The Drama: Movie Review

Cast: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie
Director: Kristoffer Borgli

How you'll feel about director Kristoffer Borgli's latest, The Drama, depends largely on how open you are to provocation and dark black comedy.

If you're up for it, The Drama is one of the best, most unsettling films of the year, a psychological terror that unfurls in the aftermath of just an innocent confession during a drunken moment between four friends.

Charlie (Pattinson) and Emma (Zendaya) are on the eve of their wedding. With just a few days to go, they're stressing over speeches, whether their DJ can be replaced after being seen smoking heroin in the streets and if they can make it through their heavily choreographed first dance.

But in amidst a food and drink choices session, the boat is severely rocked when a confession from Emma stuns her fiancé and alienates her maid of honour. (For reasons best left unspoiled, the twist won't be revealed here.) As the fallout from Emma's words continues, Charlie, whom Emma warns early on has a tendency to fixate on matters, begins to debate whether she's the right choice for him...

The Drama's key to success lies in Borgli's taut and uncomfortable ratcheting up of social provocations. The polarising twist may alienate some of its audience, but like his prior film Sick of Myself, he uses it to springboard into a world of uncomfortable truths, societal expectations and personal expectations that throws a mirror on all those who look in it.

It helps that both Pattinson and Zendaya are fully committed to the horror of the bit and can be relied on to give strong performances - though Zendaya's years of playing anguish on Euphoria have clearly paid off here, as she's the more compelling actor. But as the film revels in its wicked one-liners and Charlie's ever-increasing discomfort, it begins to reach a point where the audience is pushed to question whether it feels genuine enough and how a real person would react.

Much will be written about the twist, and given its hot-button topic, it will provoke differing reactions in audiences around the world - and especially from those closer to such events. Less of a romantic comedy and more of a dark black look at what people would do in similar situations, The Drama is an uncomfortably awkward watch, one that pushes you to the edge of your seat before leaving you wondering whether you'd react in the same way if the person you believed you knew said they'd be capable of something truly abhorrent.

It's a queasy watch, but The Drama is easily one of 2026's best films.