A24's 'The Drama' - Review Thread

*A happily engaged couple get put to the test when an unexpected revelation sends their wedding week off the rails.* Director: Kristoffer Borgli ('Dream Scenario') Cast: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim, Zoe Winters **Rotten Tomatoes:** [86%](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_drama) **Metacritic:** [65 / 100](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-drama/) Some Reviews (updating): [The Times - Kevin Maher](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-drama-review-robert-pattinson-and-zendaya-excel-in-cringe-out-loud-satire-qpl7rblx5?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqcoffhAlnl3821dTMPzkPVqu0Pmunrx8ECdd6fDRigEpTNet-2E_bwi_np9Drw%3D&gaa_ts=69cba574&gaa_sig=uvM_SjT_K3EeEKm1WqvuA7XeK-cF7UZX9WmIzTWE7nDlt1Hpag4d6) \- 10 / 10 >A nuptial apocalypse has rarely been explored with such dark intelligence and mordant wit as in this often piercing and cringe-out-loud dramedy starring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. [IGN - Siddhant Adlakha](https://www.ign.com/articles/the-drama-review-robert-pattinson-zendaya) \- 9 / 10 >The Drama is a practically absurd but emotionally true-to-life tale about the fears of being known, and being truly seen. Kristoffer Borgli imbues his bleakly comic stress-test of modern romance with a destabilizing cinematic energy, as a deep, dark secret threatens his characters’ domestic bliss by exposing the limits of their empathy. Led by immaculate performances, it’s one of the most delightfully nerve-wracking rabbit holes you’re likely to tumble down this year. [FandomWire - Brandon Lewis](https://fandomwire.com/the-drama-review-zendaya-robert-pattinson/) \- 9 / 10 >Twist or no twist, *The Drama* successfully achieves its aim: testing the fortitude of a seemingly bulletproof relationship, pushing it and its audience to their extremes. [Fresh Fiction - Courtney Howard](https://freshfiction.tv/the-drama-review-say-i-do-to-robert-pattinson-and-zendayas-prenuptial-predicament/) \- 'A' >Zendaya delivers a grounded, delicately nuanced performance, efficiently sanding down her character’s sharper edges and instilling a good sense of empathy and vulnerability within. Pattinson, who’s one of the most versatile actors of our era, delivers terrific work as a guy caught between a rock and a hard place. He pulls inspiration from leading men in classic Hollywood farces (e.g. Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart) as if he’s performing in a Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder or George Cukor film. He’s perfectly squirrely, neurotic and awkward while at the same time exercising complete control. It’s a joy to see his crash-outs. It’s clear Borgli wants audiences to sit and relish in the un-comfortability of these tumultuous situations. He also wants us to ruminate on what our spouses or loved ones might be hiding, what our own dealbreakers are, or if we even have them at all. Art shouldn’t come with warning labels, but it’s important to note that Borgli’s film deals with traditionally difficult subject matter, housing it in an unconventional milieu. It’ll assuredly stoke heated discourse post-screenings. Yet our guide handles the material with aimed precision, making it less about one person’s shocking reveal and more about a couple’s communicative problems. [The Guardian - Peter Bradshaw](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/mar/31/the-drama-review-zendaya-robert-pattinson-wedding-film) \- 4 / 5 >The Drama has the spiky, ingenious, tasteless style of his previous film Dream Scenario, and both are superior to his unsubtle narcissism comedy Sick of Myself. It offers us a provocation, a *jeu d’ésprit* of outrage, a psychological meltdown that is more astutely articulated than in many another more solemnly intended film. And it gives us what it promises in the title. [The Independent - Clarisse Loughrey](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-drama-review-zendaya-robert-pattinson-b2948988.html) \- 4 / 5 >No other film this year will make you feel as uncomfortable as *The Drama*. Don’t miss out on it. It’s provocative and compulsively watchable – a romcom that obliterates the very meaning of the word by thrusting love underneath the psychoanalyst’s microscope and tearing laughter by force from its audience’s throats. [Empire - Emma Stefansky](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/the-drama/) \- 4 / 5 >As dark as it gets, it is often hilarious in that cruel, keen way that Borgli has proved to be a specialist. It bends towards the same arch cringe comedy that he explored in his fantastic second feature *Sick Of Myself*, an equally dark dramedy about a woman so jealous of her partner’s successes she obsessively and loudly fakes a severe illness. The characters in *The Drama* are similarly bound by their basest compulsions, tripping over themselves trying to reconcile what they want with what they think everyone around them expects. What better way to describe a wedding? [Slash Film - Bill Bria](https://www.slashfilm.com/2135266/the-drama-movie-review-zendaya-robert-pattinson/) \- 8 / 10 >Sure, "The Drama" sends up the pretentiousness of upper middle class sociability as well as the performativeness of expensive weddings, but Borgli is careful to not pass moral judgement one way or another. The point of this seems to be Borgli making a plea for empathy. Having to reckon with the transgressions of our loved ones is a phenomenon we all deal with at some point, as we equivocate things we learn about our friends and family as well as ourselves. The ultimate point of discomfit in the film may end up being one entirely unintended by the filmmaker, as an essay Borgli wrote years ago about his relationship with a teenager has resurfaced on the eve of the movie's release. Did Borgli make "The Drama" as a confession, or a search for understanding of himself and his own checkered past? The answer, as is usually the case with uneasy questions, is up to you. [Collider - Ross Bonaime](https://collider.com/the-drama-review-zendaya-robert-pattinson-a24/) \- 8 / 10 >*The Drama* is a rare film that explores some of the most complex feelings many will have in their relationships, from the things we learn about our significant others that stick with us (whether we want them to or not) or the uncertainty that comes from giving your life to someone else. Borgli handles all of this in a gripping, intricate story that manages to be both romantic and nightmarish in almost equal fashion. Pattinson and Zendaya give two of the best performances of the year so far, and *The Drama* is a film that will stick in your mind long after you’ve left the theater. *The Drama* is the feel-bad romantic drama of the year, but its handling of such dark, difficult issues makes it an honest and quite remarkable approach to relationships. [USA Today - Brian Truitt](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2026/03/31/the-drama-movie-review-robert-pattinson-zendaya/89339703007/) \- 3 / 4 >Armed with complex characters and a brazen resolve, “The Drama” doesn’t dole out easy answers – Borgli seems to respect the audience too much for that. Instead, amid wedding chaos and a comedy of errors, his movie makes the point that we’re all capable of thinking or doing terrible things but also worthy of grace when needed. It is tailor-made to strike up important discussions afterward, yet given the issue at its core, a good amount of backlash will likely come from those who can’t and won’t intellectually engage with the movie. [DEADLINE - Pete Hammond](https://deadline.com/2026/03/the-drama-review-zendaya-robert-pattinson-wedding-problems-1236769484/) >Exceptionally well-written with equal parts spice, vinegar, wicked wit, and wonder how Charlie and Emma can possibly survive this unexpected turn in their lives after one simple question and one complicated answer threatens to blow everything up. Whatever the inspirations, Borgli has set the table for a rather daring *nightmare scenario* that may find young fans of Zendaya and Pattinson wondering what they have gotten into here. As for the stars they could not be better, especially Pattinson who shows levels of vulnerability I have not noticed before. His journey into the dark side with his financee is pitch perfect as a guy who slowly learns he has been hit with a left hook. Zendaya, whose choices from *Euphoria* to *Malcolm & Marie* to *Challengers,* have been impressively raw and risky finds a character in Emma that incorporates all of that acting swagger, and then some. Both Athie, who plays the best friend role with a charming innocence and reserve, and a fiery Haim who holds nothing back and proves *Licorice Pizza* was no fluke, are superb in support. [IndieWire- David Ehrlich](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-drama-movie-review-robert-pattinson-zendaya-1235186011/) \- 'B' >We’re mostly left to intuit as much on our own time, as “The Drama” is, by design, too unsettled for clarity, let alone social instruction. The film shares in the discomfort of Charlie’s dilemma, unfolding with pained awkwardness and grasping for more conventional plotlines in a desperate bid for stability (Hailey Gates plays “the other woman” in a storyline handled with all the cringe you’d expect), even though it’s obvious that Borgli prefers nausea over depth.  But the nausea runs deep enough, and the potential glibness of its approach is answered by a question that “The Drama” wretches closer to with every painful moment: How do you politely address something that polite society refuses to address at all? Hell is always other people in Borgli’s films, and this one — if thinner and more rhetorical than his others — stands out for how sharply it details the freefall down from heaven. “I used to be ugly,” Emma offers to Charlie by way of explanation. Now it’s everyone else’s turn [The Wrap - William Bibbiani](https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/reviews/the-drama-review-zendaya-robert-pattinson/) >It’s fascinating, and it’s complex, and by god the performances are amazing, but it’s difficult to latch unto, and it’s too unsettling — intentionally, and possibly otherwise — to fully enjoy. That’s the risk it takes. You can’t throw yourself off a building without risking injury, and while “The Drama” survives the fall, and even walks away afterwards, something inside it definitely feels sprained. [Variety - Owen Gleiberman](https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/the-drama-review-robert-pattinson-zendaya-1236701583/) >In “The Drama,” a squirm comedy that’s supposed to hinge on the ultimate case of marital jitters, Robert Pattinson gives one of the twitchiest performances in the history of twitchy performances. Oh sure, Dennis Hopper was twitchier in “Apocalypse Now” — and so was Nicolas Cage spasming and blowing fuses in “Vampire’s Kiss.” But here’s the thing: Pattinson is supposed to be playing a *normal person*. Charlie isn’t the only one twitching; the whole movie is. The writer-director, Kristoffer Borgli shoots that meet-cute as if he were doing a remake of Godard’s “Breathless.” It’s all staged with hyper-realistic lighting and enough jump-cuts to suggest that something momentous is going on. Borgli is a gifted filmmaker, but in “The Drama” he never stops jumping around — back in time, and also within scenes, all to hook us into a note of toxic anxiety. He succeeds, but the mix of tones is unnerving and, at times, a bit baffling. Are we supposed to be cracking up, or sucking in our breath as the hero’s sanity cracks?to be playing a *normal person*. Charlie isn’t the only one twitching; the whole movie is. The writer-director, Kristoffer Borgli shoots that meet-cute as if he were doing a remake of Godard’s “Breathless.” It’s all staged with hyper-realistic lighting and enough jump-cuts to suggest that something momentous is going on. Borgli is a gifted filmmaker, but in “The Drama” he never stops jumping around — back in time, and also within scenes, all to hook us into a note of toxic anxiety. He succeeds, but the mix of tones is unnerving and, at times, a bit baffling. Are we supposed to be cracking up, or sucking in our breath as the hero’s sanity cracks? [Siaeva - Sian Evans](https://siaeva.com/film/the-drama/) \- 3.5 / 5 >With Norwegian Kristoffer Borgli at the helm both writing and directing, The Drama refreshingly avoids typical Hollywood preachyness and political stereotypes. Similar to his last effort, Dream Scenario, this has genuinely funny moments and feels like a more well-rounded film whilst still retaining the same indie quality. Ari Aster (Midsommar, Hereditary, Beau is Afraid) is actually one of the producers. Although The Drama has a lot going for it, it didn’t leave me feeling absolutely wowed, so I have marked it accordingly. But it easily outshines most other chickflicks I’ve seen in recent years – Babygirl leaps to mind! [CBR - Caralynn Matassa](https://www.cbr.com/the-drama-review/) \- 7 / 10 >If *The Drama* occasionally feels like it is testing the limits of its premise, that too seems by design. Borgli has made a movie about how love can curdle into revulsion, how intimacy can be shattered by a single disclosure, and how absurd human beings become when they are forced to reconcile the person they imagined with the person standing in front of them. It is prickly, ugly, hilarious, and destined to divide audiences. But even when it threatens to spin out, it remains gripping thanks to Borgli’s formal boldness, Pemberton’s jittery score, and, above all, the fearless work of Pattinson and Zendaya. *The Drama* may not be a romance in any traditional sense, but as a portrait of a relationship disintegrating in spectacularly bizarre fashion, it is hard to look away. [Next Best Picture - Lauren LaMagna](https://nextbestpicture.com/the-drama-review/) \- 6 / 10 >Director Kristoffer Borgli is not American, and his lack of knowledge on the subject is felt throughout the piece. So much so that the film would have been much stronger if Borgli had used a different secret to funnel the themes it plays with. When one decides to use a sensitive subject in their art, they should do so respectfully and accountably, which just doesn’t feel like the case here, as Borgli isn’t as interested in dissecting the grander social implications of such thorny subject matter as much as he is with the relationship at the heart of the story. Its purpose here is for shock value, which can be immensely triggering for people directly and indirectly affected by the topic, to say the least. But, despite the controversial subject matter, the film would not be nearly as strong without Zendaya and Pattinson delivering these complex performances. [The Hollywood Reporter - Richard Lawson](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-drama-review-zendaya-robert-pattinson-kristoffer-borgli-1236552417/) >As is, *The Drama* is a handsomely made, sharply performed letdown. It is yet another example of a far too common occurrence: a kicky logline premise having no real structure behind it. Emma and Charlie struggle toward the altar, mistakes are made, and then Borgli throws up his hands as if to say, “Ain’t love a b****.” Indeed it is. But we’ve kinda known that for a while now, haven’t we? [Tatler - Jessica Zapata](https://www.tatlerasia.com/lifestyle/entertainment/movie-review-the-drama) >The film does a good job of pulling you into its headspace. Watching it, you end up sitting with the same discomfort as the characters. There is no dramatic tipping point or overly theatrical breakdown. Instead, it is a steady build, where each small crack adds up until the relationship feels like it is on the verge of falling apart. It feels familiar in a way that is not always easy to watch. [AwardsWatch - Sophia Ciminello](https://awardswatch.com/the-drama-review-zendaya-gets-a-case-of-the-mondays-in-kristoffer-borglis-twisted-marriage-story-c/) \- 'C+' >Zendaya has the difficult task of creating a woman who has the charm and charisma to make Charlie fall in love with her, while also conjuring someone who is completely unknowable with a complicated past.