The Drama is worth the secrecy

The revelation at the heart of The Drama feeds into a broader cultural critique that will feel familiar to Americans (almost eye-rollingly so), but the filmmaker is careful to concede his European perspective (despite his nearly decade-long residence in L.A.) in favor of something more granular. The film is less about confronting a pervasive social issue than it is interrogating how much we actually know about our partners—or any loved one, really—and if full transparency is actually a productive mode of intimacy. Total honesty comes with a lot of baggage, and one might find that the happiest couples do their fair share of compartmentalizing. When that emotional structure falters, it’s nearly impossible to return to normalcy. Zendaya and Pattinson transmit intense chemistry (both romantic and manic) in their own right, but they also fulfill the two halves of Borgli’s cultural allegiances—particularly as Pattinson embodies Charlie with strikingly unaffected British accent and mannerisms. Casting a Norwegian as Charlie would have been way less subtle, but the Anglo influence on Europe as a whole makes this contrast feel apt.

Interestingly, Charlie and Emma have hit the proverbial “reset” button in their relationship a fair deal. This began after their first encounter, when Charlie awkwardly realized that Emma was unable to hear his nervous introduction. Throughout their two-year relationship, this penchant for taking the edge off of uncomfortable, sad, or tense situations has been a salve for the couple. In his speech, Charlie cites Emma’s ability to “turn my drama into a comedy” as one of the many reasons why he loves her. Indeed, the idea of performance itself is an integral fascination of the film—though not in the metatextual manner that many might expect. “A wedding is performative by nature,” the couple’s dance instructor snaps when they criticize the choreography. Meanwhile, Emma solemnly tells Charlie during a hungover hash-out that she “started to believe this character I was playing.” The film’s title foreshadows both a shocking confession and an obsession with theatrics—as the couple barrels toward the special day with exacerbated anxiety, the ceremony morphs into an unfettered spectacle. 

A few days ago, The Hollywood Reporter re-published an essay that Borgli originally wrote for the Norwegian magazine Dagens Naeringsliv circa 2012. The piece details a self-described “May-December” relationship between the filmmaker, then 27, and a 17-year-old girl. Controversy spread, with some condemning Borgli as a pedophile or a champion of age-gap relationships. The truth is far less didactic (liking Woody Allen movies and obeying age of consent laws does not a child predator make), but the ordeal almost perfectly mirrors The Drama. Borgli did a shitty, scuzzy thing, but does that preclude him from growing, changing, and being happy? Taboos exist for good reason, but doesn’t expanding the definition of some of humanity’s most depraved behavior—rape, murder, exploitation—implicitly make these transgressions seem both more ubiquitous and less grave as a result? Does a society with a heightened need for accountability protect its citizens better if there’s no room for remorse and forgiveness?

Borgli doesn’t attempt to answer any of these questions with The Drama (he’s probably wondering how to navigate his own drama, anyway), but the resulting film is nonetheless 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. Though there’s no violent, explosive conclusion to Borgli’s latest film, the tender note it ends on is as much of a surprise as its titular dilemma.

Director: Kristoffer Borgli
Writer: Kristoffer Borgli
Starring: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Mamoudou Athie, Alana Haim, Hailey Gates, Zoë Winters
Release Date: April 3, 2026