| Title: The Drama (2026) Director: Kristoffer Borgli Writer: Kristoffer Borgli Studio: Square Peg // A24 IMDb Plot: A happily-engaged couple is put to the test when an unexpected turn sends their wedding week off the rails. Joe Says: The Drama is a beautifully shot, sharply acted, wedding-day anxiety spiral that has more absurdity than insight and more gloom than laughs, but Kristoffer Borgli still manages to stick a surprisingly tender landing. |
The Drama is billed as a dark comedy. An absurdist comedy. Perhaps even a Gen Z, anxiety-fueled nightmare dressed in wedding clothes. The movie is also a beautifully shot, sharply written film that tries rather hard in convincing that its absurdity is more profound than it actually is.
The setup is deliciously preposterous. One week before their wedding, Emma (Zendaya) and her fiancé Charlie (Robert Pattinson) are at a taste-testing dinner with his best man Mike and the maid of honor Rachel (Mamoudou Athie and Alana Haim, both terrific). Emma is asked a deceptively simple question: What is the worst thing you have ever done? Her answer becomes the central drama of The Drama, a pseudo-confession that is simultaneously outrageous, ridiculous, and, depending on your perspective, immaterial. Charlie’s reaction, along with those of Mike and Rachel, escalates in silliness.
For a younger generation staring down the anxiety of marriage and adulthood, the outrageousness may be the point. Beneath the absurdity is a fairly recognizable fear. The Drama, however, castrates that fear a little too effortlessly.
Written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, The Drama works best when the interstitials of Charlie and Emma’s life intrude upon their depression. Alongside editor Joshua Raymond Lee, Borgli rapidly intercuts fragments of their relationship, turning memories and moments into an emotional highlight reel. These fleeting images give us glimpses of a life that might be worth saving just as Charlie begins questioning whether he even wants to. Occasionally, these brief, voyeuristic flashes tease more interest than the narrative.
Likewise, Borgli keeps much of the film’s deeper psychology just out of reach. He touches on fear, heartache, commitment, and anxiety without digging too deeply into any of them, leaving the audience to make those connections. That restraint can be effective, but it can also leave The Drama feeling more like an intriguing collection of ideas than a fully emotional experience.
The bigger surprise is how little actual comedy there is. For a film marketed as dark comedy, there simply aren’t enough moments of levity to alleviate all the sourness. Dark humor works best when the laugh provides a pressure valve before the darkness closes back in. The wedding itself provides some welcome relief, but even then, the laughs are more awkward than uproarious. Instead, Borgli keeps turning up the pressure – at least until that final, breath-releasing conclusion.
Still, The Drama is good. Smartly and visually constructed, anchored by strong performances. Zendaya breaks out of her book-nerd MJ personae to become cutely unsure. Robert Pattinson’s Charlie almost feels like one of his Mickey 17 clones with floppy hair and a stammer yet remains originally intriguing. Athie and Haim provide welcome energy around them proving that supporting roles can be just as powerful.
Yet through all the anxiety, The Drama finds a surprisingly tender place to land. Turns out the apocalypse was mostly just wedding planning.
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