A24 The Drama

A24 The Drama 👰 (2026)

“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

Whatever you think A24’s THE DRAMA is about—you’re wrong.

A24 has built a reputation on genre-bending, unconventional storytelling, but THE DRAMA, starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson—pushes that sensibility into something even more chaotic.

On paper, it’s an offbeat wedding-prep romance dramedy. In reality, it’s a stress test for the idea of unconditional love. The film opens like a textbook rom-com: a meet-cute in a coffee shop, that instant spark, and a sweeping montage of a relationship blossoming into something that feels destined—right up to the altar. For better or for worse, right?

Then comes the question.

Out on a double date, drinks flowing, energy high, someone casually asks, “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

It’s the kind of prompt that usually leads to laughter, harmless confessions, and embarrassing stories. Instead, the bride-to-be drops: “I almost committed a s//chool s//hooting.” And just like that, the movie goes of the rails.

What follows is less a spiral and more a full collapse of tone, of trust, of the carefully constructed idea of who these people thought they were. The film trades romance for interrogation, digging into morality, gun violence, and the terrifying gray area between thought and action. It asks a brutal question: can you love someone not just in spite of their past, but in spite of who they almost became?

It’s A LOT.

Director Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario (2023) is one of the decade’s most underrated gems. It’s another unconventional story that dives into anxiety, paranoia, and how easily a routine life can spiral into something unrecognizable. What I loved there, I couldn’t stand here.

I wasn’t laughing with the movie, I was laughing at it, stuck somewhere between disbelief and “what am I even watching?”

It’s like attending a wedding where you know the couple too well, and know it’s doomed. You end up wishing you were at a stranger’s wedding instead, where the chaos is just entertainment, not something you’re emotionally trapped in.

There’s a clear thematic throughline here. Like The Materialists (2025), which used vanity and superficial “type-checking” to deconstruct modern love, THE DRAMA swings to the opposite extreme—using a character’s dark, unacted-on but deeply unsettling past to ask: where does unconditional love actually break? Both films use heightened, almost absurd scenarios to get there. In The Materialists, it’s leg-lengthening surgery exposing insecurity. Here, it’s the specter of gun violence tearing a relationship apart. The idea is bold. The way it plays out? Way messier. These are compelling ideas to explore, especially as modern relationships feel increasingly complicated, and films like this are clearly trying to tap into that.

The gun violence angle doesn’t just challenge the couple, it overwhelms and hijacks the movie. Instead of deepening the story, it left me at a distance from it. Which is frustrating, because there is a great movie buried in here. In the beginning of the movie I was hook, and the ending pulled me back in, but that middle section takes such an absurd turn that it lost me—making this feel like a different film entirely. I laughed, sure, but I genuinely hated the story’s turning point.

If you stripped the film down to just the wedding, where you see the chaos, tension, and interpersonal blowups go full train-wreck, it could’ve been an all-time “best-worst wedding” you’ve ever been invited to. Unfortunately, that’s not what we get.

It’s worth noting Alana Haim is an absolute standout—perfectly calibrated between grounded and completely unhinged. Every time she’s on screen, the movie snaps back to life. Zendaya and Robert Pattinson are a tougher sell. They look poster perfect, but their chemistry leans more platonic than romantic, which undercuts the emotional stakes. So when things start to fracture, it doesn’t feel like watching a great love fall apart, it feels like watching an idea unravel. And maybe that’s part of the point. But it doesn’t make it land any harder.

The film also frames its central conflict through a distinctly American lens, something Pattinson’s character even calls out. While these themes aren’t exclusive to the U.S., the way they’re explored here feels culturally specific in a way that didn’t fully connect for me. It reminded me of Weapons in that sense.

Also, if you’re thinking of watching this for a date night and are in the middle of a relationship or questioning one…this might hit a nerve. It forces you to confront an uncomfortable truth: unconditional love always has a limit. You just don’t know where yours is until it’s tested.

A24’s THE DRAMA is as messy and memorable as advertised, for better and for worse. 

Enjoy!

5.9/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 1hr46mins

Where: In Theatres

The Richmond Reviewer A24 The Drama Review - April 5th, 2026.

#Zendaya #RobertPattinson #A24 #VVSFilms