The Drama (2026)

A24 films form a movie fan’s ultimate Venn diagram: one circle represents masterpieces, one circle represents divisive films, and a whole lot of their movies, from Hereditary to Civil War to Eddington, fall in the space where the circles overlap. The Drama is no different. This is not a film, it’s a drop tower. A drop tower that you don’t get off of for the vast majority of its 106-minute runtime. Without relying on any action set-pieces or visual spectacle, this will make your heart race from the word “go” until you finally reach the finish line.

The Drama follows a couple as they prepare for their wedding, only for the bride-to-be to drunkenly reveal a dark secret about her past that drives a wedge between them. Revealing that dark secret here would ruin the incredible moment of realization; not revealing it would misrepresent how compelling this film actually is. This article chooses to keep a secret. This falls under the same umbrella of films as Sinners and Sorry to Bother You in that telling you what the film is about could taint the experience.

Where the film only partially reaches the heights of Sinners and Sorry to Bother You is the diversity of its cast. Our female lead is played by Zendaya, who is of mixed decent, and the male lead’s best man is played by Mamoudou Athie, a Mauritanian actor. The prevalence of these two actors is greatly appreciated, but the rest of the film is awash with light-skinned actors. You might not even be able to see a minority cast as an extra in this film.

The film is very strong in terms of gender diversity, with women arguably playing a more prominent role than men, though it elects to not openly present LBGTQIA+ representation. Where the subject of diversity is most complicated for the film is disability. Zendaya’s character is differently-abled in the sense that she is partially deaf, though the reason why she is partially deaf, although compelling from a story perspective, detracts from that opportunity for strong representation. Even more interestingly, the character of Rachel, played by Jewish actress Alana Haim, has her own dark secret involving a child referred to her as “slow.” This dark secret takes a huge backseat to Zendaya’s, which, intentionally or not, serves as a commentary on how neurodivergent experiences are undervalued in society.