WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD:
The newest A24 film, “The Drama,” starring Zendaya (Emma) and Robert Pattinson (Charlie), deals with the deeply unsettling and serious subject matter of school shootings. However, the film seems to have audiences captivated with laughter and debate.
The film follows Emma and Charlie through the days leading up to their wedding. Two days before the wedding, Emma and Charlie have a food and wine tasting with their close friends, Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Alana Haim).
It’s then that the couple probes Charlie and Emma to reveal the worst thing they have ever done—which they did before they got married—with Mike and Rachel initiating. The group proceeded to share their secrets, with Emma going last and revealing that she had almost done a school shooting.
From there, the film (and Emma and Charlie’s relationship) takes a downward spiral.
While the secret Emma reveals is shocking, what’s even more shocking is the way the film continues. Instead of being a dark drama, the film becomes more like a dramedy.
Audiences laughed out loud in theaters at various points throughout the film. One X user said, “The drama was so fun idk everyone in the theater was gagging together, and we all started chatting about it after it ended.”
Since its release, “The Drama” has been receiving mixed reviews. One main criticism that has been circling is from gun safety activists.
In an Instagram post from March For Our Lives, the film is called out for failing to spark conversation:
“The film may be attempting to engage real questions about accountability and change, but A24’s marketing does not meet it there. With a subject this serious, especially in the U.S., that conversation cannot begin and end on screen. It has to carry through in how the film is presented,” stated the post.
While the film does bring up the topic of school shootings and how the United States as an institution contributes to the rising level of mass violence, it seems to end there.
Not a single piece of marketing lends to the idea of a conversation. While the actors have mentioned it themselves, the film and A24 lack any awareness of the conversation that should be had.
A24 and “The Drama” Instagram accounts posted a collaborative post that shows a carousel of people expressing their love for the soundtrack. To highlight the soundtrack instead of people’s reactions or experience to gun violence makes the film’s supposed goal extremely superficial.
Yes, art can be shocking and uncomfortable. But to create art that is and then claim it will start conversations, but do nothing to promote discourse, is careless.
As a production studio and a film, it’s irresponsible to attempt this large conversation yet fail to continue it.
“The Drama” is many things, it’s funny, tense and filled with phenomenal performance—but it lacks the main thing that it claims to have: meaning.
