"The Drama" A Delectable Film You Should Watch With Others

    Certainly a film of all time. That's not to just say I thought The Drama was bad or anything. In fact, I knew about the big twist prior to watching this film (thanks Twitter) yet still came away pretty pleased with how they handled the premise. If you (thankfully) haven't been spoiled yet, the big reveal is that Emma (Zendaya's character), planned and almost executed a school shooting. The semantics of it all are frankly just there to make you feel better about whatever judgement or choice you've made on her character. I will say that the film does really make you think about this moral quandary, and tests the limit of the idea that everyone gets a second chance. So let's talk about it.

    I do think that this film is best enjoyed with other people around you. No offense to those who prefer to watch movies alone, but this is pretty clearly one of those movies meant to challenge your current paradigm on morality, and see if it needs to, or wants to shift. This movie should attempt to make you ask questions about yourself and what you truly believe, and I think it does that with resoundingly. Personally, I watched it with my sister, and in the first about 20 minutes or so, as soon as the reveal dropped, I was pretty ready to pass judgement. That's not to say I watched the rest of the film with some smug smile knowing that I was simply a better person than the rest of the characters in this film. After all, my sister disagreed, and having someone there to walk me through their own thought process ultimately made the film more interesting in the moment for me.

    I mean it's basically pushing the idea of a second chance pretty close to it's extreme, teetering right on that edge where you'd probably be able to get a reasonable/balanced enough discussion. Like if this film was about someone literally admitting to murder, or rape, or pedophillia and being like "but I was 15 when I did it" I think you'd find it much harder to find anyone who had it in them to forgive them, let alone marry them. The Drama throws an interesting wrench in it by saying it almost happened, it largely existed in theory, and even if it was unlikely circumstances that prevented it, they never ultimately went through with it.

    Of course, for someone simply watching this film, it's easy for me to just say I forgive them, I too did embarrassing things when I was fifteen, but obviously nothing comparable to anything of this magnitude. If anything, the worst thing I ever did was closer to Charlie, just some bullying when I was twelve. The movie does a good job of setting up this premise and letting it unfold as well, as even with it's under 2 hours runtime, it still manages to start the ball rolling at around 20 minutes, leaving plenty of time for what is a very uneasy experience.

    I think Zendaya and Pattison do a good job of selling it as well. In a sense, I almost never believed them as a couple, and that sense of inauthenticity I felt really helped sell the idea that this was a relationship that was cracking immensely, and perhaps could never be salvaged. Like the chemistry was performative, which at that point in the relationship it should have been. 

    Lastly, I think I agree with the ending. That's not to say I thought Charlie should have been beaten up, frankly I still think Emma was more at fault all things considered, and the wedding should have been called off as soon as this news was found out (ignore the fact that I'd never marry someone after dating for two years with them). Though, considering all the anguish they went through, and the fact that they still ultimately tried to go up and bat for each other. I mean their relationship will take an immense amount of effort to even be close to what it was before, but sometimes for something to truly heal you have to remove what's too damaged to salvage in the first place.

Final Score: 70/100

    Definitely a fun movie to watch with a group or another person just because it might be a good platform or conversation starter. It's certainly lives up to it's name, though I disagree with the assertion from google that this film is a romance. I'm not sure if this film has much replayability if that matters for you, I think the film plays off of it's shock factor well, and you don't really need to watch the film multiple times to start creating discourse around the idea of when is forgiveness no longer acceptable. I do think I would have perhaps postponed the wedding and worked through it though, because ultimately they never actually hurt anyone. It would be a breach of trust to not reveal this like immediately after we decide to spend our lives together, but it's also Zendaya so make of that what you will.