D and I watched this a few weeks ago and it’s still kind of haunting…or maybe just creeping. It asks a complicated question without a really satisfying answer. Kind of like any ontological query you might knock about for a few weeks before giving in to not knowing and zoning out in front of a sportsball game (Go Knicks!). This movie asks the question, how well do you really know someone? And if you knew something about them that you wish you didn’t, would it change your mind about that person.
To say D and I were squirming for the entire 105 minutes of this film would be an understatement. The tension is walked on a tightrope. And from the moment we saw the name Ari Aster on screen, audible groans and stomachs getting queazy. Ari Aster, Producers Guild of America, master of nightmarishly unlikely situations and Quentin Tarantino wannabe. Ugh. Yet The Drama is subdued and plays mostly on a psychological level. Arguably more powerful and eerie than if the gore was everywhere, all the time. In other words, as one would expect. It’s like the restraint you find in a few of Robin Williams’ movies. You know he could absolutely go full Vesuvius at any moment but it’s mesmerizing to see him in full control of his instrument.
As for Pattinson’s performance, an alternate title that would have worked could have been The Meltdown. While all eyes are on Zendaya and her super acting chops, Pattinson steals the show. His characters’ descent and anxious collapse is palpable.
As we say at the L&D report (working on 10 years of this madness!) box office don’t lie. And The Drama has pulled in, in round numbers, $130 million on a $30 million budget. Whatever is going on here, it works. Maybe it’s as if to say, if these broken people can look themselves in the eyes, there is hope for us all. Maybe Ari Aster isn’t a narcissistic cannibal and burner of dream catchers after all. I’ll trust…but verify.
L&D Report 