While “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” will take the lion’s share of attention in cinemas when it opens tomorrow, another film that’s opening is the Zendaya and Robert Pattinson-led “The Drama”.
The project hails from Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli, best known for the Nic Cage-led 2023 film “Dream Scenario”. Set days before their wedding, “The Drama” follows a couple’s relationship. That is shaken when one partner discovers unsettling truths about the other.
The film is getting fairly positive reviews. With 39 reviews counted its at a quite good 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, but a not so good 64/100 on Metacritic.
Reviews paint the picture that this is very much in line with Borgli’s prior work, so those expecting a standard rom-com are going to be in for a big shock as the R-rated A24 title takes no prisoners in some ways. Here’s a breakdown of reviews:
“You’ve got to say this much for Kristoffer Borgli: In ‘The Drama’ he’s an original, like the bastard stepchild of Dogme 95 and ‘Wedding Crashers.'” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“Borgli has made something genuinely rare here: a relationship film with real teeth, one that refuses to let either its characters, or its audience, off the hook.” – Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
“Hell is always other people in Borgli’s films, and this one — if thinner and more rhetorical than his others — stands out for how sharply it details the freefall down from heaven.” – David Ehrlich, Indiewire
“It’s provocative and compulsively watchable — a romcom that obliterates the very meaning of the word by thrusting love underneath the psychoanalyst’s microscope and tearing laughter by force from its audience’s throats.” – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent
“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.” – Natalie Keogan, AV Club
“One of the boldest, brashest movies in some time… When not giddily tearing apart the rom-com, Borgli asks really major thematic questions with his controversial subject matter.” – Brian Truitt, USA Today
“What gives this glib, circuitous film the right to persecute the apathetic when it barely understands its own characters?” – Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
“A handsomely made, sharply performed letdown. It is yet another example of a far too common occurrence: a kicky logline premise having no real structure behind it.” – Richard Lawson, THR
“The Drama” opens on Friday and is said to be targeting a 3-day opening of around $15 million.
