'The Drama' is Good and Funny and You Should See It.

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When I went to buy tickets for this week’s only wide release, The Drama, a few hours before showtime, I was surprised to find my usual theater (one of the only non-Regals in town) basically sold out save for the first few rows. It was the same story at my second choice, and I only just managed to snap up the last couple of non-terrible seats at theater three.

Suffice it to say, this is not normal for a non-franchise, non-horror movie sneak preview here in Fresno, California — where our Thursday night entertainment is more likely to involve standing in a circle on the lawn while two guys with pots on their heads crash into each other than seeing buzzy movies from A24. The last time I saw a movie this overbooked here was Melania (fittingly, the cinematic equivalent of putting pots on your head and smashing into each other).

Was this the Robert Pattinson effect or the Zendaya effect? I couldn’t exactly tell from the audience filing in (what does an RPattz or Zendaya-stan look like, anyway?), but whatever the case, A24 deserves kudos for getting the youngs into the theater on opening night for a lower budgeted, relatively old-fashioned romantic farce starring two actors whose fame stems solely from making movies. I thought the kids didn’t watch those anymore?

In fact I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. Writer/director Kristoffer Borgli (terrible mouthfeel on that), whose most high-profile effort to date was the 2023 multiple Nic Cages vehicle Dream Scenario, uses nothing but character-based writing and situational comedy to turn in a wildly funny and entertaining twist on the rom-com. Actually it’s more like a farce, but I already typed that.

The Drama’s budget was allegedly $28-30 million, which I have to think mostly went towards actor salaries and on-location shoots in Boston. The Drama has no special effects nor complex set pieces to speak of, and if you’d told me it cost $3 million, I would’ve believed you. Usually when I write that a movie feels like it could’ve been a play I mean it as an insult, with dialogue overwritten by half and limited sets that make you yearn for a change of scenery. The Drama consists mostly of evening interiors, and yet Borgli succeeds at writing conversations that feel as thrilling as car chases, using the most tried-and-true cinematic basics to create something that nonetheless manages to feel new and exciting.

The Drama opens with awkward Charlie (Robert Pattinson) brainstorming an opener for the hot girl in the coffee shop, who we’ll soon learn is Emma (Zendaya). Quickly googling the book she’s reading when she goes to the bathroom, he attempts to bullshit a conversation about it, while she ignores him completely. Soon we learn that she’s actually deaf in one ear, and that this whole scenario is actually a flashback, playing out in Charlie’s head as he brainstorms, with the help of his best friend Mike (Mamadou Athie), his speech about he and Emma’s meeting for their wedding. I feel bad for pointing out how insufferable Athie’s character was in Elemental, that was clearly a product of Elemental’s writing and not Athie’s acting, which is good.

This easy blend of reality, memory, and fantasy will become a throughline of The Drama, which is all about how perspectives of the past and imagined worse-case scenarios of the future can poison the present.

Ah, but about that poisoning!

During their press screenings and premieres, A24 was apparently very adamant in their directions to critics and early viewers, that they avoid spoiling The Drama for people who hadn’t seen it. This, naturally, raises the age-old question of what constitutes a “spoiler.” That turns out to be particularly fraught in the case of The Drama. Given that I saw it at a public screening, and that there are already countless news stories revealing its main “spoiler,” I would be well within my rights to ignore the studio’s marketing and write whatever I want. Still, in the interests of not being a dick, and of doing my best to help you better enjoy a movie, which is mostly what I try to do here, I will play things coy until a clearly demarcated spoilers section at the end. Okay? Okay.

So, during a boozy private menu tasting attended by Charlie, Emma, Mike, and Mike’s wife, Rachel (Alana Haim), Rachel introduces the gang to the world’s worst party game: “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

Reluctantly at first, but with the help of booze (orange wine, gross), they all eventually share their increasingly horrible stories. Rachel’s in particular, which involves locking a mentally challenged boy in a closet, is a masterpiece of constantly ratcheting comedy and unease. Every additional detail of Rachel’s story, delivered extemporaneously for maximum effect, is somehow worse than the last, like anti-comedy where the premise is funnier than the punchline and the things left unsaid are funnier than the ones stated. Only in this case the punchlines are pretty funny too. The Drama’s whole cast is eminently competent, but Alana Haim in particular truly shines — she had me howling with almost every line and reaction shot. She truly is a singular screen presence.

Okay, so imagine the worst thing you’ve ever done, and imagine that Alana Haim’s version of that is locking a mentally challenged boy in a closet (only with a bunch more details that make that even worse). Now, imagine that Emma’s secret is somehow even worse than that, and that now Charlie has to reconcile his image of his beautiful, clever, intelligent, and sexy fiancee with this heretofore meticulously buried knowledge (in a nice little touch, Emma’s secret also explains her deaf ear). That is, in essence, The Drama.

It seems as though everyone is overreacting to Emma’s reveal a bit at first, but in classic farce fashion, The Drama keeps building on itself, exploring this revelation from every different angle — past, present, future — until it eventually sells us on its import. Yes, I guess I could see how that might poison a relationship, you eventually come to think, though The Drama’s flashbacks to Emma’s teen years are so screamingly funny that the plot point might not even require 100% buy-in in order to be effective.