The Drama (now streaming on VOD platforms like Amazon Prime Video) finds me slightly more concerned about revealing a key plot development than the dramatic implications of said plot development. Not a good sign? Seems like it. But A24‘s button-pushing satire from director/writer Kristoffer Borgli (Dream Scenario) nevertheless might be worth watching, considering it’s co-headlined by Zendaya and Robert Pattinson – two of the most compelling actors in the current cinema, hands down – and managed to stir enough interest to earn an impressive $117 million at the worldwide box office. As for that key reveal, some reviews share it and some don’t, and the movie’s ultimately “about” other subject matter, so let it be known, I’ll be Getting Into It, because it’s too hard to critically assess things otherwise. 

THE DRAMA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

The Gist: They met in a coffeehouse. She, Emma (Zendaya), was reading a book, with one earbud in. He, Charlie (Pattinson) he speaks to her at length about that book, which he pretended to have read when he didn’t, without realizing she was deaf in one earbudless-ear. There was some flustering and stammering, a misunderstanding, and she must’ve been charmed on one level or another, because she gave him another chance: “Do you want to start over?”, she asked. This is what we call, in the romantic-comedy world, a Meet Cute. She eventually agrees to go on a date and he eventually confesses that he never read the book and now, a couple years later, they’re engaged. The wedding is in a few days. And then? The happily ever after.

As Charlie works on his wedding-reception speech, we flash back to their first kiss. He’s the lead curator at the Cambridge Art Museum. He was going to give her an after-hours tour but his keycard malfunctioned and they ended up trapped in that nether-space between two sets of glass doors with alarms blaring and red lights flashing and he just planted one on her. I mean, it’s not a red flag to the letter of the law, but, you know. Not that it was foreshadowing on their courtship, which has gone smashingly to this point. Now they’re in the final stages of wedding planning – a dance lesson, an appointment with the florist, all that. They spot a woman on the street smoking heroin, and she looks a hell of a lot like the DJ they hired, but is that grounds for firing her? At the caterer, they’re joined by their maid of honor and best man, Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie), to sample the wares and finalize the food and booze menu. They’re tipsy. Mike shares that he and Rachel played a little game before they got married, and suggests that Emma and Charlie do the same: Name the worst thing you ever did DOT DOT DOT. 

Yeah, a lot hangs on that DOT DOT DOT, and this is where I might be taunting the spoiler cops, so you’ve been warned. They go around the table. Things get shared. Some bad stuff, shameful, a bit dark, mostly from when they were young and foolish with mushbrains, but nothing too heinous. Now it’s Emma’s turn and she says, “I, like, almost did a mass shooting.” She was in high school. Bullied. Frequently alone. Her parents seem to have worked a lot. Her dad, a military man, had a gun and she brought it to school but didn’t go through with it. We get disturbing flashbacks from that time in her life. Back to the present: Charlie, Mike, Rachel – their jaws drop. Emma pukes all over the table. She and Charlie go home and sleep it off and awkwardly navigate hangovers and the toothpaste that covers their realities and can’t be put back in the tube. They meet with the wedding photographer who goes over the plan: I’ll shoot this person then I’ll shoot that group and then I’ll shoot you and your parents. Charlie squirms. Is this grounds for firing Emma from being the person you spend the rest of your life with?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Borgli quietly corners the market in what-if scenarios with The Drama and Dream Scenario, in which Nicolas Cage plays a man who becomes famous when he weirdly and inexplicably turns up in millions of people’s dreams, then gets canceled when he does terrible things in those dreams, but not in real life. Are people culpable for the things they could’ve done? It kinda feels like Minority Report in reverse or something. 

Performance Worth Watching: Pattinson is the strongest, sturdiest component of a film that’s otherwise shaky in most other aspects. He once again leans into the eccentricity and comic exasperation that defined his performances in Die My Love and Mickey 17, to memorable effect.   

Sex And Skin: A couple of brief sexy scenes.

Our Take: The Drama is a now-what comedy, an edgy provocation that contrives an extreme scenario intending to… well, I don’t know. Borgli gins up one hell of a concept, but shows a muddled vision in its execution beyond exploiting it for deeply uncomfortable laughs. He seems unsure of what to do with the Emma character, so she’s essentially rendered a narrative catalyst for Charlie’s personal crisis, a choice that’s at best disappointing and at worst distasteful. Sure, Charlie’s more relatable, but when it comes to Emma, the film comes off like a psychoanalyst who declines to take her on as a patient because it’s not up to the challenge.

Portions of the film work quite well, showcasing its potential: Unsettling images of Charlie walking alongside the troubled young version of Emma (Jordyn Curet) as he grapples with this surprising psychological facet of his fiancee; a scene in which Charlie finds himself in a tormented justification spiral as he wrestles with the many gray-area uncertainties lurking between acceptance and rejection. Borgli mines for nervous laughter and finds rich deposits here and there, including a high-stakes gag involving a computer’s untimely needs for software updates, and some pitch-black riffs on wedding-comedy tropes. 

The subtext, however, is rife with dangling threads as the film flirts with ideas about forgiveness and unconditional love, about the uniquely American gun-control conundrum, but never follows through on them. You’ll want to beg Borgli to reconsider the wishy-washy ending, which doesn’t jibe with what came before, namely, a film that implores us to put on Charlie’s shoes and consider his successes and failures in navigating the thick moral fog of an untenable situation. There seems to be no winning. No “starting over.” And most crucially, no truly detailed understanding of the Emma character, who, through no fault of Zendaya whatsoever, is too hastily sketched to be more than just a plot device. 

Our Call: The Drama is alluring for its star power and its high-potential concept, and it has its memorable moments. But it’s ultimately dissatisfying in its attempt to find comedy and insight within an outrageous scenario. SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.