by Sydney King ’26 on April 16, 2026
A&E - Film & TV
Perhaps one of the most anticipated films of 2026 so far, Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama, starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, relied on vagueness of the plot in the promotional material. So, when I sat down in the theater, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and reflecting on my viewing experience, I still don’t exactly know how I feel about it.
Pattinson and Zendaya are Charlie and Emma, an engaged couple that are overwhelmed by butterflies the week of their wedding. The film begins in a nonlinear narrative format, jumping from scene to scene as Charlie and Emma reflect on their favorite memories of each other to their friends. This out-of-order narration style is meant to parallel the speeches that the two are writing for each other for their wedding reception. This pattern shifts towards the end of the first act, as when Emma and Charlie are out to dinner with another couple they are friends with, the group decides to reveal what the worst thing they had ever done was. The film’s downward spiral begins with Emma’s confession, and if you’d like to avoid spoilers, do not read any further. Emma admits that when she was 15, she planned, in detail, a school shooting.
After this confession, I have a hard time deciding what to make of the film’s message. Emma reveals that the reason she did not go through with the shooting was because another one happened in her town, and she saw firsthand how it affected everyone in the community. I found it nauseating how it is implied that it took tragedy for Emma to fully realize the consequences that her actions would have, indicating her character’s lack of empathy. However, through flashbacks, it’s shown that after the mass shooting in her town, she leads a group of students at her high school in gun violence activism, making her exterior persona a complete switch from her prior internal self.
This contrast between Emma’s persona and her inner self is carried throughout the rest of the film, as we see with flashbacks of her planning the shooting, as well as Charlie’s memories of her. Charlie begins to feel more anxious and frenzied as he starts to view his memories of Emma through a different perspective; she has a very clear antagonistic edge to her that he simply considered a flaw, but could now be something dangerous.
The discourse around this film has been littered primarily with two differing perspectives of whether or not Emma—and people in general—are capable of true change, and whether the intent or impact of a person’s actions are worse. One camp believes that Emma has truly changed, while the other remains mortified at her confession. Admittedly, I still have yet to decide how I truly feel. While Emma’s confession is the driving force of the plot, the entire cast of characters spend the film either admitting or repeatedly doing what they consider to be the worst action they’ve ever committed. It begs the question, is everyone truly horrible? Are people doomed to be products of their worst actions for the rest of their lives? Do we ever truly know who the people in our lives are?