Warning: There are MAJOR spoilers in this article about The Drama, which hit theaters last weekend as part of the 2026 movie schedule. If you haven’t seen it yet, proceed with caution, or better yet, check out the movie! It’s disturbing and wonderful.
The Drama, starring Zendaya and Robert Pattison as an engaged couple dealing with a sudden, very disturbing revelation from Zendaya’s character Emma about her past, courted quite a bit of controversy when it first screened, after bewildering people with the trailer. The revelation that Emma had planned and almost committed a school shooting when she was a teenager really upset people, both in the movie and in the audience. I understand why, but I also don’t think the movie works without the shocking twist.
The Movie Forces Us To Confront Some Unpleasant Realities
As I wrote in my review of The Drama, director Kristoffer Borgli does an excellent job making the audience squirm for most of the film. It’s not something that I’ve experienced in what is ostensibly a rom-com. Using horror movie techniques and the darkest of comedy, we as moviegoers are never comfortable in our seats. This all hinges on the admission that Emma makes when her friends ask her about the worst thing she’s ever done.
The revelation couldn’t be something as simple as cheating on an ex. It couldn’t even be something worse, like locking someone in a closet for hours, as Rachel (Alana Haim) admitted to, or cyberbullying, as Charlie (Pattison) reveals was his worst thing. No, it really had to be something truly shocking and truly horrifying. Without Emma’s admittance, the movie doesn’t pack the same kind of punch. In fact, it doesn’t pack a punch.
The Very Bad Thing Allows For Two Things To Happen
In the movie, Emma’s past deed serves the story incredibly well. It’s something that simply cannot be swept under the rug by Charlie or her friends. Anyone in Charlie’s position would go through what he goes through. It connects with the audience because we all deal with something in our partner’s past that makes us all uncomfortable, but we have to forge ahead if we love them. Yes, this is an extreme example of that, but it’s not like the emotions are unrelatable; they are just incredibly heightened.
The revelation also allows the filmmaker to explore a societal problem on a personal level. Let’s face it, school shootings in the United States are one of the most upsetting and frustrating aspects of life here. Pretending they don’t exist, or failing to confront them, will never solve the problem. It’s not like the issue is handled flippantly in the movie. It’s the darkest and most serious aspect of the film. The movie may be funny at times, but Emma’s past is never funny.
Borgli pulls off an incredible trick in the movie by presenting a shocking twist, but allowing us as the audience to digest it, and in turn, think about it for days after seeing it. I don’t know if The Drama will be an award contender come next winter because of the controversy, but it could be my favorite movie of the year. Though I reserve the right to change my mind with the second 2026 movie starring Pattison and Zendaya, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, hits theaters later this summer.
