Commitment by Confession: The Drama is Kristoffer Borgli's American Panorama
Borgli's outsider perspective lends itself to a nasty comic romance anchored by two of the finest Hollywood leads working right now.
“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” It’s a simple question with no simple answers. I think most people would be hard pressed to necessarily rattle off an immediate response if hit with the question, but this is the question that haunts the narrative of Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama.
Borgli’s latest outing stars two movie stars in their primes: Robert Pattinson and Zendaya, who are happening to star in the first of three collaborations that the two will be doing this year as both are earmarked for Nolan’s gargantuan follow-up to the mythic Oppenheimer as well as Pattinson joining the cast of Dune: Part Three which serves as a who’s who of the present Young Hollywood cohort, subbing in for his contemporary Austin Butler as the newest antagonist with a plethora of prosthetics and the chance to chew some scenery. While the other two films are certified event films that will be epic ensemble affairs, The Drama presents what is a diminutive affair, with the spotlight soaked on its young anchors.
The chemistry of Pattinson and Zendaya is palpable and a major selling point of the film. I’m not complicated- I like watching beautiful, beautiful people doing interesting things. The marketing of The Drama primes the audience for a wrinkle, which runs the risk of rendering the opening stretch of the film perfunctory. But Pattinson and Zendaya manage to slice through this effortlessly, and easily could trick the unprepared viewer into thinking that they are about to fall into an easy-going romantic story along the lines of what A24 produced in 2025 with Celine Song’s Materialists. The editing is sublime in these early portions, and across the board is a strong pillar of the film. The film builds effortless rhythms, lulling the audience into lowering their guard as Pattinson, playing a British man named Charlie, traces through the history of his relationship with Zendaya’s character, Emma, through a sequence structured as Charlie rehearsing his wedding toast to his best friend Mike, a stalwart turn from Mamoudou Athie (an actor I most associate for getting freaky-deaky with Jesse Plemons in the middle stretch of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness). Mike is married to Rachel, Emma’s to-be maid of honor who says everything with a shank. Alana Haim is incredible here. We’ll get to that, but it has to be noted upfront. I don’t know if we will see a more unlikable character on screen this year- she is the Joffrey Baratheon of bridesmaids. Bravo.
I really appreciate what everyone is doing in the first fifteen or so minutes of The Drama. A lesser version of this film speeds through this to get to the wrinkles, but Borgli nails these opening sequences which serve as the foundation for the emotions for what he is later subverting.
From here on out, I have to spoil the film. I would heavily recommend watching this moving unspoiled. This is an immediate classic entry in the “wait, this movie is about WHAT?” canon. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
As the four friends are enjoying wedding-food samples just days before the big day, Mike asks that essential question: “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” When the attention of the room finally settles on Emma, she confesses: when she was a teenager, she intricately planned a mass shooting at her school that she chose not to go through with.
This is baffling in the film. To be frank, I was not entirely certain that this was not about to descend into hacky slop. But The Drama is an exercise in commitment to the bit. This information becomes Charlie’s hyper-fixation over the upcoming days as the wedding looms ever closer. He can’t help but to interrogate Emma, desperate to understand and in some way absolve her of the implications of her teenage plot. Pattinson is glorious here. His status as a Brit is lent perfectly to Borgli’s own European background, as Borgli embraces the fact that he is unable to fully capture the American perspective and collective trauma of mass shooting. Instead, it allows him to relish in the shock of it all- “how could you allow that to happen?” In a sense, The Drama can even be interpreted to serve as the wedding of the Western world, and how gun violence shapes the neuroses of America and how Europe is incapable of processing it, painting that essential psychological divide in the stage of the twenty-first century.
That is not to say the film becomes too heady or abstract in its storytelling. On the contrary, The Drama remains taut on the interpersonal level. Emma reveals how her teenage years led to her developing an obsession, even a fetishization, with the idea of joining the ranks of the mass killers whose mugshots rotate throughout the news. Emma is desperate to convince Charlie that she never would have actually shot up her school- even if she can’t necessarily convince herself of that fact. This drama (no pun intended) gives Zendaya the opportunity for some of her career-best work as the film peels the layers back of this stunning model of a woman (the introductory meet-cute sequence played through Pattinson’s perspective deftly sets the audience up for this) and reveals a person who grew up isolated, lonely, and angry before she grew into her own. The ramifications of her confession force Emma to confront that person in a way that she never had before, and Zendaya portrays that inner turmoil perfectly.
Another great insight into Borgli’s mind is Emma’s explanation for why she never went through with the heinous act as a teen. Emma tells Charlie that at the time, there was another mass shooting in her community at a nearby mall, which essentially stole her thunder. A fellow student was murdered in this act, which leads to the student body rallying around the cause of gun violence. In this political sentiment among the student body, Emma finds solace; she becomes an active member of the organization at her school that fights for gun control, and is finally able to forge substantive human connection. It ties in nicely to an early sequence in which the camera cuts between strangers walking through the street as Emma begs Charlie to understand: I’m sure plenty of people have thought about it… but I didn’t do it!
This philosophical question lies at the root of The Drama. Is it better to have done something bad, or thought something heinous? The film remains empathetic throughout for Emma. But Charlie can’t help but obsess over what Emma has revealed. A big part of that lies in Haim’s reaction, as she flips out at the initial revelation, venomously reciting that her cousin Sam was paralyzed in a mass shooting. She denounces Emma entirely- again, Haim is untouchable in this. She embodies the very idea of moral grandstanding, as one gets the sense she was always looking for something just like this to gut Emma once and for all.
One even gets the sense that if not for such a big reaction to the news right in front of him, Charlie would have been able to brush past Emma’s revelation much easier. Unfortunately, this obsession twists into a romantic weed that cracks the concrete of the couple’s relationship, with Charlie’s crash-out culminating in his ravenous attempt to have sex with his co-worker at the museum, played by Hailey Benton Gates, in a scene that follows a hysterical conversation between the two in which Charlie attempts to not-so-subtly inquire what Gates would have done if she discovered that her boyfriend has hypothetically maybe plotted a mass shooting. This sequence is a perfect distillation for the film’s tone and what makes it work so well; The Drama is not a scary film, and it’s a very funny film, but it basically begs you to watch it peeking through your hands. Charlie’s adulterous move on Gates’ character is his original sin, as in an effort to try and work through his anxieties surrounding Emma’s plans, he commits an act that evoked gasps and shock from the sold-out crowd in the showing. I have to applaud The Drama for being an absolute perfect theater experience.
The third act of The Drama what elevates it from good to great. The film violently cuts to the nuptials after Charlie ruins himself, and the tone is immediately elevated to the razor’s edge as you can’t help but fall over yourself wondering if they can make it through the day. Every look, every glance turns dynamite. I have questions about how well the middle act of this holds up if you know the hidden premise and the turns it takes, but there is no denying Borgli his flowers for how electric this third act is. When it finally blows up, it isn’t a surprise by any means; moreso, it’s the natural conclusion of two people trying to brush past their misgivings about one another without really stripping themselves bare to address these deficiencies.
However, what is a surprise is how satisfyingly Hallmark the ending lands. It manages to be sweet in a way that feels wholly authentic thanks to that introductory stretch that endears us so well to these characters. Or maybe it’s just because of Pattinson and Zendaya selling it like their lives depend on it. Regardless, one of the many achievements of the film is despite how much awfulness surrounds the characters involved, it manages to keep you invested not just in the events, but the characters and their relationships. It’s a high wire act, but a successful one.
I walked away really impressed with The Drama. A tragicomic romance that touches on one of the premiere American hot topic issues of the 21st century directed by a European seems like a disaster begging to happen, but they pull it off. The result is one of the funniest, most cringe-worthy, earnestly heartfelt nights at the movies that I have had in a while.
