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This article contains spoilers for \u201cThe Drama\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n When faux engagement of Emma Harwood (Zendaya) and Charlie Thompson (Robert Pattinson) was announced last October<\/a>, followed by the trailer<\/a> of \u201cThe Drama,\u201d A24 and Zendaya fanatics alike went wild guessing what the film\u2019s premise \u2014 Emma\u2019s confession of a seemingly unforgivable secret to Charlie before their wedding \u2014 might be. Since the release of the film, the reveal of the secret teased in the trailer has resulted in a mass discourse among audiences.<\/p>\n As teased in the trailer, \u201cThe Drama\u201d begins a week before Emma and Charlie\u2019s wedding. At a wine tasting with best man Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and maid of honor Rachel (Alana Haim), the friend group decides to each share the worst thing they\u2019ve ever done. The major conflict begins when Emma reveals that she planned a school shooting as a teenager. Rachel is instantly furious, Mike is a voice of reason and Charlie is left to face a new perception of his fiancee. The rest of the film follows the couple in the week leading up to the wedding, as Charlie tries to reconcile the empathetic woman he loves with her uncharacteristically dark past. Driven by his newfound moral confusion, Charlie commits a sin of his own, leaving the two to decide whether they can forgive each other and start over.<\/p>\n The dividing friction of the film is that the plot of \u201cThe Drama\u201d isn\u2019t really about school shootings. In fact, Emma\u2019s primary inspiration for considering the crime is the romanticized aesthetics of school shootings she saw online as a high schooler. \u201cThe Drama\u201d focuses on the relationship between Emma and Charlie as they navigate their emotions toward one another, never making a direct statement against school shootings or gun violence at all. At times, the film does the opposite \u2014 cutting to sexualized photos of Emma in bed holding a gun \u2014 seeming to embrace the romanticization of weaponry. It leaves audiences wondering why writer and director Kristoffer Borgli would choose planning a school shooting as Emma\u2019s greatest mistake. Why use such a sensitive, emotionally charged political problem as a plot point, just to avoid making a statement on the problem itself?<\/p>\n