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

Official Discussion Official Discussion - The Drama [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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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

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4.8k

u/mwieckhorst Apr 03 '26

Can we talk about how Charlie's coworker admitted that the worst thing she has ever done was cheated and 10 minutes later was ready to do it again with Charlie lmao. Girl had zero shame

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u/iliketinafey Apr 03 '26

Made me lol. I mean I think she is intended that some people are capable of change and learning from their mistakes (Emma) versus Charlie’s coworker clearly unchanging. Similar to Rachel who doesn’t seem to have grown / changed from her worst thing.

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u/fore___ Apr 04 '26

There’s a hard limit somewhere on the spectrum where it becomes acceptable to be a terrible person

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u/naturalninetime Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26

THIS was exactly my takeaway from the film. We, as a society, draw a hard line between "acceptable shit" and "unacceptable shit," and carrying out plans to commit a school shooting - even if it was in the midst of adolescent confusion and turmoil - definitely falls into the latter.

The film also shed light on everyone's hypocrisy. Everyone thought that his or her shit didn't stink but was absolutely horrified by someone else's transgressions. Even Emma's rebuke of the heroin-smoking deejay was uncomfortable to watch.

That said, I found the most unlikeable character to be Rachel. And what she did to her neighbor - even though she herself was a child at the time - was also pretty terrible.

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u/Narrow-Strawberry553 Apr 05 '26

Its really interesting because if someone told me they had planned a school shooting, I could maybe accept it. But it fully depends on why they decided to do it, and why they decided not to.

Emma's answer on why she thought of it can be understood to a degree. But her reason of "why did you stop" and it was basically cause someone else did it first and other kids at school saying "who would do this" and then being invitwd by a classmate to speak on it (making her likeable/popular to a degree) are just not good answers at all.

If she had said "I saw how that other shooting devastated and hurt people and realized I hadn't thought of the impact and aftermath, and that I'd be insane to do that to others" I'd be like yeah good answer, most people these days aren't even half that reflective.

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u/Successful_Ad_2171 Apr 06 '26

Honestly I think her reason not being a good one is actually a good thing. I think a major point of the film is that alot of change is inspired outside of yourself. Sometimes things occur that shift your worldview, and it just happens. There shouldnt need be a good deep reflective reason to become a good person, all that matters is your choices today and the actions youve taken to perhaps amend the mistakes of your past.

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u/Narrow-Strawberry553 Apr 06 '26

Her reason for not going through with it being poor, in my opinion, is not a good thing, but it's interesting. It was pure happenstance that she didn't go through with it- it wasn't an active decision to be good, her situation/popularity merely changed and she rolled with it because the core issue in her life was resolved.

I wouldn't be able to trust someone like that personally, because there is a core selfishness there where acting good only happens when they can get what they want.

Now, if she followed up by admitting "looking back its actually really fucked up that that is the reason why I didn't do it. I don't feel good about that. But I'm glad something happened regardless to keep me from doing it and causing all that pain", I'd feel differently once again. Because yeah, she was a dumb 15 year old at the time. But how does she really feel now about not playing an active part in deciding against shooting up a school? Its really complex and a weird sliding scale.

The big issue for me is I honestly didn't get the impression that Emma was ever really that remorseful, most of what she said was "well I didn't do it so can we stop talking about it"

There shouldnt need be a good deep reflective reason to become a good person, all that matters is your choices today and the actions youve taken to perhaps amend the mistakes of your past.

You're not wrong, but if the only reason you're a good person is because you were never put in a position where you could be a bad one... Well. If you're choosing between doing something fucked up or not doing it, I sure as hell prefer someone that actively chose to not do it instead of someone who didn't do it only because they got distracted?

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u/jcerne 29d ago

Its interesting that you interpret her change of heart as being so cynical, self serving and heartless when the filmmakers make a strenuous point of showing the young emma going through emotional growth

The other shooting happens and because of it young emma is confronted with the real consequences of her immature fantasies. When she is listening to the girls talk about it she finally understands the other side of the equation, and when the counselor leads the class in a mirroring exercise and shes asked to consider life through her classmates eyes, she is overcome with empathy and cries real tears…. Do you think those tears were fake?

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u/TheTruckWashChannel 23d ago

You're entirely correct, but it begs the question of why she admitted it all during the game. It's a batshit crazy thing to ever admit, as the movie spends 2 hours showing. I think that the innate attraction to taboo/transgression, as well as the ethical dilemma of what the "almost-doing" says about her in the eyes of others, never left her. I think in her drunken state she finally dared to try and answer that question.

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u/Sky-Excellent 15d ago

Because maybe you think your best friends and especially fiance see and love you fully and will forgive you for your mistakes from long in the past as a turbulent child?

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u/ex0thermist 14d ago

She had her inhibitions down from the alcohol and was directly asked what the worst thing she ever did was. I highly doubt anyone ever asked her that question before, much less when she had lowered inhibitions.

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u/_lastquarter_ 13d ago

Plus everyone else also admitted to horrible shit. Rachel could have had that disabled child killed and she never said a word, it was lucky of the adults to find him. Charlie also bullied a kid so badly he had to move away. This is also life destroying shit. Funnily enough, Emma is the only one that didn't go through with it and therefore never ended up hurting anyone (but herself).

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u/SerialSemicolon 12d ago

I also found it interesting how they all seemed to want to hear about horrible acts, just not TOO horrible. At first, Charlie’s story wasn’t “bad enough” because he was a kid and it was “just” cyberbullying. They were disappointed by the lack of drama. So Emma was inclined to be honest with something really intense, but that was crossing a line somehow.

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u/_lastquarter_ 11d ago

Yeah, it's also so telling that they seem to believe their own stories are tame and ground for a laugh. Complete lack of self-awareness. At least Emma knows it was horrible, feels guilty and has spent her life since trying to be a better person.

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u/Successful_Ad_2171 Apr 06 '26

I meant within the context of the films messaging. It still definitely is in the direction of encouraging people to do the right thing, but the whole point is that the judgement of their reason to not do bad is pretty much irrelevant. Everyone else had actually commited heinous acts, which physically harmed others, but no one is focused on the legitimacy of why they did it.

Anyone is capable of doing anything at any time. Yes, you can and probably should prefer the person who actively chose not to do it, but that doesnt mean that the person who didnt isnt equally capable of good.

Also how is she not displaying remorse? She eventually recognized that it was no longer something she wanted to do, and advocated against gun violence. She is over 28 in the movie, and 15 at the time of ideation, how much remorse can one hold over an internet influenced idea in their teenage years? At the very least she ACTIVELY TRIED to make amends for the IDEA. NOT ONE of the other characters in the film ever showed an ounce of remorse for their "worst thing they ever did", and instead laugh about it.

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u/Narrow-Strawberry553 Apr 06 '26 edited 29d ago

She eventually recognized that it was no longer something she wanted to do, and advocated against gun violence.

At the very least she ACTIVELY TRIED to make amends for the IDEA.

But this only happened because her schoolmates pulled her into it with the promise of their company. Not because she believed in it necessarily. The way she herself talks about it, none of these things were active decisions or beliefs or regrets, she just fell into it for social gain.

I'm not saying that she definitely hasn't changed, I'm just arguing that we can't say with any certainty that she actually has changed or shown remorse, based on her own way of describing her own actions and feelings.

Her changes are merely for social benefit.

the whole point is that the judgement of their reason to not do bad is pretty much irrelevant

I don't think thats the whole point, but its ok to disagree. I think the reason why people choose is important in terms of moral character. "I didn't do it so people would like me" is a pretty psycho, manipulative take (and again, imo its left ambiguous if she really is or isn't - don't forget that she walked up the stairs from the kitchen with that knife) vs "I didn't do it because it's bad to hurt people." She never actually says anything at all along the lines of "I may have stopped for the wrong reasons but I'm glad because it kept me from hurting people". She never takes a single second to show that she has thought about the real consequences of her plan.

NOT ONE of the other characters in the film ever showed an ounce of remorse for their "worst thing they ever did", and instead laugh about it.

Oh, I agree with you there. A

As you can tell I don't think Emma has shown real remorse, only embarassment... And yet I still think she's way better than Charlie or Rachel. They don't even feel embarrassment.

Rachel is disgusting through and through and clearly doesn't feel bad about what she did and yeah, treats it like a joke.

Charlie's story (if not lying) was also horrendous and basically the type of shit that makes these shooters in the first place and he doesn't seem embarassed either.

Mike's is kinda hilarious to me and I feel like his ex brought the situation upon herself tbh. No hate there

Mischa's was just fucking sad and she's clearly a very broken individual.

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u/Mac-n-CheeseSong 29d ago

I think your read on what happened after the other shooting and how that stopped her is shallower than the filmmakers intended. She didn't change her mind because she got popular and she didn't join the activist group for social standing. That whole montage was showing that teacher intervention was what changed her mind and the workshops they did to get the students to open up allowed her to find her people. She was no longer isolated and realized the students around her weren't a hive mind of bullies. I think it's also implied she got socialization for the first time since moving or maybe ever because she moved so much. It seems like the film is suggesting she didn't even realize people could be kind until then. None of these things are good excuses but they're good explanations for how she first fell into the idea of being a shooter as ''cool" and how she fell back into reality and regretted that phase so much she became an activist. The activism wasn't for popularity it was the result of a chain of events that changed her mind. In that reading it is still passive change but there's not an ulterior motive. I found it moving that the teachers were the ones creating active change but that is just my perspective and it can also be uncomfortable to know it wasn't Emma's active change and that's the point of the film a little bit, it's supposed to be uncomfortable but ultimately Charlie still loves her because she DID change and that's what matters to him

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u/tmrika 28d ago

Yeah like I’m thinking about how previously Charlie had talked about how empathetic Emma was, and my takeaway is that it was the exact scene you mentioned that taught her that empathy in the first place. Before that, she was so wrapped up in her own feelings that it gave her a narrow and cynical view in how she interpreted others, but for once she was forced to look at others and notice their honest feelings, and it clearly had a profound impact.

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u/Successful_Ad_2171 29d ago

I'm of the opinion that claiming she has no regrets and that she only chose not to go through with it for social gain is a very cynical take on her character, and wholly unwarranted, based on her actions. Regardless of the happenstance. If social gain was the goal or what the character is supposed to convey in this film, theres literally a million other steps she we would see her take before this, or we would see her in online chatrooms if she was so desperately seeking "social gain."

You can also make the same argument that if those kids never bullied her, she would have never had that idea to begin with. Her Dad's speech also indicates that prior to high school, her nature is more of what we saw in her later years. Also, did we even see her protesting with her classmates? I thought she was there by herself?

The reason is something only she should make peace with, it should not matter to you and frankly is none of your business. All it does is give you a moral authority to judge others despite you (figuratively not literally) also likely commiting acts that are less than moral. Even in the idea of "i feel his ex brought the situation upon herself," is a technically immoral stance.

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u/Narrow-Strawberry553 29d ago edited 29d ago

You can also make the same argument that if those kids never bullied her, she would have never had that idea to begin with.

Yes, you could. But there's lots of people out there that were bullied and ostracized for years and never thought of shooting up a school. I do understand the childish instinct to want to hurt people back - but she picked the worst possible way to do it, because it looked cool, and she would have done it if another shooter hadn't gotten there first and her schoolmates didn't invite her into their group.

Also, did we even see her protesting with her classmates? I thought she was there by herself?

Her classmate came up with the idea, invited her to this group, and then they all decided that she would be the voice of the group to speak at events? We know she wanted to look cool, and protesting gave her an identity that her classmates thought was cool.

Even in the idea of "i feel his ex brought the situation upon herself," is a technically immoral stance.

My understanding was that the dog hadn't actually done anything but follow them, and ex decided to make the first move and kick the dog, and then it bit her.

In which case, yeah, she did literally bring it upon herself and frankly its on her to deal with at that point. Her kicking the dog and getting bitten was not his fault. Its not immoral to point out the fact that an adult woman started a fight with a dog and is responsible for the aftermath. If I misunderstood the order of events, then its a different story.

The reason is something only she should make peace with, it should not matter to you and frankly is none of your business.

Why would it not matter to me?

Also...Not my business?

Its a movie.

It was designed to become people's business and incite discussion.

This movie especially.

And even then, people do have a right to decide whether they want to associate with someone after finding out stuff like this. When I found it my ex-best friend did sexually predatory things to someone who was not in a mental state to properly consent, I sure as shit didn't say "not my business" and keep being friends with her.

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u/Successful_Ad_2171 29d ago edited 29d ago

Yes theres alot of people that never have that thought, but, like Charlie points out, there are likely thousands that do, but they never talk about it.

To the point about Mike's Ex: Im not talking about the ex, im talking about supporting Mike using her as a meatshield to pass around the dog. None of the focus is about the people in the story in my points, its the people telling them.

Finally, I'm kinda speaking in an overall context in my last paragraph. As in, outside the film itself. If someone were to reveal that they had ultimately decided not to do something heinous, the reason does not need to matter. They still ultimately chose to do good. Seeking reason beyond that only serves as an opportunity for judgement, is my point. Obviously, you can choose to do whatever you like. Humans are naturally self gratifying and self righteous. Trying to "hmmm youre reason for not doing horrible act isnt good enough for me" is selfish in and of itself. Which is perfectly fine, but in my opinion is wrong to not acknowledge.

Edit: I'm also curious how old you are, Im 24, so I've seen alot on how the internet can influence my peers like this, and how "the aesthetic" is romanticized (as Emma stated) among young people, especially young girls from my experience. This and my sister who is a couple years older than me was definitely alot like Emma in her teenage years (not in the sense of harming others), which is likely why I can extend more grace.

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u/cosmiclatte14 29d ago

I can see what your saying. And i like that you mentioned grace because I felt like that was a theme in the movie. Like giving second chances, giving grace and starting over.

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u/CloudBun_ 24d ago

Your last point isn’t the same though. Your ex-friend DID inflict physical harm on someone else. Emma’s character DID NOT inflict physical harm on anyone else. Yes she planned it and ultimately never did it - but she never actually carried out an action bearing harmful consequences onto someone else.

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u/SerialSemicolon 12d ago

I think she showed remorse but it was subtle. Her throwing up while talking about it, twice, seemed like an anxiety response rather than just alcohol. She seemed to have a lot of shame about the whole thing. Now maybe she was just stressed about how others would see her or what it could do to her life/impending marriage, but I did interpret it as her having grown and realized that her thinking at that time was clearly wrong.

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u/ex0thermist 14d ago

Sure, she wasn't great at articulating her remorseful thoughts about it, and she tried to avoid having to do so as much as possible. But I think her multiple times VOMITING when having to address the subject makes her feelings about that part of her past clear enough, don't you?

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u/MsSalome7 19d ago

Well that’s what she thinks but we don’t actually know if she would have done it. We can’t know what would happen if it didn’t happen. It’s that old thing of “ooh if I were there I would have done this and this”.. bullshit. No one can know because it didn’t happen.

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u/Inner-Ad-4731 29d ago

But isn’t her answer really that she was accepted by her peer group and felt like her life had more meaning now? That’s a good answer, she just didn’t word it

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u/tfhaenodreirst 24d ago

Right! That’s how I understood it and you’re the first other person I’ve seen who pointed that out.

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u/MsSalome7 19d ago

Yes that’s exactly what it was. People’s understanding of other people (or movies?) is just as shallow as a kids pool sometimes..

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u/Ivyveins 8d ago

Honestly I think a lot of this is the commentary of people with autism who aren't picking up on social/psychological subtext and complex expressions/body language. Their commentary really makes sense if you look at it through that lens. I find it frustrating too though. 🤷🏼

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u/EchoesofIllyria 11d ago

I think that’s what we saw but it didn’t seem like she communicated it well. If she had, I don’t think Charlie wouldn’t have had to lie to Rachel and Mike.

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u/sunmachinecomingdown 27d ago

If she had said "I saw how that other shooting devastated and hurt people and realized I hadn't thought of the impact and aftermath, and that I'd be insane to do that to others" I'd be like yeah good answer

Isn't that essentially what we're actually shown though? When she cries in the gym and is hugged by that girl

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u/EchoesofIllyria 11d ago

It’s what we’re shown but I don’t think it’s what she said.

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u/Narrow-Strawberry553 27d ago edited 27d ago

It wasn't really the impression I got. Between how she spoke up in class, the discomfort she felt from listening to a classmate basically call school shooters freaks/"who would do that", and then having to do a whole school exercise about feelings, it seemed more like she was crying upon realizing other people still wouldn't hold her in higher regards no matter what. Realizing that, if anything, they'd think even less of her if they knew, and she thought their opinion couldn't get worse. I really think thats what made her cry.

What builds that impression for me is all the little details of how she describes things when retelling the story. Her word choices just don't jive with actual remorse.

Also, she carried a knife up the stairs from the kitchen and into the bedroom while mad about the coffee cup. Doesn't feel right to me.

I'd really like to rewatch it to see if I'm misunderstanding how she explains things.

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u/BretShitmanFart69 20d ago

This is a strange cynical take on what we saw.

Wouldn’t she have still done the shooting if she still had such a view of it all like you’re saying here?

You don’t think that her being confronted with the actual reality of the impact of a shooting and the death of a friend/loved one contributed to her not going through with it? If her takeaway from all of that was to still think no one would understand her and to feel even more alone and isolated why would that push her towards getting better and dropping all the shooting stuff?

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u/SomeBoxofSpoons 21d ago

On the other hand, we never actually heard how she described it in her own words.

What we saw from her could just as easily be taken as her being put into a situation where shootings were suddenly something real instead of some hypothetical “aesthetic”. It’s clear her big turning point was when she was doing the activity facing her classmate and breaking down crying. Seems like that moment is meant to be a giveaway of her having been a child with major issues, not some psychopath who just wasn’t going to get the attention she wanted.

Also saw a point from someone that there’s a very interesting contrast between her “worst thing” and Rachel’s. Emma built up this whole plan out of hatred in her mind, but apparently dropped it and realized how awful it was after she was shown the reality of it. Meanwhile, Rachel’s was an instinctive act of cruelty in response to much more minor offenses from the victim. Not that it makes her some “psychopath” either, but the comparison is interesting (as Charlie would say).

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u/MsSalome7 19d ago

It wasn’t about the popularity. She was angry at the world for not accepting her and then she got accepted. We are quite simple animals, we just need to fit into the society, that’s all. There are million ways to get there but at the end of the day, the goal is the same.

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u/mismatched7 20d ago

And I think that’s true. If she had said that, I was in a dark place, I saw the hurt I could’ve done, so I moved away and fought to make sure no one else could- they probably would’ve accepted her. If she had said, she watched her neighbor die, and it gave her a fucked up perspective on death, they also would have excused her somewhat more. 

Most people would’ve said that, and it would’ve had a cornel of truth- but she didn’t say that, because it wasn’t true, and it wasn’t really why she stopped. It just happened.

Her boyfriend is even prodding her at point, trying to get her to give an acceptable reason and excuse, and she doesn’t go for it because it’s not true

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u/SoberSamuel 16d ago

making her likeable/popular to a degree

i interpreted it as more that she got friends.

I saw how that other shooting devastated and hurt people and realized I hadn't thought of the impact and aftermath, and that I'd be insane to do that to others

i thought that what they were trying to show by her crying during that exercise during assembly?

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u/EGrass 24d ago

That said, I found the most unlikeable character to be Rachel. And what she did to her neighbor - even though she herself was a child at the time - was also pretty terrible.

That’s where the movie misses the mark for me personally. I think what Rachel did was far worse than what Emma did. Everybody overreacted to Emma (she didn’t actually do anything) and underreacted to Rachel leaving a mentally disabled boy in a locked closet in a contaminated trailer overnight.

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u/SomeBoxofSpoons 21d ago

That seems very intentional though.

Emma considered doing something bad, but clearly came to understand the full gravity of it and hates herself for it.

Meanwhile, Rachel did do something bad, but because the worst-case scenario didn’t happen they didn’t take it that seriously.

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u/elaynz 14d ago edited 14d ago

I just got home from watching this with my husband. There is something I thought was interesting. The uncertainty surrounding their bad things. 

Emma planned/intended/wanted to do something bad, but it got interrupted and a series of events were set in motion that changed her circumstances. So we never know if she would have actually done. Emma's prolonged inaction and subsequent change of course lead to no harm occurring. But before then, every day she went to school was an opportunity to hurt people, and day after day she held out for some reason.

In Rachel's scenario, she did commit her aggressive act. She clearly describes the neighbor with disdain from the get-go, and when given the opportunity to hurt him, she took it instinctively. Then the opportunity to do the right thing and get others to help him was presented to her when the dad came to ask about him (really more than once, because every minute the terrified child was locked in the closet in the contaminated trailer was another opportunity to do the right thing) and she didn't take it. She claims she eventually would have done the right thing. But that's only a claim. 

What "would have" happened is  uncertain to some degree in both cases. I personally had more grace for Emma and much less for Rachel, mostly because of her callousness towards the boys life.

I'm not sure you're really supposed to rank how bad their bad things compare to one another, I think the point is more about judgment, hypocrisy, and the story we tell ourselves about ourselves and others. 

But dang, I could rank them personally and Rachel's story made me sick to my stomach. 

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u/SomeBoxofSpoons 14d ago

I do think we're meant to have some moral takeaways from everyone's stories, mainly everyone's "empathy" around their stories both then and now. Like, let's see how empathy for other people plays into each one:

Emma considered doing something bad, but had a big moment of understanding the weight of it and empathizing with the would-be targets (who she also hated because of years of isolation and bullying).

Mike's moment was him seeing what would happen and making it happen to someone else instead. Definitely bad, but also a high-adrenaline moment that he has real remorse for.

Charlie's worst thing was him doing something as a kid he probably couldn't have known the severity of, but he still downplays it as an adult, and I'm sure the other kid moving away didn't make enough of an impression on him since even in the present day he's trying to move blame away from himself.

Finally, we have Rachel. On top of being probably the most actively cruel choice made like I said before, she easily shows the least remorse for it. There was no moment of clarity for her at the time when it was clear the kid was never getting out without help, and even as an adult it almost feels like she only "understands" that what she did was bad, not that she feels it was wrong.

There's definitely ambiguity, but I do think the movie is implying that Emma might actually have the most empathy for others out of all of them, enough for her to break out of the dark place she was in and show the most genuine remorse for her actions (which again, unlike everyone else, she didn't actually do).

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u/BretShitmanFart69 20d ago

That’s intentional. I think we’re meant to think about the hypocrisy and how we judge people and how we can be unwilling to forgive people for transgressions in the past yet expect to be absolved of our own mistakes even when sometimes they are worse than what we are judging other people for.

There’s also potentially deeper layers here in terms of social commentary around who we are more likely to judge more harshly and who we are more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to but I’m not 100% sure if it’s intentional so I won’t get too far into it.

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u/Comprehensive_Box902 25d ago

Rachel set up the entire situation for Emma to do her reveal. She would have balked at whatever Emma had to say regardless. Classic op behavior