Why is it that a wedding is always the most stressful day of someone’s life when it’s supposedly also their best day? There are a myriad of reasons one could give, but suffice it to say that its rarely just the wedding day itself. There’s the catering, photographer, vows, venue, and numerous other things, any of which could be a source of immense stress for the bride or groom. The idea of making a dark comedy about the stress surrounding a wedding has been explored in plenty of films already, but writer/director Kristoffer Borgli (“Sick of Myself,” “Dream Scenario”) has decided to add even more layers of anxiety to the tale of these two soon-to-be newlyweds.
Emma, played by Zendaya (“Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “euphoria”), and Charlie, played by Robert Pattinson (“The Batman,” “Twilight”), are young, in love, and engaged. As their wedding quickly approaches, they find themselves going through the typical motions of pre-wedding jitters: deciding on the right kind of food to serve, picking flowers, the cake, the DJ, and many others. However, one night before the wedding, while drinking with fellow couple, and Best Man and Maid of Honor, Mike and Rachel, played by Mamoudou Athie (“Elemental,” “Jurassic World Dominion”) and Alana Haim (“Licorice Pizza,” “The Mastermind (2025)”), respectively, the four decide to play a game where they tell each other the “worst thing they’ve ever done.” All is well initially, until Emma tells her secret, which causes Mike and Rachel to reevaluate their friendship with her and Charlie to question if he truly knows his bride to be.
Much has been made over how the marketing for “The Drama” has deliberately avoided revealing Emma’s secret, while also drawing heavy attention to the fact that she has one. It’s a bold move in the current age of social media speculation and complaints of movie trailers “showing the whole film” prior to release. It’s also smart given that her secret is… quite a doozy. Like his most recent film “Dream Scenario,” Borgli is pointing a direct finger at our cultural sense of empathy using this style of deeply dark satirical humor. Almost immediately, sides are being taken and his script goes to great lengths to hear everyone out. It never feels heavy handed or one-sided because it keeps coming back to the comedy at the center, never becoming a morality play.
Zendaya’s performance rides that tightrope as well, playing up her natural charisma and comedic talents as well as utilizing both as a weaponized kind of empathy for the audience. Despite the double billing though, this is Pattinson’s film to run away with. He plays beleaguered characters in such note perfect ways, and his level of self-imposed anxiety and difficulties border on farcical in the best way. You’d almost believe his full name was Charlie Brown. Athie and Haim are good in their own supporting ways, with Athie’s calming voice and warmth juxtaposing against Haim’s truly snide and hateful behavior throughout the second half of the film. She walks away being one of the most hateable characters in recent memory. Special shoutout goes to Jordyn Curet (“Home Economics”) as a young Emma, seen in multiple flashbacks, who manages to pull the same kind of dark humor and empathy from a role seen for probably about five minutes total.
There’s a very deft hand on display with the film’s editing, especially in the first half, and Borgli and editor Joshua Raymond Lee (“Ripley (2024),” “Monsterland”) really take advantage of the nature of the craft to layer on the character’s psyche and anxiety. Flashbacks are used expertly throughout, both to zero in on Emma’s state of mind and to further draw into the dark comedy. It creates a spider web of crisscrossing emotions that further add to the film’s central ideas of challenging empathy. What decisions are excusable, which are not, and still finding ways to elicit uncomfortable laughter throughout it all. Daniel Pemberton’s (“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7”) score backs up this feel by crafting a wonderful and lightly tense musical undercurrent with little more than string instruments.
If you’re in the know and saw the name Ari Aster listed as a producer in the opening credits, that should give some clue as to what kind of film “The Drama” is. It is certainly dramatic, and its two leads manage to walk a thin line between some genuinely distressful relationship discussions and the inherent dark comedy of it all. There’s something genuinely insightful going on here about manufactured empathy and what someone’s true intentions really mean, but Borgli’s latest film manages to pull of a hat trick: it turns those themes into an engrossing a wickedly funny tale of anxiety, without sacrificing either. It’s the film equivalent of a whispered piece of gossip, told dripping with delicious drama. 4.5/5
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