OP-ROB RATING: LEGEND

Kristoffer Borgli’s “The Drama” begins innocently with a well-crafted “meet cute” between the two main characters, Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson). Both reside within the Boston yuppie millennial milieu. Emma is a literary editor, and Charlie is an art curator. The two fall in love, and we are sped through a montage of affectionate scenes, up to one week before their wedding. The catalyst for their relationship background is a wedding speech being prepared by Charlie, with the oversight of his best friend Mike (Mamoudou Athie).

Emma and Charlie’s wedding is to be a proper one: a stylish venue, catering, speeches, music, and dancing. The “drama” begins when Emma and Charlie spot their wedding DJ free-basing heroin from across a dimly lit Boston street. This causes a dilemma, as the wedding is just days away and finding a suitable replacement may prove difficult. More importantly, the DJ situation invokes a conversation later on, as Emma and Charlie explain their predicament to Mike and his wife Rachel (Alana Haim) over small plates and drinks during a final menu tasting at the wedding venue. These are close friends, with Mike and Rachel serving as Best Man and Matron of Honor, respectively.

The back-and-forth about what to do about the DJ leads to Rachel prodding Mike to relay an embarrassing secret about himself. Or, more specifically, something he has done that was bad. “Before we got married, we did this thing where we said the worst thing we’ve ever done… and then we said we’d never speak about it again,” she says. The four are clearly inebriated, and each tacitly agree to take their skeletons out of the closet. Among close friends, there should be zero judgement, right?

Mike’s, Rachel’s, and Charlie’s admissions reveal something seemingly inane, but slyly profound about them. Mike is a coward. Rachel is uncaring. Charlie has a lurking cruelty. The three tell their stories with an understandable degree of flippancy. These are actions from the past that can be retold humorously amongst trusted company. Then it is Emma’s turn. She admits to something incredibly dark. A key aspect of Emma’s revelation is that it falls short of action. She planned to do something vile, but did not follow through. Her audience recoils with disgust, and the movie takes flight.

In some ways, “The Drama” is similar to “The Invite”; another 2026 release I saw quite recently. Both examine marriage, both have characters that belong to a very urban intelligentsia, and both employ some aspect of “shock-factor” to grease the wheels of the plot. “The Invite” inspired thought, but lacked substance. It was a deeply uncomfortable movie, with dubious rewards. “The Drama” is also very uncomfortable in parts. There is no greater stage for awkwardness than a wedding. But there is a purpose. “The Drama” is a razor-sharp meditation on weighty, often difficult to consider topics such as judgement, forgiveness, and the hazy line between thought and deed.

“The Drama” is also one of the finest “marriage movies” I’ve ever seen. It pinpoints so precisely many of the challenges that any and all married couples encounter on one level or another. The issues it addresses are timeless. For all of its philosophical depth, “The Drama” also manages to be incredibly funny. Most of the humor is so dark that you’ll feel a twinge of shame alongside your chuckle. But it works to make an otherwise unapproachable story quite entertaining.

For some viewers, “The Drama” will invoke righteous anger. It deals with a subject so gnarly and emotionally charged in such a way that could be considered exploitative and cruel. This is understandable criticism. However, I believe that “The Drama” has noble intentions. Emma’s “crime” is deliberately chosen to force our hand. A more delicate approach would have yielded ineffectual returns.

Movies can be controversial for any number of reasons. Most of the time these are related to gratuitous sex, or obscene violence, or hyper-perverse language. “The Drama” has none of those things. I suppose you could call it politically controversial, though that doesn’t quite hit the mark either. What did Emma admit to already? Dancing around the admission is necessary because I feel this movie is absolutely worth watching. “The Drama” is an example of fearless filmmaking, aided by spectacular performances by A-list actors that had the guts to get on board.

Highlight of the Game: Endings that are left up for interpretation are rarely satisfying. This one is. The final scene harkens back to a seemingly throwaway bit of dialogue from the beginning of the movie. Clever in and of itself, it also draws our attention to yet another poignant observation on marriage. It’s pitch perfect.

Player of the Game: A toss-up between the two leads. Zendaya and Pattinson are both mega-stars. However, they both manage to pull off very understated characters. It just takes the opening scene for each of them to molt whatever preconceived image we have of them from previous movies.

Costly Turnovers: It is this reviewer’s opinion that “The Drama” is a near-perfect film. One minor complaint is about the drug-abusing DJ. While that character serves to set up the crux of the story, their sub-plot culminates somewhat confusedly. The fate of the DJ poses questions that were answered unsatisfactorily.