole time; in fact, this is the most invested I’ve been in a movie since Sinners. The best thing about the film is that it made me #ponder and #question, two of my favorite activities. As soon as the credits rolled, I immediately whipped out my notebook and started writing.

I’ll try to avoid spoilers, but I will say that the film deals primarily with the blurred line between the forgivable and the inexcusable. I walked away from the theatre with my head buzzing with questions. In particular:

Despite what the loudest among us might think, most of the above questions don’t have a single “right” answer. We could debate them all day and night, but ultimately, the point of the film is that we can’t crowdsource our boundaries. It’s up to each of us to decide what we can live with and what we can’t.

I think this movie was perfectly executed. Rob may be a troll and habitual liar, but honey, he acts ZOWN! I’ll admit that I was a bit unsure about Zendaya’s casting because I’ve only seen her in Shake It Up as a kid and Euphoria season one as an adult. I wasn’t the biggest fan of either performance, but she was incredible in The Drama. Watching this film really felt like seeing a real couple navigate a trust crisis, and I couldn’t have predicted any of the plot turns.

I also think the movie did an excellent job of showcasing how the stories we tell ourselves about past events can and often do torment us more than the actual events — and how easy it is for us to rationalize our own flaws while doggedly judging others.

I watched a couple of Robdaya press interviews after the fact, and I saw the cast describe The Drama as a “dark comedy,” which initially shocked me. At first, I thought this was because I view darkness as something intentionally sinister, and I didn’t get that energy from the film. Later, I realized that it was just my history of anxiety and fear of secretly being a bad person that made the film’s drama seem like a typical thought exercise that I’d conduct on any random Tuesday. In fact, everyone (besides one FUCKASS character) seemed like normal, mostly well-intentioned people who made bad decisions and had to wrestle with the consequences to me. Which is the whole point of dark comedy, now that I think about it.

While my initial instinct was to be judgmental (I’m working on it, okay😭), the lack of a clear villain allowed me to put myself in each character’s shoes and question how I would navigate their situation. I left the theatre immediately wanting to see it again to pick up on any details I missed. We had no choice but to stan!

As an aside, I think it’s kind of funny that Zendaya’s character is meant to have a certain obvious red flag, but I was less concerned by that than I was about the fact that she didn’t have any Black woman friends. While that’s on brand for a white-mom-biracial (look it up), being a biracial Black woman with no Black woman friends? #VerySuspicious!1

Have any of you seen The Drama? What did you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below! And, if you haven’t seen it, run — don’t walk — to your nearest theatre while it’s still on the big screen.

Yours in drama,

Mina