‘The Drama’ Review: Zendaya and Robert Pattinson Lead a Twisted Rom-Com That Turns “I Do” Into Existential Chaos
Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama was by far my most anticipated movie of the year for multiple reasons. It stars three-fourths of my personal “modern Mount Rushmore of acting” faves with Robert Pattinson,Zendaya, and Alana Haim. It’s also a Kris Borgli film. The Norwegian filmmaker has crafted some strange, quirky, dark comedic indie gems of the 2020s with Sick of Myself and his more American feature, Dream Scenario. Knowing his demented nature, I thought myself mentally armed for whatever this dark rom-com had to offer. I was not surprised to discover that The Drama is a rollercoaster of a postmodern ‘70s-style AMERICAN rom-com that does everything but skimp out on its title.
Image copyright (©) Courtesy of A24
MPA Rating: R (for language, sexual content, and some disturbing thematic material.)
Runtime: 1 Hour and 45 Minutes
Language: English
Production Companies: Square Peg
Distributor: A24
Director: Kristoffer Borgli
Screenwriters: Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
Cast: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie, Hailey Benton Gates
U.S Release Date: April 3, 2026
In Boston, 30-year-old fiancées Charlie (Robert Pattinson), a museum curator, and Emma (Zendaya), a literary editor with a hearing impairment, are a few days out from their big day. They’re doing their final touches on their wedding preparation, from working on their vows separately to getting their first dance routine right. After a long day of wedding prep, they meet Charlie’s mild-mannered best friend Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and his sniffy wife Rachel (Alana Haim) at their wedding venue for a drink tasting. One conversation involved seeing their wedding DJ in a startling predicament in public, prompting everyone to confess the worst thing they’ve ever done. Emma reveals a dark, unsettling truth from her adolescence that throws everyone for a loop, especially Charlie.
Charlie hyperfixates on Emma’s past, probing for more information out of her. Subsequently spiraling over if the person he’s about to spend forever with is the person he always knew her to be, and not the dark person she once was.
Borgli pushes his surreal storytelling to ambitious new heights with The Drama.
(L-R) Robert Pattinson, Zendaya Credit: Courtesy of A24
For better or worse, The Drama is Borgli’s most mature and ambitious feature to date, while still feeling entirely on-brand for him. It’s a high-top balancing act marrying a twisted, jaw-dropping setup with a grounded atmosphere reminiscent of those dialogue-heavy 1970s romantic comedies.
The Drama furthers Borgli’s cerebral storytelling approach present in Dream Scenario, but ambitiously taken to the next level. Using that movie’s mechanics of cutting into a memory, working alongside co-editor Joshua Raymond Lee, Borgli recalibrates the technique, shifting it from feeling like a Family Guy cutaway to something closer to Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage. You’re placed directly inside Charlie and Emma’s hippocampus, shifting between their perspectives. Whether they’re revisiting romantic memories, dark hypotheticals, or their personal pasts, the film immerses you as a voyeuristic presence that deepens both characters and psychology. Each memory, plucked from their minds, feels textured into the fabric of their relationship, and you truly feel the weight of their internal insecurities and fears – especially given the revelation that forms the wedge between them. Borgli and Lee skillfully intercut different current events and play with time, omitting some chronological details, particularly with the slow burn to volcanic revelations that erupt larger than Emma's reveal.
This approach lends real weight to the titular drama. It delivers laugh-out-loud dark visual gags, making the pacing feel perfectly calibrated, like a classic rom-com for a contemporary crowd (of absolute sickos). Towards its latter half, the intercutting teeters to "gimmick" territory despite its admirable consistency.
The Drama crafts a sharp, uncomfortable dive into empathy, guilt, and online culture.
(L-R) Alana Haim Credit: Courtesy of A24
Borgli’s script again sees him unapologetically engaging in uncomfortable conversations about American culture and the empathy that can be derived from the sins of others. It’s contained within its heightened absurdist reality, full of his usual set of big personalities. Emma’s reveal is no laughing matter, but the film finds humor in the personalities reacting to it, particularly hypocritical people like Rachel – Alana Haim is the MVP standout who adds to the anxiety-inducing atmosphere with her cold presence and self-righteous, bitchy line reads — a character that, by far, did something worse than Emma.
Emma’s background continues a thread from Borgli’s previous work: how the dark, seedy side of chronically online culture can affect a young, impressionable individual. It’s sharp and ambitious, shifting focus to Emma’s loneliness and neglected youth, which doesn’t resurface until adulthood, while subtly emphasizing child neglect within America’s digital world.
This movie is going to stir discourse and test your media literacy – perhaps in all the worst ways – but the structural approach and the well-illustrated portrayal of Emma’s background, bolstered by a great performance from Jordyn Curet as young Emma, make the psychological understanding potent. It sparks a much-needed conversation about the consequences of neglected kids being left to their own devices at the dawn of the digital age, and how a lack of proper nurturing can later affect others. Highlighting this as the catalyst for a grounded, domestic comedy surely makes The Drama stand out.
Zendaya and Pattinson’s electric chemistry can’t fully offset The Drama’s uneven character focus.
(L-R) Robert Pattinson, Zendaya Credit: Courtesy of A24
Pattinson and Zendaya’s chemistry is the spark that makes The Drama erupt in flames, as they make for a stellar romantic duo, proving why they’re the best bankable stars working today. Zendaya is sublime, carrying much of Emma's weight with compassion and understanding channeled through her mannerisms. She brings assured weight to the disturbing nature of their conversation, conveying regret for her past and the internal burden she carries, while still making Emma empathetic in the present. Robert Pattinson continues to prove himself as a chameleon personified, slithering perfectly into Charlie’s patheticness – so slimy, loser-like, funny to watch, and, as is typical with Borgli’s writing, frustrating enough to feel real. Still, R. Patz is one of the best character actors alive and we really are not giving him enough flowers.
Much of The Drama has Charlie positioned as the central protagonist, undergoing a gradual ego-death – a common Borgli narrative, as he always knows how to write the most fragile, pathetic, spineless white man alive. The spiral feels visceral given the looming wedding date. This comes at the cost of Emma, who’s a little too underdeveloped. Charlie’s actions drive the bulk of the chaos more than hers. Emma causes her fair share of mayhem too. But Charlie causes some real fuck-shit, courtesy of the familiar fragile male ego Borgli has explored before, to the point where you lose all support for him. However, it wraps itself in a happy bow that feels quite unearned, and even the warranted emotional swing in its ending lands weak. Either way, I’m getting slightly burned by Borgli going for “crippling ego death” as his main mode of operation, especially when it’s proven he’s capable of more with the talented stars he assembles.
FINAL STATEMENT
Bolstered by Zendaya and Robert Pattinson’s star-powered chemistry, Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama is a sharp, unapologetic, deeply funny, and tragic fable about the importance of accepting one's entire past before saying "I do."
