The Drama (film)

The Drama is a 2026 American romantic dark comedy film written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli. It stars Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as a happily engaged couple whose relationship is tested by an unexpected revelation during the week before their wedding. It also stars Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie, and Hailey Gates in supporting roles.

The Drama premiered on March 17, 2026, at DGA Theater Complex in Los Angeles and was released in the United States by A24 on April 3. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed $28 million worldwide on a roughly $28 million budget.

In a suburb of Boston, British museum director Charlie Thompson approaches bookstore clerk Emma Harwood while she is reading at a café, pretending he has read her book. Emma seemingly ignores him, and he then apologizes for making her uncomfortable. Emma explains that she is deaf in one ear and had not heard him. She invites him to re-try his original approach, leading to a date.

Two years later, Emma and Charlie are engaged. While walking one night, they witness their wedding DJ, Pauline, smoking heroin in a public park. They later discuss the incident with their maid of honor, Rachel, and best man, Mike, and deliberate over whether to fire Pauline. When Emma defends her, saying each of them has probably done bad things, the group takes turns admitting the worst thing each of them has done—Mike used his ex-girlfriend as a human shield during a dog attack in Mexico, Rachel locked her "slow" neighbor in an abandoned RV's closet overnight, and Charlie cyberbullied a classmate so severely that the boy's family moved away. Emma then hesitantly reveals that when she was fifteen she planned to commit a school shooting. She lost her hearing while practicing shooting, when she held the rifle too close to her ear. The revelation shocks everyone, especially Rachel, whose cousin Samantha was paralyzed in a shooting.

Charlie begins reconsidering how well he knows Emma. When pressed, Emma explains that she planned the shooting when she was depressed, lonely, and drawn to the online communities around gun violence, but she abandoned her plan after seeing how another mass shooting negatively affected her community and instead began advocating for gun control. The two increasingly worry if they see each other differently, straining their relationship. They awkwardly continue preparing for the wedding. Emma begins having shooting-related nightmares while Charlie grows paranoid regarding her mental state and fixates on gun-related imagery.

After being ignored by Rachel, Emma is questioned by her boss over why Rachel hasn't been in contact recently, inadvertently suggesting that Rachel be removed from a work project. As a result, Rachel withdraws from her friendship with Emma and does not wish to attend the wedding, though Charlie later persuades her to go and attempts to defend Emma. He later has an awkward encounter with Samantha, where he frantically assures her that she "would love Emma."

While at work, Charlie asks his coworker Misha how she would react if she learned her boyfriend, Blake, had planned a school shooting in his youth. When Misha says she would call the police, a distraught Charlie storms out and breaks down in tears. As Misha attempts to comfort him, he kisses her and begins removing her clothes but quickly stops himself. They agree not to tell their respective partners. Charlie and Emma later have a tense meeting with Pauline, where Emma reveals what they saw and ultimately fires her despite Pauline swearing her innocence, while Charlie becomes stressed after his encounter with Misha.

During Charlie and Emma's wedding, Rachel gives a passive-aggressive speech deriding Emma for her dishonesty and Charlie for enabling her behavior, increasing Emma's anxiety. While in the bathroom, Emma overhears Misha discussing a school shooting with another guest. Emma alerts Charlie to her concerns that the attendees are gossiping about them and pulls Misha into the room to confront her. Mistakenly believing Emma is confronting her about her tryst with Charlie, Misha blames Charlie by saying he kissed her first, to Emma's shock. Charlie gives an awkward speech reaffirming his love for Emma, assuring the guests that Emma "didn't do anything," and apologizing for cheating on her with Misha. Blake furiously confronts and attacks Charlie. Mike and Rachel angrily tell Blake to leave the reception. Emma leaves during the chaos.

Later, a bloodied and miserable Charlie returns to their apartment in search of Emma. After failing to find or contact her, he goes to his and Emma's favorite diner alone. Emma soon arrives and sits across from him. They reintroduce themselves as if meeting for the first time, and smile at one another.

• Zendaya as Emma Harwood, a bookstore clerk from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
  • Jordyn Curet as young Emma
• Robert Pattinson as Charlie Thompson, a British museum director and Emma's fiancé.
• Alana Haim as Rachel, Emma's maid of honor.
• Mamoudou Athie as Mike, Charlie's best man.
• Hailey Gates as Misha, Charlie's coworker.
• Zoë Winters as Frances, the wedding photographer.
• Hannah Gross as Alice, Emma and Rachel's boss.
• Sydney Lemmon as Pauline, a DJ and former musician hired by Emma and Charlie for their wedding.
• Anna Baryshnikov as Sam, a partially-paralyzed mass shooting survivor and Rachel's cousin.
• Michael Abbott Jr. as Blake, Misha's current boyfriend.

In August 2024, Deadline reported that Kristoffer Borgli would write and direct The Drama for A24. Ari Aster, Lars Knudsen, and Tyler Campellone were set to produce it under their Square Peg studio, with Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in early negotiations to star. In October 2024, Mamoudou Athie and Alana Haim joined the cast.

Katina Danabassis served as costume designer for The Drama. Danabassis chose unisex flannels and interchangeable basics for both Charlie and Emma to wear to look like "a cohesive unit". She found some basics from a thrift store that gave a more lived-in look to loungewear. Due to the film being set in Boston, Danabassis chose Ivy League-inspired clothing for Charlie, including Margaret Howell and vintage Gap pieces. Emma's clothing reflects her character with simple, comfort-focused pieces, often oversized like they could have been borrowed from Charlie. Having previously worked with Zendaya on Euphoria, Danabassis called her "possibly the easiest person to dress". Emma's color palette was informed by the Patti Bellantoni film criticism book If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die with color reflecting the character's mental state, such as wearing a green sweater in her meet-cute with Charlie to "symbolize that there's some type of mental instability there", according to Danabassis. Danabassis chose a Lawrence traditional bridal gown by Jenny Yoo out of 8 to 9 options to be Emma's wedding dress in the film. Four identical versions of the dress were produced for the film's action-heavy third act.

Principal photography began on October 21, 2024, in the United Kingdom. On November 6, 2024, Zendaya and Pattinson filmed scenes in the Boston neighborhood of Back Bay and Beacon Street. Charlie and Emma's meet-cute was filmed at Tatte Bakery near John Hancock Tower in Boston. Scenes for Charlie and Emma's apartment were filmed at 43 Union Park in Boston. Director Kristoffer Borgli chose the location due to its spiral staircase, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and ornate period-specific molding and decorative detailing. Wine tasting and wedding scenes were filmed at the Turner Hill Golf Club in Ipswich. The Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts was used as the fictional Cambridge Art Museum. Additional filming took place in New York City and Los Angeles. The production also spent $2.9 million shooting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Most scenes featuring a young Emma were shot on location at Riverdale High School in Jefferson Parish, part of the Greater New Orleans area. Principal photography wrapped in February 2025.

Daniel Pemberton composed the film's score. The Drama also includes tracks from Alicia Keys, Smerz, Sibylle Baier, Todd Terje, and Judee Sill.

The Drama premiered on March 17, 2026 at DGA Theater Complex in Los Angeles. The film was released in the U.S. on April 3, 2026.

On December 8, 2025, editors of The Boston Globe's Living/Arts team received a request from A24 to hold their daily TV Critic's Corner column so an advertisement could run next to the newspaper's romance advice column, Love Letters. A mock engagement announcement for The Drama was published the following day, which revealed plot details and character information. A teaser trailer was released on December 10, 2025.

In the U.S. and Canada, The Drama was projected to gross $12–$15 million from 3,000 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $6.3 million on its first day. The film has grossed $28 million worldwide as of early April 2026.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 77% of 183 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Flirting with complex themes, The Drama walks a tonal tightrope with impressive poise thanks to career-highlight performances by Robert Pattinson and Zendaya." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

William Bibbiani of TheWrap praised the film's performances and tonal ambition, noting its blend of psychological horror and uneasy comedy, though he found it deliberately unsettling and difficult to fully enjoy. G. Allen Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted the film’s focus on empathy and character reactions, singling out Zendaya’s layered performance as the emotional core of the story. Writing for Showbiz by PS, Pavel Snapkou described the film as deeply polarizing but thought-provoking, praising Robert Pattinson's standout performance and the film's willingness to explore morally complex themes, despite some limitations in character depth. Joey Magidson of Awards Radar commended the cast, particularly Zendaya, but criticized the screenplay for lacking development and momentum, ultimately concluding that the film falls short of its potential despite strong individual elements.

The film garnered criticism for its depiction of school shootings. In the film, Emma confesses to her fiancé Charlie that she once planned a school shooting when she was a teenager. March for Our Lives, an association led by survivors of the Parkland high school shooting, criticized the marketing for the film, which they characterized as "misleading". Tom Mauser, the father of a victim of the Columbine High School shooting also criticized the movie, saying it "humanized" school shooters. A24 did not reveal the twist prior to the movie's release and instructed journalists to not mention it.

• The Drama at IMDb
• The Drama at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Drama at Metacritic