A24’s new film starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson opens in just over a week, and it has already pulled in the kind of attention most studios spend months trying to generate, except this isn’t the kind anyone planned for.
Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was shot and killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, told TMZ this week that he is “floored” and disgusted.
Parade reports that multiple other parents have also spoken out. The film hasn’t screened for the general public yet. Critics are still seeing it for the first time this Monday.
This is The Drama. And it is already living up to its title.
What Is The Drama?
The Drama is an A24 dark romantic comedy, though director Kristoffer Borgli will tell you labeling it is harder than it sounds.
At the world premiere in Los Angeles on March 17, he addressed the audience directly,
“It’s been a challenge to put a genre on the movie. Obviously the title has a genre, but it doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t capture the full scope. I’ve seen it labeled as comedy, drama, romcom, dark comedy, and they all apply, but they don’t capture the whole thing, I feel, the nuance.”
Borgli is the Norwegian filmmaker behind Sick of Myself and Dream Scenario, two A24-adjacent films that specialize in placing audiences next to a character doing something uncomfortable and making them sit there.
Ari Aster, the producer behind Hereditary and Midsommar, is producing here through his Square Peg banner with Lars Knudsen.
The cast around the two leads includes Mamoudou Athie, Alana Haim, Hailey Gates, and Zoë Winters. Daniel Pemberton composed the score.
Zendaya plays Emma, a bookstore clerk from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Pattinson plays Charlie, a British museum director from London. They are engaged and happy, preparing for their wedding week.
The film opens warmly, food tastings, wedding speeches, the glow of two people who are genuinely in love. Then comes a game.
The couple and their friends each confess the worst thing they have ever done. When it is Emma’s turn, what she says sends the entire film, and the relationship, sideways.
A24 has kept the specifics of that confession out of the marketing entirely. The trailer shows enough chaos to signal something has gone badly wrong without revealing what.
The film skipped both Sundance and SXSW, which observers have linked directly to A24 protecting the twist from early reviews.
It apparently lands in the middle of the film, not at the end, which makes spoilers a particularly live concern heading into opening weekend.
Why Tom Mauser Is Speaking Out
The twist has leaked widely enough that Mauser was able to respond to it directly, and his response is hard to read past. He told TMZ he is disgusted that anyone would think this subject matter belonged in a romantic comedy, even a dark one.
He was particularly bothered by Zendaya’s recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, saying she appeared to laugh the whole thing off, and that Kimmel himself seemed to take the potential impact on affected viewers more seriously than she did.
Mauser’s concern is not about condemning people who have had dark thoughts and never acted on them, he is clear that those people should be in therapy, not put on trial.
His objection is to using that specific subject as entertainment fuel for a film starring one of the most beloved young actresses in Hollywood. He told TMZ the film risks humanizing and normalizing something that has destroyed real families.
Parade confirmed that other parents have echoed similar objections publicly in the days since.
A24 has not responded to requests for comment.
What Critics Are Saying
The early industry reaction from the LA premiere has been largely enthusiastic, which makes the whole situation more complicated rather than less.
Multiple critics praised the chemistry between Zendaya and Pattinson specifically, one described it as “cutting glances and suffocating silences.” Matt Neglia of Next Best Picture called the film “deeply complex, incredibly stressful, provocative, and uncomfortably funny,” and framed it as an examination of how much empathy a person can actually extend toward someone who has contemplated the worst imaginable things.
Bill Bria of SlashFilm compared Borgli’s tonal balance to “if Albert Brooks and Ingmar Bergman teamed up.”
Tom Holland, Zendaya’s real-life partner, posted his own brief review on Instagram ahead of the premiere, “I honestly couldn’t be more excited for you to see this movie and believe me when I say it’s gonna floor you. Get your tickets now.”
That said, World of Reel, which tracks industry-level reactions closely, noted that the glowing public responses don’t tell the full story.
Internally, critical reaction is reportedly more divided, and most critics are still scheduled to see it this Monday before the full press wave begins ahead of the April 3 opening.
The Bigger Picture For Zendaya
This is the first film of what is shaping up to be a genuinely remarkable year for her. She also has Euphoria Season 3 on HBO, Spider-Man: Brand New Day with Tom Holland, The Odyssey directed by Christopher Nolan alongside Pattinson, and Dune: Messiah, all in 2026.
The Drama is a different kind of project than any of them, an adult prestige provocation from a boutique studio, built around a filmmaker who has always been more interested in discomfort than resolution.
Borgli told the premiere audience to let their reaction be whatever it genuinely was. “You should watch it and however you react is valid. You can laugh, you can cry,” he said. “You can leave the theater if you want to.”
For Tom Mauser, the reaction was clear before he even walked in. The Drama opens nationwide April 3.
