The first trailers for The Drama, the A24 release directed by Kristoffer Borgli, stirred a mix of curiosity and speculation long before many critics saw the movie. The dark comedy centers on a Boston couple, Emma and Charlie, played by Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, who are preparing for a wedding. What begins as a boozy tasting with close friends—Rachel (played by Alana Haim) and Mike (played by Mamoudou Athie)—spins out when a game prompts each diner to confess the worst thing they have done. The gathering is ordinary until Emma’s remark detonates the evening, unsettling relationships and setting the film’s moral tension in motion. The film’s marketing and subsequent reporting changed how many people experienced that revelation.
Before most reviews reached the public, reportage shifted focus from plot to the headlines. TMZ ran an item on March 24 that framed the movie as objectionable, quoting Tom Mauser, a parent who lost a child at Columbine, and accusing the film of normalizing violence. Shortly afterward, The Hollywood Reporter highlighted a resurfaced 2012 essay by Borgli in which he described a romantic relationship with a high school student. Those two threads—an early spoiler and a director’s controversial past—dominated conversation even as the film opened in theaters on April 3. Below is a closer look at the plot mechanics, the coverage, and the creative choices that fueled the controversy.
What actually unfolds in the film
Early in The Drama, during the tasting game, Emma admits that as a bullied teenager she planned a school shooting but ultimately did not carry it out. This plot twist is the narrative fulcrum: it rattles the wedding party and forces characters to confront complicity, fear, and forgiveness. Rachel’s reaction is especially charged because her cousin was paralyzed by a prior act of gun violence, which reframes the confession as more than a shocking anecdote. The film never stages a real shooting; instead it examines aftermath, perception, and the ripple effects of a confessed intent. Young Emma is portrayed by 17-year-old Jordyn Curet, whose scenes convey the formative moments that shaped the adult character at the heart of the controversy.
How promotion and press shaped audience expectations
A24’s publicity leaned into surprise by positioning the movie as a strange mix of romance and comedy rather than foregrounding its darker turns. The studio even ran a fake wedding notice in The Boston Globe and leaned on the stars’ tabloid interest—Zendaya’s public engagement to Tom Holland became a meta talking point on the press tour. The TMZ headline—”Zendaya’s ‘The Drama’ Condemned by Parent of Columbine Victim”—arrived while reviews were still under embargo until March 31, alerting audiences to the nature of the twist and concentrating blame on the lead actor despite her not being a writer, director, or producer. Zendaya’s appearance on talk shows, including a conversation on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, did not include references to gun violence, though TMZ suggested she had downplayed the film’s seriousness. Vanity Fair later confirmed inquiries to both A24 and TMZ.
The director’s past and the revival of an old essay
Shortly after the TMZ coverage, The Hollywood Reporter published a translated excerpt from a 2012 piece by Kristoffer Borgli originally printed in Norway’s D2 magazine. In that essay Borgli, then 26, recounted a relationship with a teenage student; the translation included a sentence that quickly circulated online: “Suddenly we were together all the time—long days in my apartment, eggs and bacon with Woody Allen films for breakfast (she was also a fan), long walks with her parents’ dog, and late midweek evenings at restaurants and bars (where they didn’t check ID).” The essay prompted renewed questions about intent, aesthetics, and the line between provocation and irresponsibility. Some critics, including voices in Vulture, speculated that Borgli’s approach may be deliberately confrontational, possibly even trolling audiences to provoke discussion.
Casting choices, race and narrative focus
The decision to make Emma a Black woman and the would-be shooter contributed to the discomfort many viewers felt, in part because it runs counter to statistical profiles of actual mass shooters. A fact sheet from the Rockefeller Institute of Government notes that nationally more than 50% of mass shooters are white and 95% are male, which made Borgli’s choice politically and narratively striking. Critics also flagged how the film structures its emotional work: much of the story becomes Charlie’s arc, as Robert Pattinson carries scenes of spiraling doubt, jealousy, and moral agonizing. Pattinson’s performance has been widely noted as a center of gravity, while Zendaya’s screen time is primarily reactive, with her full psychological arc depicted through the younger version of Emma and flashbacks.
Tone, craft and whether the film achieves its aim
The Drama is built to make viewers uncomfortable; its score by Daniel Pemberton and its unsettling visual moments—like a young Emma struggling to record a manifesto or Charlie imagining wedding photos with a teenage Emma and an AR-15—are designed to implicate the audience. Producer Ari Aster’s involvement and Borgli’s prior film Dream Scenario help frame him as a director who courts provocation. Whether the film ultimately succeeds at its aim depends on the viewer: some see a challenging interrogation of empathy and culpability, others view tastelessness coupled with poor historical alignment. The film’s final act provides a strong, if divisive, conclusion that leaves questions about accountability and redemption unresolved.
