Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli’s controversial rom-com thriller The Drama starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson
Consensus Summary
The Drama is a Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli’s A24 film starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as a couple whose relationship collapses after Emma reveals she once planned a mass shooting as a depressed teenager. The film’s twist—Emma’s past with gun violence—has sparked controversy, with survivors of school shootings criticizing its portrayal. Both sources agree on key facts: the film’s April 2 release, Emma’s deafness from a rifle-related injury, and the Boston/Louisiana setting. ABC highlights the film’s dark humor and emotional twists, while The Guardian delves into backlash from survivors and critiques Borgli’s handling of gun culture and character specificity. Contradictions include differing tones (ABC’s ‘darkly funny’ vs. The Guardian’s ‘psychological unraveling’) and the depth of criticism toward Borgli’s portrayal of Emma’s past.
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Key details reported by multiple sources:
- The film is directed by Kristoffer Borgli and distributed by A24, with a release date of April 2
- Zendaya plays Emma, a deaf woman who reveals in the film that as a depressed teenager she planned a mass shooting with a rifle but never carried it out
- The plot centers on Emma and Charlie (Robert Pattinson), a seemingly perfect couple whose relationship unravels after Emma’s revelation during a game of ‘worst thing you’ve ever done’ with their friends
- The film’s controversial twist involves Emma’s past with gun violence, sparking backlash from survivors of school shootings like Tom Mauser (Columbine victim’s father) and Mia Tretta (2019 shooting survivor)
- The film’s setting includes Boston (where the couple lives) and Louisiana (where Emma grew up as a teenager)
- Emma’s deafness is revealed early in the film when Charlie realizes she can’t hear him due to a damaged eardrum from handling a rifle
- The film’s title is The Drama and features a fake wedding announcement in the Boston Globe with Zendaya and Pattinson as the couple
Points of Difference
Details reported by only one source:
- The Drama is described as a ‘rollercoaster emotional twists’ film reminiscent of 80s-90s dramatic thrillers, with a ‘hallucinatory’ aspect due to flash-forward editing and a 70s psycho-drama score
- Borgli’s film is framed as a critique of ‘unhealthy obsession with personal branding’ and the lack of empathy in maintaining social capital
- The ending is called ‘unusually cheesy’ and ‘oddly empathetic’ by ABC, with ambiguity about whether it’s intended to be taken at face value
- ABC highlights Zendaya’s ‘cool, inscrutable ambiguity’ and Pattinson’s ‘shapeshifting performances’ as key strengths of the film
- The article mentions Borgli’s prior films: Sick of Myself (2023) and Dream Scenario (2023), with the latter being his ‘less successful English-language debut’
- ABC notes Borgli’s ‘limits in grasping American culture, especially race,’ and that the film ‘taps into a European misconception of the US’
- The Guardian explicitly states Emma’s rifle-related injury occurred in the woods, not at school, and she ‘accidentally blew out her eardrum while taking practice shots’
- The Guardian includes a direct quote from Tom Mauser (Columbine victim’s father): ‘I was disgusted by The Drama’s “awful” plot’ and mentions his criticism of Zendaya’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
- The Guardian details the reactions of Mia Tretta (2019 shooting survivor) and Jackie Corin (Parkland survivor), with Corin stating: ‘I hope that they use their platforms to talk about gun violence responsibly’
- The Guardian describes the teenage Emma’s room as having ‘gangsta rap posters’ and notes Borgli’s ‘clumsy and borderline offensive’ portrayal of her youth, including ‘sociopathic videos’
- The Guardian highlights that Emma’s ‘dabbling with guns took place in the early 2010s, around the time of the Sandy Hook massacre’
- The Guardian mentions Borgli’s 2012 essay about his relationship with a high school student when he was 26, implying a connection to the film’s controversial themes
- The Guardian states the film’s resolution involves Emma abandoning her idea after a nearby supermarket shooting, framing it as ‘narcissistically finding her way through gun safety activism’
- The Guardian notes the film’s ‘compression chamber’ timeline—‘a week, then days, then hours to the big day’—and calls the wedding scene the ‘pièce de résistance’
Contradictions
Conflicting information between sources:
- ABC describes Borgli’s film as a ‘darkly funny’ rom-com with ‘rollercoaster emotional twists,’ while The Guardian frames it as a ‘psychological unraveling with a surrealist touch’—emphasizing darker tones
- The Guardian states Emma’s rifle injury occurred in the woods and she ‘never went through with’ the shooting, but ABC does not specify the location of the incident or emphasize her non-action
- The Guardian calls Borgli’s portrayal of teenage Emma’s room ‘clumsy and borderline offensive’ due to gangsta rap posters, while ABC does not mention this detail or critique the representation
- The Guardian notes Borgli’s ‘failure of character specificity’ in depicting Emma’s past, while ABC does not critique the character development but focuses on the film’s thematic depth
- The Guardian explicitly mentions Borgli’s 2012 essay about his relationship with a high school student, which ABC does not reference as a potential influence on the film’s controversial themes
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