Heavy spoilers ahead for The Drama
A24’s latest film The Drama, written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli and starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, has been causing quite the stir online. Social media is buzzing with creators dissecting the film’s complex plot and troubled characters and offering their perspective on the disturbing twist at the crux of the story. Regardless of how you feel about the film’s writing or its choice of plot twist, one thing is certain: Borgli clearly knows how to drum up a conversation.
The film lives up to the label of dark comedy, placing the characters in situations which are so hilariously uncomfortable that the audience often feels guilty for even laughing. While commendable for its ambition, it must be said that the film’s humorous approach casts a shadow over the severity of the subject matter explored. The protagonist Emma’s macabre confession that she planned a mass school shooting at 15 but decided not to go through with it is followed by a series of darkly awkward — and funny — situations that play on shooting, guns, and weapons. However, this humour is grounded by Emma’s deep reflection and the genuine remorse she expresses for her past actions. It’s just a shame that her guilt is framed so heavily from the lens of her fiancee’s moral crisis following her confession. This framing dismisses the distressing events of Emma’s childhood and diminishes the profundity of the mall shooting which traumatised her peers and forced Emma to reconsider her own violent plan.
While the film explicitly states that Emma’s experience with bullying at school is the reason why she planned to carry out the mass shooting, the writing unfortunately falls short in explicating the underlying factors that make school shootings and mass shootings in general so tragically common in America. The film fails to explore the negative implications that childhood bullying had on Emma’s mental health, it's influence on her mental state and the role it played in her decision to plan out such a harrowing act. The crucial conversation surrounding the mental health and wellbeing of teenagers was left in the periphery. Emma's easy access to a rifle through her military man father is also surprisingly glossed over, closing the door on a potentially meaningful conversation about gun control and access to weapons. The film relies heavily on satire and humour when addressing access to guns, making it the subject of an awkward joke that Emma’s dad cracks in his speech at her wedding. This superficial addressing of mass shootings and dangerous weapons diminishes the commentary the film attempts to make.
The would-be mass shooter in the film being a black woman has proven to be a point of discussion and contention. Borgli has drawn criticism from viewers for this curious choice, considering the fact that perpetrators of mass shootings in the US are statistically overwhelmingly likely to be white and male. This decision can be seen as a provocative one that allows the film to decentre the identity of the character and rather focus on interrogating the deeper moral question of whether or not a person can truly change. Even if this is the case, Borgli’s choice is indicative of a lack of critical engagement with the social and demographic contexts and underlying factors that come with the occurrence of mass shootings in the US. Thus, the decentering of the identity of the potential mass shooter goes hand in hand with the film's minimisation of the gravity of mass shootings.
The film would have been able to interrogate moral questions just as well — if not even more effectively — if the writing had cared to centre the tragedy of mass shootings and elucidate the societal conditions that could drive an individual to commit such a harrowing act. Instead, from the moment Emma makes her confession, the twist of planning out a mass shooting is used as a plot device to shock the audience, build uneasy tension and place characters in disastrous moral struggles. This tokenises mass shootings as merely a vessel to wax philosophical about the human condition without sufficient acknowledgement of the very real gun violence crisis that plagues America.
The Drama makes for an interesting watch in theatres and is certainly an aptly named film. Borgli succeeds in providing compelling characters whose turmoil is darkly satisfying to behold. Unfortunately, the film seems to lose itself in attempting to unravel these characters, as it comes at the detriment of failing to address the complex societal conditions that underpin the all-important plot twist.
But maybe we just need to start over?
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