'The Drama' Is Worth the Secrecy

It’s really, really hard to talk about The Drama without revealing its much-teased “twist,” which is actually the meat of its plot rather than an unexpected last-act shock. This is the third narrative feature from Kristoffer Borgli, the Norwegian filmmaker behind the excellent Munchausen comedy Sick Of Myself and the surreal Nicolas Cage vehicle Dream Scenario, his less assured English-language debut. In line with his previous output, there’s a marked satirical slant, poking and prodding at societal ills without any altruistic pretense. Borgli’s films are messy—often downright bloody—interrogations of the darkest human impulses, a welcome perspective amid a cultural moment overwhelmingly aligned with art that is rooted in moral integrity over creative provocation. 

While the specific details will remain a mystery until The Drama unfolds on screen, the gist is as follows: Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) are elated to be just days away from exchanging vows. They perfect their first dance, work on their speeches and finalize their dinner menu, bringing best man Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and his wife Rachel (Alana Haim) along for their honest culinary opinion. As natural wine flows—perfectly paired with the mushroom risotto they’ve settled on as their main—the group giggles, riled up by the encroaching nuptials and booze alike. Mike and Rachel tell the betrothed about their own pre-wedding ritual, during which they both admit the very worst thing each of them has ever done. They begrudgingly divulge to Charlie and Emma incidents involving cowardice and cruelty before imploring them to spill their own secrets. It takes some time (the slurring doesn’t help), but they both manage to come up with something. But one of these anecdotes strikes everyone as downright psychopathic, leading Charlie and Emma to question the very fabric of their connection as they gear up to say “I do.” 

The revelation at the heart of The Drama feeds into a broader cultural critique that will feel familiar to Americans (almost eye-rollingly so), but the filmmaker is careful to concede his European perspective (despite his nearly decade-long residence in L.A.) in favor of something more granular. The film is less about confronting a pervasive social issue than it is interrogating how much we actually know about our partners—or any loved one, really—and if full transparency is actually a productive mode of intimacy. Total honesty comes with a lot of baggage, and one might find that the happiest couples do their fair share of compartmentalizing. When that emotional structure falters, it’s nearly impossible to return to normalcy. Zendaya and Pattinson transmit intense chemistry (both romantic and manic) in their own right, but they also fulfill the two halves of Borgli’s cultural allegiances—particularly as Pattinson embodies Charlie with strikingly unaffected British accent and mannerisms. Casting a Norwegian as Charlie would have been way less subtle, but the Anglo influence on Europe as a whole makes this contrast feel apt.

Interestingly, Charlie and Emma have hit the proverbial “reset” button in their relationship a fair deal. This began after their first encounter, when Charlie awkwardly realized that Emma was unable to hear his nervous introduction. Throughout their two-year relationship, this penchant for taking the edge off of uncomfortable, sad, or tense situations has been a salve for the couple. In his speech, Charlie cites Emma’s ability to “turn my drama into a comedy” as one of the many reasons why he loves her. Indeed, the idea of performance itself is an integral fascination of the film—though not in the metatextual manner that many might expect. “A wedding is performative by nature,” the couple’s dance instructor snaps when they criticize the choreography. Meanwhile, Emma solemnly tells Charlie during a hungover hash-out that she “started to believe this character I was playing.” The film’s title foreshadows both a shocking confession and an obsession with theatrics—as the couple barrels toward the special day with exacerbated anxiety, the ceremony morphs into an unfettered spectacle. 

A few days ago, The Hollywood Reporter re-published an essay that Borgli originally wrote for the Norwegian magazine Dagens Naeringsliv circa 2012. The piece details a self-described “May-December” relationship between the filmmaker, then 27, and a 17-year-old girl. Controversy spread, with some condemning Borgli as a pedophile or a champion of age-gap relationships. The truth is far less didactic (liking Woody Allen movies and obeying age of consent laws does not a child predator make), but the ordeal almost perfectly mirrors The Drama. Borgli did a shitty, scuzzy thing, but does that preclude him from growing, changing, and being happy? Taboos exist for good reason, but doesn’t expanding the definition of some of humanity’s most depraved behavior—rape, murder, exploitation—implicitly make these transgressions seem both more ubiquitous and less grave as a result? Does a society with a heightened need for accountability protect its citizens better if there’s no room for remorse and forgiveness?

Borgli doesn’t attempt to answer any of these questions with The Drama (he’s probably wondering how to navigate his own drama, anyway), but the resulting film is nonetheless a wonderfully thorny exploration of primordial desires for connection, destruction, and stability. Don’t expect any genuine relationship advice, but also be warned that this is not a glib exercise in aimless edginess. Though there’s no violent, explosive conclusion to Borgli’s latest film, the tender note it ends on is as much of a surprise as its titular dilemma.

Director: Kristoffer Borgli
Writer: Kristoffer Borgli
Starring: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Mamoudou Athie, Alana Haim, Hailey Gates, Zoë Winters
Release Date: April 3, 2026