My Biggest Regret Is Not Getting Popcorn While Watching ‘The Drama’

An opinionated biased, spoiler-free film review appreciation of the 2026 American psychological romantic black comedy by Pranavi Menon

In a media landscape where slop is more common than art, finding a film that was actually good feels like a fever dream. Honestly, how is it possible that in 2026, we got a film so layered, so nuanced, so perfect that it got us talking, debating, analysing — all while leaving us in absolute confusion on how to feel about the story? 

The Drama (2026) is a film written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, starring (the ever-so-fabulous) Zendaya and Robert Pattinson (whose twilight-era allure I'm starting to understand now). The premise of the film is essentially a narration of the events that occur during the week leading up to our protagonists’ wedding. 

From the trailer, we’ve been introduced to the couple and the fact that Zendaya’s character Emma, has a secret; a terrible thing that she’s done in her life that has derailed pretty much every perfect thing in her relationship with Pattinson’s Charlie and their best friends, Rachel & Mike. The film elaborates on the same, keeping the suspense that the trailer created, absolutely worthwhile. 

As much as I wanted to watch this film the day it was released, I’m no solitary, lone wolf who enjoys going to the movie theatre alone. It’s one thing to watch movies alone in my bed while the AC is on full blast but it's another to cuddle up (with myself) in a movie theatre. So naturally, I had to wait till all my friends were free on a day convenient for everyone to watch this masterpiece. 

I went into the theatre knowing a few things. One, Zendaya rarely disappoints me so this ought to be a sub-par film at least. Two, Google always mis-genres films so there’s no way an A24 film like this is going to be a rom-com — especially after that trailer. Three, despite my extreme attempts to avoid spoilers, I knew two things: this was apparently one of Zendaya’s best performances in her career & a portion of the internet (my portion of the internet) hated Rachel. 

Now I’m no film critic but I am a student of film and media, so I have picked up some things from my course that have changed the way I view films; and it has given me opinions that I like to talk about. 

One of them being how much I bloody love this film. 

I kid you not, when the end credits rolled, I saluted. 

I have never saluted a film before. In my life. 

‘The Drama’ revolves around a secret that shakes Emma and Charlie’s relationship. It tests the lengths to which a person can be forgiving and understanding. It makes you question where your boundaries are — what are you okay with and what are you uncomfortable with? 

Where does one draw the line?

This film is a discussion. It's the narration of a drama in somebody’s life. Therefore, characters have as much depth as the narrator needs the audience to know. It’s a retelling of “the drama” in someone’s life. 

From the flashbacks to the present, this film’s narrative presents itself in a really unique way. 

The cuts are fast. 

You barely stick around with a character for too long. It’s like your eyes are watching all of them together, so you keep switching your sight from one person to another, trying to read them — their tone, their body language, their thoughts — as much as you can in a split of a moment before you’re snatched onto the next. 

It’s exactly why the time jumps aren’t so jarring either. 

You’re explained the bit of the drama that’s crucial to the story and then you’re taken to the next scene. There you get some context setting before being thrown into the next part of the lore. 

And I thoroughly enjoyed this storytelling tactic the film used — but that wasn't the only trick up its sleeve.

I enjoyed the perspective play in the film. The entire story is from one character’s point of view. Even when you see other character’s flashbacks or ‘perspective’, you’ll realise it’s based on what our protagonist knows of them or how they know them. 

The film picks up on the habit of constructing someone’s past and their story, based on what you know of them. Connecting different stories in one’s life, whether correlated or not, is something we all end up doing in order to justify someone’s behaviours or personality traits — good or bad. 

The film takes the same habit as a storytelling tool, justifying each character’s behaviour in some small way or the other. 

I also enjoyed the interchangeable use of flashes for thoughts or desires — what you think happened or what you wished happened. You see it across the film, especially in tense points, usually when the protagonist is spiralling — a fact that is called out almost immediately after the first few short flashes in the film. It’s an incredible tool, beautifully executed and all in the right places; so a big holler and bow for Kristoffer Borgli and Joshua Raymond Lee please!

That being said, the cinematography of this film has been just the most visually appetising, palette cleansing treat for me after all the slop I (semi-purposefully) have been consuming of late. Arseni Khachaturan is indefinitely a master of his craft, creating so much more of a nuanced form of storytelling with his visuals, adding more layers and intrigue with his compositions and frames. 

Now if we’re getting to each crucial part of the filmmaking process, I cannot be ignoring the two parts that create the core of my being — writing and music. 

Music is everything — especially in filmmaking. 

It defines the mood of the scene. It can make a possibly adorable moment creepy, an awkward moment furthermore embarrassing, create a sense of uneasiness or existential dread in a moment that would’ve otherwise just been mildly stressful — basically give the drama a little bit more of that pizzazz and flair.

Daniel Pemberton has used that very gift of music to give us the masterpiece of a film score that is of ‘The Drama’. With a delightfully deceiving yet haunting tune that leaves you on the edge for most of the movie, Pemberton, with his music, creates a space and world that leaves you wanting for more. The music makes you ask questions, keeps you carefully treading on the tightrope walk you’ve embarked on, contemplating your stance while you predict the character’s next action. 

Typically, when you’ve watched enough movies (like I have rom-coms), music acts as a prediction mechanism to tell you what is about to happen next. It’s always a tell tale sign that defines the course of the film and sets the tone before the action has even happened yet. 

The score in The Drama, on the other hand, sometimes develops with each revelation or assumption. It takes shape as the character processes his feelings and is dictated by the action instead of the story — a use of a tool so clever that no matter what, it ensures the audience is as clueless as the character themselves. 

Sometimes, the music even downplays or trivialises the intensity of a particular scene with comedic or light tones interspersed with the visuals. It makes you scrunch your brows and question what to follow — your mind (that’s listening and processing what the music and visuals tell you) or your heart (that's listening and feeling the story)?

The Drama is like a group activity — you’re all figuring it out together. 

Every part of the story introduces a new element that makes you question every justification you came up with for each character already. It introduces new layers, new perspectives that throw you off so badly that you are constantly reminded how quickly you pass judgements on people based on what little you’ve heard. 

The writing of this film has me in awe. There are different tones and voices throughout the film, but as I write this article right now, I notice how there is only one. One voice that tries every single justification to get over the drama themselves. A voice that is nuanced, layered, unique, and most of all, human. 

It empathises, and then it doesn't. It justifies and then mistrusts. It fights for itself and then questions everything they understand about themselves and others. It forgives, but not whole heartedly, not till they make a mistake themselves. 

This voice, the sole narrative of the film, is a piece of literary genius. To be able to have one voice, that sounds like many; to capture that nuance? Words cannot describe how at awe I am with the being of this film. 

This is a film written for discussion. It is entertainment that has reignited the conversation bug in our brain. It’s got people debating on what they’d do — where they’d draw the line; how valid or invalid a character was for their beliefs; justify the responses of each character to the situation that could break a relationship (platonic or romantic). 

This is not a film with an open end that just made people discuss what could've happened to the characters after the end credits rolled. 

This is a film that has us discussing every step of the way. 

From the very first scene of the film, this story has given us something to talk about; something to gossip, analyse and juxtapose with our life (because what else can we do when presented with other people’s lore?). 

In fact, this film is a conversation. 

It’s what I believe a mirror of society — how quick we are to draw conclusions, justify someone’s behaviour and find the unwavering need to do something about it (even when there is genuinely nothing we can do). 

It plays on the human desire to gossip, to judge and to desperately protect those we love from drama that could destroy their lives. It reflects how quickly we are to blurt out our opinions, how quickly we assume and how, for the sake of being woke, question interrogate the actions of an individual. 

The film makes the audience face the ugly question people weren't prepared to ask before they entered the theatre. 

What would you consider to be fine or acceptable and till when? How would you handle this uncomfortable truth? What would you do differently? Where and when would you leave? If you would, that is. 

A film that incites discussion and introspection is not what I call film, but what I call cinema. 

And ‘The Drama’ is absolute cinema. 

So trust me when I say — cinema is back, baby.