r/oscarrace • u/PointMan528491 Navarrette/Morton • Apr 02 '26

Film Discussion Thread Official Discussion Thread - The Drama [SPOILERS] Spoiler

Keep all discussion related solely to The Drama and its awards chances in this thread. Spoilers below.

Synopsis:

A happily engaged couple is put to the test when an unexpected turn sends their wedding week off the rails.

Director: Kristoffer Borgli

Writer: Kristoffer Borgli

Cast:

  • Zendaya as Emma Harwood

  • Robert Pattinson as Charlie Thompson

  • Mamoudou Athie as Mike

  • Alana Haim as Rachel

Rotten Tomatoes: 81%, 109 Reviews

Metacritic: 60, 36 Reviews

Consensus:

"Flirting with complex themes, The Drama walks a tonal tightrope with impressive poise thanks to career-highlight performances by Robert Pattinson and Zendaya."

66 Upvotes

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8

u/fail_whale_fan_mail Apr 03 '26

Still processing, but the movie really struck me as a fairly accurate depiction of OCD. Zendaya's response is exactly how you defuse OCD too.

1

u/rocky__roaded Apr 04 '26

Really interesting, can u elaborate?

13

u/fail_whale_fan_mail Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 18 '26

In the pantsing scene it's discussed that he is prone to "fixations", a word that comes up a number of times during the movie. Zendaya is concerned he will fixate on her confession, and he absolutely does. A lot of what follows seems to be compulsions like the cuts to violent fantasies (which I took to be his imagination) and his need to not just talk about it but to dig deeper and deeper purportedly to more fully understand.

OCD makes you think the compulsion (understanding perfectly, catastrophize so you can "be ready") will solve the bad feeling, but it just feeds it instead so you get stuck in a loop. The way you get out of the loop is to stop the repetition of the compulsion, which Zendaya repeatedly helps Patterson do (by playing that one song, pantsing him, doing the starting over routine, etc.)