This article contains major spoilers for the film The Drama
Reviews have now come in for dark comedy The Drama – the new A24 film starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson – and critics have been almost universal in their praise for the film.
Released April 3, the film stars Zendaya and Pattinson as a couple who are days away from being married. Their relationship is rocked by a revelation made during a parlour game where players reveal the “worst thing you’ve ever done”.
It has a current ‘certified fresh’ score of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, and reviews have praised the films “provocative” storyline which sees Zendaya’s character reveal to her fiancé, days before their wedding, that she planned to carry out a school-shooting as a teenager.
In his four star review in The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw wrote: “It offers us a provocation, a jeu d’ésprit of outrage, a psychological meltdown that is more astutely articulated than in many another more solemnly intended film,” while The Independent said the film’s “big twist” makes this “the most uncomfortable film of the year,” in another four star review.
EMPIRE film magazine also praised the film in their four star review, and described the film as “a dark and darkly funny dissection of a couple’s ‘perfect’ relationship, examining how internal forces and exterior pressures can drive two people to their breaking point.”
The Times meanwhile, gave the film a full five stars, saying: “Robert Pattinson and Zendaya excel in [this] cringe-out-loud satire.”
The Telegraph were less enthused with the film, awarding it just two stars. They said: “The Drama promises bombshell revelations and the wedding from hell, but serves up a cramped, feel-bad, unromantic comedy with characters we don’t care about.”
Speaking to TMZ, Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was murdered in the Columbine massacre, said he was “disgusted” that the subject would be used in the film, and that it is “awful” that the filmmakers chose this idea as the twist for the movie. He also stated that he believed a popular star such as Zendaya “humanises” the issue of school shootings.
On April 20, 1999, teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 13 fellow students and one teacher in a school shooting and attempted bombing at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The pair then turned their guns on themselves in one of the most infamous tragedies in American history.
The massacre sparked a debate on gun control in the United States, and inspired films such as the Oscar-winning Michael Moore documentary Bowling For Columbine, as well as the 2003 fictional drama Elephant.
Distributor A24 are yet to publicly comment on the backlash.