The Drama

The Drama info:

Director: Kristoffer Borgli

Writer: Kristoffer Borgli

Starring: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim, and Mamoudou Athie

Intro

Hello and welcome to another week here at 1guysmindlessmoviereviews.com. We’ve had some pretty nice weather lately, it’s the start of softball season, and our lives are ramping up to be very busy because of it. But enough about that, I hope everyone is having a great start to Spring, and you’re ready for another movie review.

This week I went to see “The Drama” and boy, do I have some thoughts about this. Before I start, let me get the spoiler warning out of the way. If you have yet to see this movie yet, then you may want to go check out some of my other reviews, then come back here when you are done.

The Drama recap

“The Drama” was directed by Kristoffer Borgi and is sort of a romantic dark comedy. It starts at the moment when Charlie (Pattinson) first sees Emma (Zendaya) at a coffee shop. He’s awkward and stumbles over his words, but luckily for him, she is deaf in one ear, so she misses most of it. They “re-introduce” themselves, and that’s all it took. Soon after, they are madly in love, and we jump right into the point of the story where they are planning their wedding.

The story jumps around quite a bit as we get bits and pieces of their relationship and how they experienced different firsts (like first kiss and first date). But it mostly surrounds the stories that they are trying to fit into their wedding vows. The story shifts when they have dinner with their friends Rachel (Haim) and Mike (Athie). They all go around and say what the worst thing they have ever done. Emma’s is so bad, it changes the whole trajectory of the wedding (and “The Drama”).

Her backstory is that when she was 14 years old, she was planning to take part in a mass shooting at her school. What made it even worse was that the only reason she didn’t go through with it was that a different shooting had taken place earlier that day. After that incident, she actually became a big proponent of anti-gun laws. It really changed the course of her life and ended up making her a better person.

As the wedding draws near, things slowly start to fall apart as Charlie can’t wrap his head around what she had said. He also can’t stop thinking about it. She is fully open with him and tells him everything he wants to know, but he keeps asking more and more questions. He even starts to freak out about little things, like a mug in the cabinet with a gun on it. He starts having dreams about her shooting rooms full of people, and it starts to affect the way he acts around her.

As this is going on, they are still going through all the motions with the wedding plans. Tensions rise even higher after he kissed a woman at his workplace. She and her boyfriend show up to the wedding and mark the final period on the reception after all the turmoil. Rachel gives a very uncomfortable speech, Charlie gives one that is even worse, then he gets headbutted to end the event. It ends with both Charlie and Emma sitting in a diner with the expectation that they are starting over.

My thoughts on The Drama

Well, not sure exactly where to start on this. “The Drama” was probably a good idea on paper. But the execution fell flat in so many ways. Both Pattinson and Zendaya did a good job in these roles, but that wasn’t the issue here. They just didn’t have much to work with here. This story was all over the place, jumping back and forth too quickly for anything to properly settle in. I like the non-linear storytelling art, but only if it’s done right.

This was also one of the most uncomfortable films I’ve seen in a long time… if not ever. As bad as the two main characters were, somehow Rachel was the worst. She definitely had the right to be upset at what Emma did, but  “The Drama” made her out to be the worst one of the whole bunch. You couldn’t help but root against her. Mike was much better, but he ended up being more of a setup man than anything else.

The thing that surprises me the most is how many people online are giving this movie high reviews. I do typically have the opposite opinion of the masses when it comes to divisive films like this, so I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised. But this is the first time in awhile that my dislike of a movie is vastly lower than that of the average reviewer, but here we are. I’ve said it before, but I am mindless, so maybe I’m just missing something obvious that I was supposed to see in a different light.

Overall, it had its moments, but not enough to save it from itself. It was sloppy at times, and there were times when I laughed, but I don’t think it was supposed to be funny. “The Drama” definitely had drama, but it was also tough to watch at times. I didn’t know a lot about this before I went. I was going to see something else, but the timing didn’t work out, so I settled for this. With all that being said, I can only give this a 4 out of 10.

Watch or wait?

Not much to say here. I would not waste my time or money seeing this in theaters. Maybe once it becomes available on streaming, you can waste an evening on it, but otherwise, I would stay away.

Ok, that’s it for me this week. That means it’s your turn now. Have you seen “The Drama” yet? If so, what are your thoughts? Are you one of the ones who really enjoyed this? If so, what part of it did you like? Maybe you’re one of the few who are like me and didn’t enjoy it much at all. Either way, I appreciate your comments, and I will be back next week with another mindless movie review of some sort.