Director: Kristoffer Borgli
Writer: Kristoffer Borgli
Stars: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim
Synopsis: A happily engaged couple is put to the test when an unexpected turn sends their wedding week off the rails.
Director Kristoffer Borgli is known for helming dark comedies, tackling themes of cancel culture in his previous feature, Dream Scenario, and the unhinged lengths that narcissism goes to in Sick of Myself. The Drama represents his most audacious outing yet, balancing the tonal inflections of squirmy cringe comedy and stress-inducing drama that surround the real-world ramifications of its twist. Borgli is great at delving into the hilarity of these bleak confrontations and giving nuance to the subject matter at hand, but like his previous films, it lacks in a few key elements that keep it from being great, mainly residing in the deeper commentary that is touched upon effectively enough but always comes across as more that was waiting to be explored within difficult conversations. Still, thanks to a remarkably committed cast and Zendaya and Robert Pattinson rolling within the recoils of awkwardness in this story, it makes for a uniquely unhinged dramedy that’s as funny as it is thought-provoking around the conceit of love being or not being enough.
We begin the road to a wedding disaster following a happily engaged couple, Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson). They’re about one week away from their wedding, and the preparations have been in full swing. The film’s editing stands out from the get-go, flashing us back to Emma and Charlie’s meet-cute and date where Charlie first discovers his girlfriend is deaf in one ear, as their first meeting begins awkwardly but has a cute, goofy charm to it. Their clumsily sweet chemistry is showcased in full as they both deliberate on the speeches to give and songs to dance to with the big night ever approaching.
Things start to take a turn, however, when, while walking on the street, Charlie and Emma see their wedding DJ smoking heroin just across from them. This sight leads to a discussion later in the night with their married friends Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie) over a round of drinks, where they all reveal the worst thing they’ve ever done. It starts as a cutesy convo at first, revealing bad secrets through comedic banter until Emma’s incredibly bad secret flips the entire movie on its head, sending the couple and their friends into tough questions about morality and the impending wedding, essentially becoming a collision course.
The Drama’s tonal balance is like walking the world’s highest tightrope while juggling blades of fire. Borgli’s screenplay constantly shifts between the most absurdist comedy and the brutally bleak reality surrounding the psyche of nearly every character here and their response to the subject matter. The dark satire matched with nuanced conversations will test the limits of many audience members, but the movie manages to nail the balancing act thanks to the performances at its center and the shocking, brilliant usage of technical elements on display. The editing by Joshua Raymond Lee and Borgli is simply exquisite as the film takes its shift into darker territory within its second act. Scenes can often have a nightmarish quality to them, where the stressful cuts between flashbacks and fantasy create a mood where every sense of tension hits you like a ton of bricks. The cringe of anxious laughter followed by the shock of each revelation makes the viewer question their own judgment as the movie brings up further queries about what it really means to be unconditionally loved or acts as a stabbing, reflective critique of the obsessively juvenile and performative nature of our American culture.
Borgli’s screenplay sometimes falls short of its desire to ruffle as many feathers as possible, but the performances from the whole cast manage to elevate the flatter elements on the page. Alana Haim’s “holier than thou” Rachel particularly stands out within the supporting cast as someone whose hypocrisy shines bright, essentially claiming self-righteous superiority after the film’s central revelation with a standout speech in the third act, but Zendaya and Pattinson are electric on the screen. Pattinson’s Charlie is essentially a pressure cooker of slow but sure loss of sanity as the revelation grows in gossip and his charmingly weird demeanor dissipates as the events of the week go further off the rails, trying to make the indefensible defensible.
Zendaya’s role acts as a more tricky situation as there are key moments where the development of Emma needed something a bit more to fully earn more of the surprisingly bittersweet elements of the story as it concludes emphasizing more of the romance instead of the comedy, but this role is right up with Challengers in giving the widest range of emotions she’s had to play with yet. She tackles the thorniness of every conversation, wonderfully balancing the unhinged comedy and dramatic reveals in the third act so well. The two leads act as the perfect antithesis to the wide array of tones in the writing, and the questions are left to ponder over as the credits roll.
The aforementioned aspect of the film brings up more questions than answers surrounding its horrific real-life subject matter; rather than getting even further into the weeds of it, it will leave some a drift to the movie’s gestures, but it acts more in the film’s favor in a majority of cases. When sitting in the discomfort of something thrown straight in your face that’s no laughing matter, it forces you to question your own morality and whether it is just how possible it is to justify the past complexities, no matter how terrible they truly are, and while the lack of answers can be frustrating, it only adds to the movie’s overall twisted unconventionality.
The Drama is sure to be a discourse storm, with varied options across the spectrum, but Kristoffer Borgli crafts a successful pitch-black rom-com that tests the limits of its dramedy while also delivering on its bittersweet dynamics and unhinged cringe comedy in equal measure. Even within its more shaky components, thanks to the chemistry of its two leads and unbelievably stressful reveals, The Drama will stand out as one of 2026’s most unconventional films, completely reveling in its prickly complexities.
