THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS
This article discusses my interpretations of the movie. I am not claiming that there is a “correct” way to interpret the movie, nor am I including any opinions from the cast, director, production staff, etc.
As a big A24 fan, I was really excited when the promo for The Drama appeared on my Instagram. Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in a rom-com? Sign me up! Going into the theater, I was expecting something suspenseful. The trailers implied a darkness to Zendaya’s character when she reveals “the worst thing she has ever done” to her friends, a bloody wedding, and a complex relationship.
After the movie, and a long discussion with a friend, I realized this movie was doing something more significant than its surface-level interpretations.
BRIEF Summary
The plot of this movie involves a wedding between Emma Harwood (Zendaya) and Charlie Thompson (Robert Pattinson). The most important plot-point for this article is something that changes the trajectory of Emma and Charlie’s relationship: a confession of the worst thing that Emma has ever done.
Emma and Charlie’s relationship is strong. They have been dating for 2 years, they go out on dates, they are sexually active with each other, etc… Everything about their relationship seems standard until the menu tasting for their wedding. Emma, Charlie, their best man Mike, and their maid of honor Rachel are eating mushroom risotto and drinking too much wine. Rachel introduces a topic of conversation, one that occurred when her and Mike were about to get married: revealing the worst thing you have ever done. Mike, Rachel, and Charlie go before Emma. Mike revealed that he used his ex-girlfriend as protection from a dog that was biting her. Charlie confessed that he cyberbullied someone so bad that they had to move away (undecided if this was a coincidence or not). Decided by the characters in the movie, some of the confessions were not too controversial when taking age into account. The two that came into conflict the most were Rachel and Emma’s confession.
Rachel confesses to locking a person who is disabled into a closet and leaving them there. Emma confesses to planning a mass shooting when she was fifteen. Now, these two confessions are not what I was expecting when I walked into this movie. And, while watching, these themes were hard to grasp. I was concerned that the movie was making fun of these situations, and by the amount of laughter in the theater, I thought that was the goal of the film. Many questions arose throughout: Were these confessions included for shock value? Was film director Kristoffer Borgli trying to make a cultural statement about gun violence? What is the impact of “making light” of serious themes like the ones included in this movie?
I realized that this movie is doing none of the above. I think that this movie is indirectly making a statement about cancel culture, or more broadly, accepting that people can do bad things while also working to better themselves. Borgli boldly decided that using extreme examples was the most efficient way to achieve that.
CANCEL CULTURE AND ACCOUNTABILITY
In an era where everything is recorded, there is anxiety associated with adolescence and memory. That one bad outfit you wore? Someone will remember. When you misspoke in class and everyone ganged up on you? Haunts you to this day. That text you sent asking someone out on a date? Noted. While there are many conversations to be had about what constitutes someone being “cancelled,” this movie is a testament to the aftermath of wrongdoing.
Post-confession, Charlie is situated as the good fiancée, while Emma is the secretive one. As the movie progresses, this dynamic changes. Viewers see Charlie’s spiral into madness after finding the truth about Emma, and we are left unsure if he wants to continue with marrying her or not. Days before the wedding, Charlie lies to Emma and he cheats on her with his assistant. The wedding is ruined due to the spread of Emma’s secret because of Charlie.
Rachel’s demeanor completely changes once Emma reveals her secret, due to her family member experiencing a shooting and needing to use a wheelchair as a result of it. Even when Charlie and Mike try to empathize with Emma, Rachel gaslights them into believing that Emma is a psychopath and that they should call off the wedding. Rachel manipulates perceptions of Emma to situate her as evil, all while Rachel admitted to locking someone in a closet while laughing about it.
While Emma did something, or thought about doing something terrible in her past, she was the most level-headed character of the movie. Even after her and Charlie’s wedding was ruined and she lost all of her friends, not once did she try to repair her reputation. She knew what she did was bad, but she also knew that she became a better person as a result. People do bad things, as shown by the characters in this movie. Planning a shooting is wrong. Shoving someone into a closet and forgetting about it is wrong. Cyberbullying someone is wrong. Using someone as a “human shield” from a rabid dog is wrong. The one thing that Emma, Charlie, Mike, and Rachel (TBD) have in common is that they changed: they learned from their mistake, and they know better now.
By the end of the movie, Charlie and Emma meet each other at their favorite diner. In an attempt to start over, Emma acts like it is a first date. Their meeting after the disastrous wedding represents Emma’s desire to love Charlie despite his wrongdoings. Emma doesn’t claim that what either of them did was right, nor does she try to justify it: she acknowledges that they are both complex, messed-up people, and decides to love Charlie anyway. This scene is indicative of human nature. Humans inherently make mistakes. We are not black-and-white. There are people who do things they are not proud of due to lack of information, or plainly because of their strong beliefs. What is important is that we, as a society, acknowledge bad things while motivating people to learn from their mistakes. Blaming others for their mistakes and perpetual guilt creates a cycle of negativity and stagnancy. The topic of conversation that Borgil promotes is controversial, but it isn’t about the mass shooting or the closet, it is about having empathy for others and giving people the space to change for the better, not avoiding accountability, but using it as a reminder for the future.
I rated this movie 3 stars. I enjoyed the cinematography, the casting, the comedic value, and the music, but the suspense that I derived from the trailers fell flat for me. At the end, I felt neutral and confused. I did not hate it, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would when I initially saw the trailers.
So far, this movie has mixed reviews. Some enjoy the film’s comedic nature while others argue that the movie is insensitive to victims of school shootings. While this movie was funny and entertaining, there is also something to be said about the “normalization” of school shooting discourses in media.