'The Drama' Is One Of The Best Movies Of The Year So Far
A happily engaged couple is put to the test when an unexpected turn sends their wedding week off the rails.
NOTE: There are a lot of spoilers out there right now, so avoid them if you can. I'll start out with my spoiler-free thoughts.
As you can see from the synopsis above, the idea is pretty simple. An engaged couple tires to work out a huge problem right before they get married. The two people, in this case, are 2 of the most beautiful actors in Hollywood in Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. I think this movie is awesome. It's a great spin on a familiar concept, the entire cast is unreal and it's shot beautifully. It's also very funny. WAY funnier than you might imagine based on that trailer or the synopsis. Also cringey and uncomfortable, but the humor is what really stood out to me.
It's hard to go deep into details without spoiling, but I'll think it's worth taking a chance if you're someone who doesn't go to the movies much outside of blockbusters. As of right now, it is my personal #2 on the year only behind Project Hail Mary.
SPOILERS:
There are two things this movie does that I loved. The first of which was the reactions from other characters to the news that Emma (Zendaya) had planned a school shooting.
My favorite of which was from Rachel (Alana Haim). If you've worked a white collar job before, you know EXACTLY who this lady is. Super performative cause-of-the-week lover who will loudly turn any mountain into a molehill while using their personal set of shifting morals as a shield from criticism. I think this character was written so well and expertly performed by Haim, who is one of the few actors in this age group that looks like a real person you could know. And the fact that Rachel herself did something WAYYYY worse than Emma (she actually committed the act of evil instead of just planning it) made the character even better. The same goes for Misha (Hailey Gates) who admits to casually cheating on her boyfriend in one breath while suggesting that Charlie call the cops for a thought Emma had when she was 14 in another. Seeing that lack of introspection put to screen was incredibly entertaining.
The second thing I loved was seeing how casually people try to use "trauma" to use as an excuse for being a bad person. When Charlie is trying to get to the bottom of why Emma wanted to do this, he brings up the time her neighbor died in a car crash. He begs Emma to say that this event traumatized her into a place dark enough to commit mass murder, but she refuses and says it didn't really affect her. He later lies to Rachel and Mike, saying it did traumatize her and she never had therapy for it, which immediately calmed the waters! As if that was a valid excuse to commit mass murder!
On today's episode of PBS, we break down the movie plus the much worse Super Mario Galaxy. We also have the 50th Jumanji update from Klemmer in case you were waiting for it.