Before going into this, you have to understand that I could not write this without spoiling the main plot. In no world do I think this movie should have been made without trigger warnings. Now I understand that is basically what an “R” rating is, but The Drama covers a topic that I don’t think can be explained by just saying it is “R” rated. Nonetheless, I will jump right into my thoughts and feelings about this movie. Warning: This is NOT spoiler-free and comes with trigger warnings for school shootings.
I saw this movie opening night, so I have had quite a few days to sit with my thoughts and try to come up with an intelligent way to express them. So here is my attempt at explaining how I feel and my biggest problems with The Drama.
First of all, the marketing angered me so bad and I feel like I haven’t seen many people talk about it. Before I saw the movie, I thought it was great. I signed up for the movie’s email list and even got emails to “RSVP” and “Attend the wedding!” I thought this was so cute. Then, unfortunately the movie was spoiled for me about two weeks before it came out. It was a pretty big spoiler but since I didn’t read the article I accidentally saw, I sort of brushed it off and decided I still wanted to see the movie even if what I saw was a real headline. It was, sadly. It was a headline from TMZ that described a Columbine shooting victim’s parent condemning the movie. After this I kind of figured what it would be about, but I did not expect the depth it went into regarding shootings.
The Drama opens with us meeting Emma and Charlie. Charlie is trying to get Emma’s attention and flirt with her but she is totally ignoring him while she reads a book. Or at least that’s what we and the audience thought. It turns out Emma is deaf in the ear Charlie is trying to talk into, and is listening to music in the other ear. She tells him to start over and introduce himself again. Here we see a piece of Emma and Charlie’s odd relationship, but then we sort of skip through all of their dating and end up right in the week leading up to their wedding. The bomb drop was during a dinner with their friends, Rachel and Mike. Rachel tells Mike to tell Emma and Charlie the worst thing he has ever done and thus tells the table that they should all share. We finally land on Emma and she tells her friends that she…dun dun dun…planned a school shooting! You see how I added a weird note of suspense that shouldn’t be added in such a serious topic? That is exactly what it feels like the trailer and marketing did.
School shootings, or honestly shootings in general, are not “plot twists” and never should be. The entire movie focuses on Charlie coping with this revelation, while also getting flashbacks to young Emma (15 years prior) planning said shooting. If we had just gotten the admission from Emma, I think I wouldn’t feel as strongly about this as I do, but we literally watch her go through every single step of planning a school shooting. I am someone who was directly affected by a school shooting. While I wasn’t directly in one, I live about 15 minutes from where the 2018 Parkland shooting took place. I lost peers I grew up with. My community was shattered. And I’m not the only one. There are thousands and thousands of people who have been affected — probably more directly than me — by shootings. I don’t typically believe in trigger warnings because you don’t get trigger warnings in life, but I feel like this is something totally different. It wasn’t just the mention of a shooting, but a day-by-day show of what planning one looks like.
After the movie, I saw an Instagram post by March For Our Lives that vaguely explained the premise of the movie while also asking the actors to share resources on their socials. The comments were mostly talking about how the post spoiled the movie. This put into perspective for me how we treat media, specifically fiction. Out of all the posts, this is the one that you’re commenting spoiled the movie for you? This is what we’re focused on? I guess I can understand the anger from the spoilers — I was upset I got the movie spoiled, but like really? I guess I can’t really form the words to express how I feel about these reactions.
Overall, I have other issues with this movie, but these were my thoughts on the drive home from the theater. Yes, they didn’t market this movie as “cutesy” or a “romcom,” but with the depth of the topic, it should not be as under wraps as it was. There are real victims of events like what almost happened in this movie, who would 100% be brought back to that experience while watching this. I hate to be “that one friend that’s too woke,” but with this topic I will forever be. While the movie does explore the notion of forgiveness among other things, I don’t think this was the right way to go about it. Robert Pattinson and Zendaya gave amazing performances… Alana Haim not so much, but objectively it was a decent movie. There were moments that I liked, of course. The comedic timing was great and the writing was decent, but I think I could have really enjoyed this if the advertising didn’t anger me so much. And, of course, there were no resources at the end of the movie. How can you make a movie like this and NOT have resources? Anyway here are some because apparently A24 doesn’t understand how important the topic they discussed is.
National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence — Newtown Action Alliance Foundation