The Drama

We finally went to the cinema to watch this one, and I’m ready to talk about it!

The Drama is a pretty short film — just under 1.5 hours — with good humour and great visuals. It was nice to see Robert Pattinson again on screen (after Die, My Love), and he and Zendaya performed really well together.

I loved the fact that the director chose to raise the topic of gun violence in the US — specifically mass shootings and school shootings. But in my opinion, the actual catalyst for all the drama wasn’t even worth it, lmao.

Rachel (Alana Haim) started the whole mess for no real reason, when the worst thing she actually did — locking a mentally disabled kid for more than a day — was genuinely more serious and dangerous than Emma’s (Zendaya) school shooting plan, which never even happened. And Emma had already faced consequences for her bad choice by losing hearing in one ear. This part of the film felt unrealistic, and Rachel’s character was way too annoying.

Charlie (Robert Pattinson) getting so overwhelmed by the fact that his fiancée had planned something like this as a teenager also felt out of proportion. I get that someone might see it as a red flag — but if we’re talking facts: 1) the vast majority of mass shooters are men, 2) people don’t plan mass shootings for no reason, so the first thing that should come to mind is bullying or unstable mental health, 3) she didn’t actually do it, 4) she already faced consequences, and 5) if she doesn’t have severe anger issues now, why would it even be an issue? Not to mention that instead of just overthinking and panicking, he cheated and betrayed her trust. And all of this… for what exactly? I genuinely don’t get it.

The reasoning behind the drama needed to be more real and serious. For example — same shooting scenario, but during training she accidentally kills someone, and it’s so traumatising that she backs out of the school plan. That way the audience would get a genuine surprise, but instead, after hearing her “worst thing”, the only reaction was “…and that’s it?” followed by confusion about why everyone was reacting so dramatically.

Two moments actually got to me: the scene where Charlie confesses his love while testing her hearing, and the café ending — genuinely made me cry.