The Drama is a movie that will definitely stir up some conversations. Headed by Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as Emma & Charlie, Kristopher Borgli brings them here in a very thought-provoking situation.
I think the performances are fantastic by the 2 leads, which I don’t think should be a surprise. To me, they are 2 legit movie stars. I know everyone says those are few and far between nowadays, but when you have a good movie, and the only marketing is just your 2 leads on posters… yeah you only do that for movie stars. As great as both Zendaya and Pattinson are, I think Zendaya does a better job at squeezing more of a performance from the screenplay. Pattinson does a lot for Charlie, but he is asked to do so since the script demands it. My biggest issue with the movie is that Emma feels so underdeveloped as a character but because Zendaya does so well at her performance that it doesn’t appear that way on the surface. I understand the irony that they allegedly love the empathy of their partner, but these people are so close together that they don’t even try to go more in depth to her reasoning.
In a cast of unlikable characters, Alana Haim as Rachel is one of the most unlikeable characters I’ve seen in a while, that isn’t a knock on her, that’s great writing and acting. In that same breath, since Emma is so underdeveloped, you don’t give the audience a more nuanced reason to not side with Rachel. I was fortunate enough to not grow up feeling as a bullied outcast, but I was close with people who were and so my understanding of where Emma is coming from stems from that. The thing with this screenplay is that you don’t fully see where Emma is coming from until her dad gives us that explanation as soon as he’s introduced. Emma doesn’t have the thought to say that she flipped her objectively disgusting in-action into something positive. She literally flipped her loneliness, found a calling and did the exact opposite of what she’s being crucified for, and she NEVER did anything! The problem isn’t with Rachel, her character is supposed to have blind anger, the problem is that no one has all the information and it’s given to us late.
I feel like Borgli is just trying to express black comedy through emotional immaturity, but the movie toes the line too much for me of being a romantic drama and a romantic black comedy and it didn’t quite work for me. What did work for me is the great acting and great editing. The time skipping and abject reality was a great. I feel like the movie was marketed as a something that would be sex heavy, and I don’t know if it’s because I’m older now but I just don’t get why we need these explicit and long sex scenes, but here they’re brief and they matter to the narrative. You see the chemistry that they have when it comes to their intimacy and to see it crumble was hilarious and entertaining.
The ending is what made me end up liking the movie. I thought it was beautifully done and honestly a fun way for a messed-up day to climax. I think that the movie is good. The creative choices on paper don’t all work for me, but I think that amazing performances by these 2 movie stars make this worth the price of admission.
🌟🌟🌟1/2
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