The Drama (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment
2 hours ago
3 min read

THE DRAMA (2026)

Starring Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Mamoudou Athie, Alana Haim, Hailey Gates, Zoë Winters, Anna Baryshnikov, Michael Abbott Jr., Sydney Lemmon, Hannah Gross, Jordyn Curet, Dee Nelson, Damon Gupton, Ken Cheeseman, Doria Bramante, Jordan Raf, Jeremy Levick, Sam Zimman, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Greer Cohen, Shawn Fogarty and Michele Proude.

Screenplay by Kristoffer Borgli.

Directed by Kristoffer Borgli.

Distributed by A24. 105 minutes. Rated R.

The secrets we all keep are the subject of this very dark, surprisingly funny comedy of love and manners. Everyone has drama, but the question is, are people more than their worst act? Once you have seen someone at their worst, can you ever truly see their best again?

The actual secrets of The Drama are – understandably – being kept hidden in a brilliant ad campaign. It is a movie which would be undone by spoilers, just by merit of its storyline being all about the damage of secrets being exposed.

The movie starts out as a sweet romantic comedy about a seemingly perfect for each other couple – Emma and Charlie – (played by Zendaya and Robert Pattinson), meeting cute, falling in love and deciding to get married. Everything seems to be going perfectly, until one fateful conversation a week before the wedding.

As so many things like this, it starts with a night of heavy drinking, with Emma and Charlie, together with their married best man Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and maid of honor Rachel (Alana Haim). Mike and Rachel tell them about a test they had given each other before their own wedding – drunkenly asking each other, “the worst thing you have ever done?”

The four friends decide to try it, each one admitting their worst act. And it is all fun, lightweight and humorous until Emma’s confession. That throws a bombshell onto everything.

The weird thing is that Emma’s secret – while certainly horrific – was something which she never ended up acting on. The secret exposed by Rachel – who was so horrified by her friend’s admission that it started everything spiraling out of control – was nearly as bad as Emma’s. Arguably even worse, because Rachel actually acted upon it, not just planned on doing it before changing her mind. Whether Emma’s mind changed because she had wised up or just because of circumstances, the fact is that she never did it. And Emma had since changed and was remorseful about what she had almost done. Rachel does not seem to think that she did was so wrong.

But even worse than straining her friendship with Rachel to a breaking point, it makes Charlie realize how little he really knows about the woman he is marrying. He keeps trying to figure out how the woman he thought he knew could have been so different than he had imagined, even if it was just in the past. It starts him doubting his own judgment about the relationship and leads him on a path of uncertainty and rationalization. Emma picks up on the awkwardness, and tries to defuse the tension, often leading her to overcompensate.

Can this couple be saved, a mere week before the wedding? Or should they just call the whole thing off?

I will not go into detail about what any of the secrets are, nor the havoc they cause, because going into The Drama mostly blind is preferable and possibly even necessary to really appreciate it. And for the record, the little details I have explained above are not spoilers because those are blatantly outed in the trailer.

Ironically, in that same trailer, the early moments are soundtracked by the classic instrumental theme from the 1959 movie A Summer Place. It seemed like an odd choice for such a modern film when I first watched the trailer, but now that I’ve seen the movie it actually sort of fits – both movies are about strained relationships, the secrets and lies people tell each other and the stupid things people do for the possibility of finding true love. And both are simultaneously cynical and hopelessly romantic.

Occasionally – occasionally – The Drama is a little heavy-handed on some of its points when the actual subject comes to light, but for the most part it is a fascinating balancing act of love and horror. It will probably make quite a few people smile, quite a few people cringe, and quite a few others feel rather unsettled as the end credits run. And it will undoubtedly stimulate one hell of a lot of intriguing conversations between people after they watch it.

Not many films these days can cause so many diverse reactions in under two hours. When you find one, you definitely should pay attention.

Jay S. Jacobs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zmKcUa4Xxk