{"id":374671,"date":"2026-03-31T13:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/374671\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T13:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:15:07","slug":"the-dramas-horrifying-twist-is-set-to-divide-audiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/374671\/","title":{"rendered":"The Drama’s horrifying twist is set to divide audiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Drama isn’t the first film to engage with high-school massacres: notable examples are Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (2003) and Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011). The difference here is that Kristoffer Borgli, a Norwegian writer-director, puts the subject in a film which is fundamentally a comedy, the title notwithstanding. The Drama has a taboo-busting Scandinavian sensibility that recalls the provocative social satires of Ruben \u00d6stlund (Triangle of Sadness<\/a>), Lukas Moodysson (Together), and Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round). But as that Scandi gallows humour has been applied to a film with a US setting and two glamorous blockbuster superstars, it’s no surprise that there have already been media reports of a backlash against The Drama<\/a>, even before its release. The father of one of the victims of the Columbine High School massacre told TMZ that the plot point was “awful”.<\/p>\n

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Viewers will decide for themselves whether the backlash is justified, but the film’s risk-taking is a thrill, and it’s beautifully made. Some scenes in isolation \u2013 especially those before the opening credits \u2013 are the stuff of a sparkling, aspirational romcom: Pattinson’s character shares his first name, his messy fringe and his taste in eyewear with the hero of Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Pattinson himself has all the diffident English charm of a young Hugh Grant.<\/p>\n

Other scenes are the stuff of searing black comedy, and in these it’s Haim who stands out, with her furious sarcasm and industrial-strength eye-rolls. Meanwhile, there are sensitive flashbacks that explore why the teenage Emma was drawn to murder, and these are reminiscent of Netflix’s award-winning drama on a similar subject, Adolescence.<\/p>\n

The question is whether Borgli finds the perfect balance between these different tones. And the answer is: almost, but not quite. The Drama devotes more of its energies to awkward cringe comedy than to the reality of the characters and their feelings. It’s ultimately a series of toe-curling, albeit hilarious sketches rather than a wholly convincing narrative, so it’s more superficial than its traumatic scenario deserves. For one thing, it’s hard to believe that Emma and Charlie would confine themselves to a few faltering chats about her confession, instead of having a proper conversation about it. Still, most people who see The Drama will end up having in-depth debates, even if the characters themselves don’t manage it. The first great cinematic conversation-starter of 2026 is here.<\/p>\n

The Drama is released in US and UK cinemas on 3 April.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Drama isn’t the first film to engage with high-school massacres: notable examples are Gus Van Sant’s Elephant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-374671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}