My Unique Perspective on the Twist in ‘The Drama’ Is Why You Should Still See the New A24 Film
The twist of The Drama has been a topic of controversy. For me, I have a unique perspective on it that leads to a more compassionate take. Spoilers for the new A24 film lie ahead.
The Drama follows Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) during the lead up to their wedding. But when their friend Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie) tells them about the worst things they’ve ever done, their perfect relationship is tested.
This is when I will spoil the twist of The Drama. If you haven’t seen it and want to remain unspoiled, come back to this after. You’ve been warned.
Rachel tells a story about locking her neighbor in an abandoned RV and not telling anyone where he is. Mike tells the story of using an ex girlfriend as a human shield. Charlie cannot think of the “worst” thing he’s ever done and so it turns to Emma. She reveals that she planned a mass shooting when she was a teenager but ultimately didn’t go through with it.
Instantly, Rachel begins to scream at her, pointing out that her cousin, Sam (Anna Baryshnikov), is in a wheelchair because of a shooting. Rachel has no compassion for Emma’s revelation, even when she says she didn’t go through with it. That reaction is warranted and fine.
As the film goes on, we learn that Emma was essentially radicalized into not doing it by another mass shooting in her hometown and she saw the effects of it and became an activist for gun control as a result. It isn’t exactly clear how dedicated she was, because we’re seeing it from Charlie’s perspective, and so we know she changed her mindset and that’s about it.
Personally, I think Emma’s story is an important one because part of our issue as a society is the lack of care and understanding towards those pushed to the brink of this. And The Drama forces you to look at why someone would even think about it.
My own history
In high school, I lived near a kid who was, at one point, a good friend of mine. We’d watch movies at his house and hang out all the time. I don’t know what the switch was, I often joke it was because I thought the boys of The Covenant were hot, but I truthfully don’t know. But something changed in our friendship and I was suddenly an enemy.
His view of me turned hostile in those moments and when he was finally caught, I discovered that my one time friend had fantasized about killing me. Put my name on his hit list and everything. For years, I was afraid of hanging out outside. I would lock the garage door as soon as I got home, especially if I was alone. And still, I don’t love being by myself. Probably rooted back to this.
But the part that I am most proud of is the compassion I was able to find for him. It took a while, it was not immediate, but we have a friendship of sorts again. We criticize the government and will message on Facebook every once in a while. It isn’t the kind of friendship where I call him up when I’m in town but it is amicable.
It is part of why when I saw The Drama, I felt for Emma. Maybe because I had found compassion within myself for someone who, at one point, wished ill of me. Because yes, I could have been hurt. But I wasn’t and holding a grudge against him wasn’t going to make my life better.
Compassion is more important than dismissing what The Drama is saying
I am not saying that I have compassion for those who would enact this kind of pain on people. I am saying that my own compassion made it so I could see why someone could be driven to those extremes. Again, we are not the best of friends. But I can see he needed friends and understanding and while that doesn’t diminish my pain and the trauma I experienced, it does make me a bit more empathetic.
Now, if you don’t want to watch this film because of director and writer Kristoffer Borgli’s love of Woody Allen and the disturbing age-gap essay he wrote, that is a completely valid response. But ignoring that to call this twist “irresponsible” just shuts down the very necessary conversation about it. There are people who think this way, and maybe finding that they can talk about their feelings would help stop the barrage of shootings in America.
(featured image: A24)
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