The Drama (2026) | Zendaya & Robert Pattinson Are Getting Married

And there are inevitably some complications

The following review contains substantial spoilers

The Drama is not the film I was expecting. To be honest, it’s a hard film to read from the trailers, and rather cryptic. Upon hearing strong reviews and being a fan of Robert Pattinson’s post-Twilight career, it became a top priority. What followed was a film I was not expecting at all, that is shockingly layered and nuanced for 2026. The Drama is a curious secular meditation of culpability and repentance, total love, and verschlimmbessern (more on this later).

Starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, the drama starts as a decently by-the-book wedding film. They’re sentimental monologues, meetings with friends, and quirky reminiscing about the origins of the relationship between the two. Things take a turn, however, when the soon-to-be Newlyweds are at a wine tasting with another couple, and everyone starts sharing the worst thing they’ve ever done. The parallels between this scene and Confession are undeniable, as watching it, I recognized how needed and desired the sacrament of Confession is for everyone. Perhaps the key difference, however, is that while in Confession a true penitent can receive absolution for their sins as long as penance is performed, this is not the way that the secular world works. The big twist is that Zendaya’s character, 15 years prior, had contemplated and planned shooting up a school, but never went through with it.

Now, when I had heard that this film had a crazy plot twist, I had high expectations and, admittedly, was a little underwhelmed at this revelation. While I was impacted with a feeling of shock and some horror, I was moved to pity as to what would have led her character to think of such a thing. Zendaya plays this part rather magnificently (never thought I would ever say that) and shows a person who is extremely far removed from this dark point in their life. As the film continues, her true contrition becomes all the more evident. This is not how the individuals at the dinner table reacted, though.

A lot of the major stressors of this film stem from the outrage of Alana Haim’s character. Haim’s character is honestly quite obnoxious. She confesses to impulsively locking a mentally disabled child in a locker in the woods when she was a kid, as well as just leaving him there for a whole day (actually doing wrong), but lambasts Zendaya’s character for contemplating doing evil. Haim grandstands for her cousin, who was severely injured in a school shooting, and condemns her wholeheartedly without even trying to hear her. Despite Zendaya’s attempts to communicate the pain that she was enduring at the time, the trauma that she had endured beforehand, and the acts of good faith she made afterwards to atone for her evil thoughts, Haim refuses to consider any of this.

While I found the coldness towards someone’s genuine call for help annoying, it is undeniably characteristic of the times that we live in. It truly demonstrates how special Christ’s teachings of forgiveness are. Too often in the modern era, we become obsessed with casting the first stone at terminal velocity without discerning our own brokenness. The Drama highlights the fact that everyone is broken extensively by the world around us and by our own failures, but calls us to love each other in their brokenness. This total and Christ-like love is something being begged for throughout the film, but due to its non-spiritual perspective on human relationships, it is unable to fully answer.

The Drama gives a borderline sympathetic view towards School shooters. Not in a way that would encourage the behavior, but in a mature fashion that begs the audience to recognize them for what they are: human beings. As uncomfortable as this may be for many, it is all the more important for us to see this and to recognize the person behind a monstrous act. Surreal imagery and dreams intertwined with trigger words in the characters’ daily lives create an almost paranoid atmosphere that is able to spark deeper reflections on what may motivate people to either commit unspeakable crimes or to turn away and repent before it is too late.

Verschlimmbessern is a German word meaning “to make something worse while trying to improve it”. As difficult as this word may be, it perfectly sums up the second half of this film. It reminds me of the Niagara episodes of The Office, where the characters Jim and Pam are to be wed, with many of their co-workers in attendance. Just as in the office episodes, the main characters in the drama try their best to avoid and fix awkward situations, only to, in turn, make them infinitely worse. Attempting to fix things continues to escalate problems with many awkward and cringe-worthy scenes that definitely amplify the dark comedy aspect of this film. At its heart, it is a dark comedy, but a sentimental one. Situations and conversations continue to get more ridiculous until finally things come to a head. Despite the intense awkwardness and tense heights that the film reaches, it has a rather touching and quiet ending. The ending is actually quite beautiful and reminiscent of a post-penance soul.

From a craftsmanship perspective, Kristoffer Borgli crushed it. I couldn’t help but notice there was a poster for Ingmar Bergman’s film The Passion of Anne. Bergman-esque is definitely how I would describe this film at times. Borgli seamlessly intertwines dreams with reality to keep the audience questioning as to what’s happening and what is in the characters’ minds. The continued escalation of reality-bending effectively builds tension throughout and makes a profound impression. Some of the sequences in imagery I’m still thinking of and will be thinking of for a while, which is a testament to its quality. Every acting performance is exceptional and contains an effective blend of exaggerated and grounded.

Overall, The Drama is an intriguing and complex film showing a society that’s begging for spirituality and forgiveness. Despite some of its non-answers, it is one of the more enjoyable A24 films, even if it is a little crass and over the top at times. It is above all things: thought-provoking and truly unexpected on a thematic level.