When a crackhead DJ is the least of your problems…
We live in a, let’s say, “unique” time when it comes to social interactions, and truly culture as a whole. The structures of how we communicate, perceive, and comprehend have been shifted (if not wholly warped) by social media. Any thought expressed, once relegated to those in your direct vicinity, can now be transmitted to thousands, millions. That constant watching eye has turned opinions from a singular thought to a global one, that then shifts and moves as a whole. And, oh boy, does that global eye have a violent mix of a superiority and victim complex.
This is all to say that Kristoffer Borgli’s new film The Drama is about the new normal; that when we admit faults or confess sins, we no longer communicate with individuals, but with a hive mind that is hell bent on getting its pound of flesh.
The Drama follows the soon-to-be-married couple Charlie (Robert Pattinson) and Emma (Zendaya) in the days preceding their wedding day. Their days are filled with finalizing travel plans, finishing their vows, and preparing for their first dance. During all of these festivities, over more than a few bottles of wine, Charlie and Emma play an intoxicated confession game with their friends Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and his wife Rachel (Alana Haim) where they all reveal their worst sins. It is during this game that Emma reveals something that shatters everyone’s perception of her, and kicks off a series of ever escalating catastrophes as the wedding day gets closer and closer.
To reveal what the big “confession” is would be doing the film a great disservice; going in as blind as possible is the best way forward with this one. I’d rather speak on director Borgli’s continued growth as a storyteller, and his ability to see the modern world in a true-to-life way that very few are able to replicate.
3 films in, and Borgli very clearly has his finger on the pulse of modern society. Sick of Myself gave insight into the types of extremes people would go through to go “viral”; Dream Scenario showed the rise and fall of “virality”, as Nicholas Cage’s character basked in the new found attention at first, before being thrown fully under the bus, and in The Drama, Borgli shows us that, even for those of us who want nothing to do with the modern “internet society”, the pitchforks can still come out for us.
It is a true-to-life view of our current society. While other filmmakers dance around the actual societal implications of this new type of hivemind thought, viewing social technology more as an accessory to our daily lives, Borgli’s films sees these technologies for what they are today; totally woven into our social contracts, a main pipeline of how we not only get news and information, but how we form opinions and how we gain biases. Because of the vastness and interconnectivity of it all, it obliterates the ability for “gray” understanding, for more nuanced views of the events around us.
The Drama is a great example of this; when Emma confesses her “sins”, she is shown no sort of pity or sympathy, or really any sort of nuanced attempt at understanding. She is immediately vilified, all of her closest friends turning against her immediately, and her fiance, the man she’s supposed to spend her life with, begins questioning everything about her. It is only when everything truly begins to spin out of control that he is able to see the absurdity of his judgement, but by then, the damage is done.
But that damage didn’t need to occur. The real schism comes from the constant judgement, the constant need for vilification, that others feel they have the right to rain down on Emma. The main culprit, Rachel, is an aggressive Type-A personality who latches onto Emma’s confession like a crusader looking for heathens to vanquish. She walks a delicate, infuriating line between superiority and victim, using the experiences of others to justify her stance, swinging her own perceived “moral high ground” like a mace.
It isn’t only her, though, as anyone who learns of the confession feels the need to weigh-in, even if their opinions are based on context-free understandings, or even just cultural biases. All of this constant judgement makes Charlie start to spiral, as he begins to care more about the “optics” of marrying Emma versus his actual feelings towards her.
It is in this that we see the real root of evil; optics. It isn’t about context, or reality, or just plain ol’ empathy. It is always about the optics, and how we are perceived by others. It is in that that Borgli has laid our modern cultural rules out bare, and made us realize how god damn stupid it all is.
Specs:
The Drama is a gorgeously shot film, and the 4K makes sure to compliment that. The beautiful grain of the 35mm cinematography is still intact, and the dolby vision audio makes sure you hear every last pained, quiet grimace out of Pattinson.
For special features, A24 does not disappoint, with a commentary with costume designer Katina Danabassis, production designer Zosia Mackenzie, and co-editor Joshua Raymond Lee. There is a making of feature, a wardrobe and camera test, “relationship hotline” promo, Charlie & Emma’s wedding video, and a collection of 6 physical postcards, illustrated by Kristina Tzekova.
The Drama is an incisive, cutting satire about modern societal rot. When once we had mob rule in villages and settlements, so we do again online, as individual thought and perception gives way to collective retribution. Yes, The Drama is very funny, in its own absurdist way, but it is also real cutting when it comes to its depiction of the modern, digital version of “morality”.
Was Emma in the wrong? For sure, but while the reaction was disproportionate, it was also incredibly realistic to our modern sensibilities. Once again, Borgli has his finger on the pulse of Social America, and how we are always on the lookout for the next “monster”.
