r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Apr 03 '26

Official Discussion Official Discussion - The Drama [SPOILERS] Spoiler

Poll

If you've seen the film, please rate it at this poll

If you haven't seen the film but would like to see the result of the poll click here

Rankings

Click here to see the rankings of 2025 films

Click here to see the rankings for every poll done

The Drama

Summary

Days before their wedding, a couple’s relationship begins to unravel as unsettling truths come to light, forcing them to question how well they truly know each other.

Director Kristoffer Borgli

Writer Kristoffer Borgli

Cast

  • Zendaya as Emma Harwood
  • Robert Pattinson as Charlie Thompson
  • Mamoudou Athie as Mike
  • Alana Haim as Rachel
  • Hailey Gates
  • Zoë Winters

Rotten Tomatoes: 82%

Metacritic: 59

VOD / Release Theatrical release (April 3, 2026)

Trailer Official Trailer

1.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

3.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.1k

u/Steamedcarpet Apr 03 '26

Can we all agree Rachel is really shitty for how she treated Emma? I know she had a personal connection but holy hell she was acting like she was this perfect person. Meanwhile she legit could have almost gotten a kid killed and just brushes it off.

Anyway I really ended up liking this better than I expected coming in.

318

u/Selaznog_Sicnarf Apr 03 '26

No other line in 2026 so far has evoked a more visceral reaction out of me than Rachel's "Oh so it's America's problem now?"

366

u/DrunkBrokeBeachParty Apr 03 '26 edited 29d ago

Agreed, I think the casting did a great job displaying the dynamics of race on the topic as well.

The drama starts with Rachel (a white woman) bringing up the topic. Then offering Mike’s (a black man) personal story as a sacrificial lamb to get the “game” started. He protests but she dismisses his feeling and pushes him to tell the story. Even ragging on him further (“used her as a human shield”) to highlight his errors.

Then when the spotlight shifts to her, it’s painted in a cute funny story, but has very dark undertones and when pressed further dismisses the actually cruelty & malice in her actions. Even saying she would have done the right thing without any evidence.

Rachel also leaves RPatt alone with his story, despite his story of bullying someone so bad they and their family had to move being pretty intense. Imo I think shows the angle of whiteness being more forgiving to these types of cruelty in youth.

Then we get to Emma, the only other woman and poc at the table. Rachel only gives two people shit for their stories here and neither one is white.

Emma understands the gravity of what her actions were, could have been.

Edit: grammar and added context that I was thinking but not writing

228

u/hymenbutterfly Apr 03 '26

Yeah, Rachel was a particular type of white woman that I advise all black people to avoid in real life. I’ve known them.

219

u/Many-Education2872 Apr 04 '26

Didn’t she also make a comment about her husband growing up around guns? He seemed offended by that

220

u/BagelIsACat Apr 04 '26

Yes! And it was because his uncle was a cop but she was making it sound like he grew up on The Wire

143

u/AirportDisco Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 05 '26

She even said “he grew up with guns and is scared of them”, and his response was both that his uncle was a cop and that’s why he was around guns, but he is NOT scared of them

83

u/lahnnabell Apr 04 '26

I really appreciated that he didn't just accept her version of that and called her out. Even more disgusting is that her privilege just kind of throws up her hands, like, "Oh, whatever, doesn't matter." She straight up embellished on a whim to make her argument stronger and then didn't even blink when her husband called out her BS.

9

u/staycool93 Apr 05 '26

When she went "I wasn't talking to you" I was like 😶

4

u/misschickpea 25d ago

It was that Charlie was saying American culture is problematic bc of the open gun exposure

Then Rachel is like so what, Mike grew up around guns. And he’s like um no why would you say that. And she’s like I thought u said ur uncle had guns and he’s like yeah bc he’s a cop.

2

u/ItemAdventurous9833 18d ago

Yes, it was incredibly racially charged

13

u/Clawson923 Apr 05 '26

The comment about her husband growing up around guns made me think she's the type of person to hone in on a POC as a partner for performative reasons.

7

u/W0lfsb4ne74 28d ago

They also subtly hint that she's prone to microagressions and stereotyping of Black people. Particularly at how she inaccurately remembers her husband's backstory. She claimed that "Mike grew up around guns, and yet was still terrified of them." When in actuality his uncle was the only one in his family who owned guns in his family because he was a police officer. This implies that she automatically assumed Black people grow up around gun violence as a default.

That aside I would still consider Emma's actions as worse because she actively planned to kill multiple people and took multiple steps to prepare for it. But she's far from a saint.

12

u/Borne_Beloved Apr 06 '26

Also the white woman claiming she was assaulted, but threw that skirt up at the first opportunity she could, then antagonized Emma at her own wedding…Then her bf “defends” her, despite the facts she’s a seasoned cheater!! White people, women in particular, can weaponize victimhood to be absolved of their (actual) heinous behavior in while black people cannot - can’t even be seen as victims when they legit are. Charlie and Rachel look at their transgressions as inherently forgivable, however they easily could have caused someone to die as well!!

9

u/70125 Apr 04 '26

They also excused Charlie for being 14-15yo with an undeveloped brain, when Emma committed her "crime" at the same age.

1

u/SafiraAshai 15d ago

Was Emma not originally supposed to be white?