By now, you’ve seen the ads for the Boston-based dark comedy, “The Drama,” where a secret revealed by its main character, Emma (Zendaya), shakes up her fiancé, Charlie (Robert Pattinson), so much that it threatens the wedding. The marketing team at A24 has been working overtime to shield you from learning what it is. They’ve told us critics not to spoil the “surprise.” I would wager that 90 percent of the opening weekend box office will come from people intrigued enough to know what it is.
As depicted in the trailer, Emma and Charlie play a drunken game with their best man, Mike (Mamoudou Athie), and maid of honor (and Mike’s wife) Rachel (Alana Haim). The topic is “what’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” The other three characters spill bad things that verge on the criminal or are just plain mean. Emma’s bomb drop is so bad that Rachel screams out, “Are you bleeping serious?”
The fact that Emma’s revelation occurs in the first 20 minutes should give you pause as to why the studio is playing coy; this isn’t some M. Night Shyamalan-inspired end of the movie twist, or Benoit Blanc telling you whodunit. The reason A24 doesn’t want you to know what Emma did is because there’s a good chance you won’t want to watch “The Drama” at all if you know. Especially if this particular plot point is triggering to you.
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Adding insult to injury, the repercussions of Emma’s actions are handled so distastefully, and in such an insensitive manner, that you’ll wonder what the hell the studio was thinking when it based its entire campaign on this repugnant, tasteless surprise. I guess there truly is no such thing as bad publicity.
Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in “The Drama.”A24
Any movie that hinges solely on a secret plot point is a waste of your time. My hands are tied because, though I don’t have to abide by any studio’s request in my reviews, I’m somehow beholden to doing so because you’ve been trained to be “spoiler-averse.” As a result, I can’t fully explain why I found “The Drama” so despicable that I can’t even muster half-a-star for my grade. Half-a-star is usually the floor in my ratings system. In 20 years as a professional film critic, I’ve only given seven movies zero stars.
I save the zero star designation for movies that I think have no redeeming value whatsoever or are morally repugnant. “The Drama” meets both criteria. It’s the latter because of the cutesy, jokey way it handles a devastating topic. It’s the former because an interesting movie could have been made from this material, yet writer-director Kristoffer Borgli chose to throw bombs and run off giggling rather than deal with the carnage he hath wrought.
Borgli’s last film, “Dream Scenario” collapsed in its third act when it suddenly became an angry screed against cancel culture that didn’t make any sense in its outrage. That film was saved by Nicolas Cage’s performance, which was good enough for me to recommend the horror-comedy despite it completely falling apart.
No such luck occurs here, though Pattinson does his best to convey his character’s emotional confusion. The problem is that Borgli doesn’t give equal time to Emma’s internal struggle. She becomes a panicked pawn running around trying to keep her secret from being revealed. Her primary reaction is to beg everyone to sweep it under the rug. She isn’t even given enough agency to understand why other characters refer to her as a psychopath, or why her husband is suddenly afraid of her. Borgli even has a scene (it’s in the trailer) where Emma argues with Charlie while wielding a gigantic butcher knife. Zendaya is not playing a character; she’s playing a gimmick.
Meanwhile, we’re shown flashbacks of young Emma prepping for that thing I’m not supposed to mention. Borgli knows how provocative these images are, and they’re even more troubling when a young Black teen is depicted in this circumstance, yet these scenes are played for comedic purposes. “The Drama” also tries to milk comedy from Charlie attacking a woman in a wheelchair.
Everything leads up to a wedding that simply should not have happened. No one in their right mind would have proceeded with it. I’m too cynical to write the “Love Letters” column here at the Globe, but even I know that these folks should have put the kibosh on the nuptials and gotten some much needed therapy. Part of the film’s humor stems from Emma and Charlie pretending to be chipper as they deal with an extremely cheerful photographer and a DJ whose free time includes smoking heroin on Arlington Street (don’t ask). But it’s impossible to laugh when you can’t buy the initial premise.
Alana Haim in “The Drama.”A24
The great Hailey Benton Gates (“The Moment”) shows up as a deus ex machina named Misha, who works with Charlie at the (fictional) Cambridge Art Museum. Her role is extraneous, but she does bring a bit of common sense to the proceedings. Haim is also quite good at playing an angry voice of reason who rejects Emma, though the screenplay forces Rachel to eventually fall in line.
I’m beginning to wonder if today’s filmmakers understand the concept of satire. Outside of Jordan Peele, the situation is dire enough for Paddy Chayefsky to spin in his grave. Films like “The Drama” and “After the Hunt” think the way to satirize current events is to provoke the audience and then point and laugh when they respond rather than debate those reactions.
And like “After the Hunt,” this film ends on a note that left me asking why the filmmakers chose its provocation in the first place. Emma’s secret could have been anything from adultery to having a secret love child to polygamy, and “The Drama” would have played out the exact same way. Ask yourself why the filmmakers chose the secret they did.
ZERO STARS
THE DRAMA
Written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli. Starring Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie, Hailey Benton Gates. At AMC Boston Common, Coolidge Corner, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, suburbs. 106 minutes. R (sex, profanity, gun violence)
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe’s film critic.
