A24 sold The Drama as a very different film in its marketing materials than the one that is opening in theaters, and it demands a content warning upon release.

This review contains spoilers. I was going to wait until after opening but seeing as how other outlets are discussing the tone-deaf plot point, I opted to go ahead and publish my review today.

The gist of The Drama is that a happily engaged couple in Boston—literary editor Emma Harwood (Zendaya) and museum curator Charlie Thompson (Robert Pattinson)—is put to the test when an unexpected turn sends their wedding week off the rails. That unexpected turn? During a pre-wedding get-together, while drunkenly playing What’s the Worst Thing You’ve Ever Done?, Emma reveals that she planned a school shooting when she was 15 years old. The only reason she didn’t ultimately go through with it was another shooting that killed a classmate. In the aftermath, she became involved in school activities, particularly a group that campaigned for gun control.

There is a pre-What’s the Worst Thing You’ve Ever Done? section with Charlie’s best friend Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and his wife Rachel (Alana Haim), followed by everything that comes after. Rachel couldn’t forgive Emma for her past—and neither can I. This is where relationships and friendships are tested in The Drama. This is also where the film stops being a romantic comedy in any sense of the word. Oh, sure, there might be some moments where you laugh, but you’ll probably hate yourself for doing so.

The studio owes an apology to those of us who walked into The Drama not knowing about Emma’s past. When I was in middle school, I learned that there was a shooting at the high school my cousins attended. Had they gone in one direction instead of the other, they likely would have been killed or injured. School shootings happen frequently enough in America that the studio should have known better than to keep this a spoiler. It’s the primary reason why I’m publishing my review after the release—I am not holding back. I owe a responsibility to my readers to alert them to this particular plotline.

I’m not about to let A24 off the hook here for not including a crucial piece of information in its marketing of The Drama, let alone the fact that they did not alert press about it prior to release. Knowing what was going to happen would have been appreciated so I didn’t feel like I was sucker-punched barely over a half hour into the film. PTSD is a very real thing. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn how many Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, or Alana Haim fans bought tickets, only to discover what the film is really about. I personally should have walked out the moment the film lost me. Because once it did, there was no going back.

If it’s not bad enough that a planned school shooting drives the plot, the film’s attempt to mine that situation for laughs in a cringe-comedy fashion only makes things worse. With the segue to a discussion with their wedding photographer, audiences will be forced into laughing because the rest of the theater is laughing. That doesn’t stop those laughs from being “I hate myself for laughing” laughs—because that’s the reality. Maybe writer-director Kristoffer Borgli should have stuck with satirical films like Dream Scenario, because what he’s trying to do in The Drama is not landing at all. At least with the Nicolas Cage-led film, you knew what you were getting going in.

The production notes describe The Drama as “a sexy, contemporary romantic comedy.” I’m sorry, but nothing about Emma planning a school shooting is sexy. Not in the least. Any laughs I had were cringe at best. Hell, I was rooting for Rachel—serving as Emma’s maid of honor—to outright reveal the truth during her wedding toast. Given that Rachel’s cousin was left paralyzed following a school shooting, she had every right to remove herself from the bridal party. I definitely wouldn’t have blamed her, even as the wedding reception went off the rails for other reasons—and rightfully so.

I love rom-coms. They’re my favorite genre. I’ve seen plenty of them. But nothing about watching The Drama screams romantic comedy. If anything, it screams stress and cringe dramedy. It’s not a rom-com in the traditional sense of the genre. It doesn’t follow the usual tropes beyond a meet-cute at a coffee shop or their courtship as seen through flashbacks. There’s no emotional payoff at the end, as is usually the case in rom-coms. Believe me, I would have felt something if there were. I felt nothing.

Relationships are built on truth and trust. I don’t know what Kristoffer Borgli was going for in The Drama, but when I meet my future husband, I’m going to want him to be honest with me—just as anyone would want from a partner. Communication, trust, and honesty are the bedrock of any relationship, and the fact that this revelation happens days before the wedding is something that should have been addressed early in their relationship.

The Drama is not the film it was marketed to be, and that disconnect is both misleading and irresponsible. What begins as a romantic comedy quickly becomes something far more jarring, built on subject matter that demands a content warning that the studio did not include in marketing materials or prior to the screening. Instead of emotional payoff, it left me wishing I had trusted my gut and walked out well before the 1-hour mark. Once the film reached that point, there was no coming back from it.

DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: Kristoffer Borgli
CAST: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie, Hailey Benton Gates

A24 will release The Drama in theaters on April 3, 2026. Grade: 0.5/5

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