The Drama (2026) Film Review

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

The Drama is directed by Kristoffer Borgli director of DRIB (2017), Sick Of Myself (2022) and Dream Scenario (2023).

After Dream Scenario (2023) I was very curious to see what exactly Kristoffer Borgli was going to follow up with, The Drama is quite a fantastic film that combines this completely bizarre scenario with a surprisingly grounded atmosphere. It’s one hell of a ride that the viewer never wants to get off of throughout its running time.

For starts the performances are all fantastic across the board. Zendaya gives yet another excellent performance, the body language used combined with the twists about her character Emma Harwood are bizarre yet Zendaya makes them all work perfectly. The willingness to tackle the film’s bizarre script as well as being able to capture the film’s atmosphere is truly impressive and elevates her performance.

The exact same can be said for Robert Pattinson, he gives an excellent performance that uses the same body language that Zendaya uses. The way Pattinson is able to master the film’s pitch black humor in such a casual way is truly some of the film’s biggest highlights.

Zendaya and Robert Pattinson are at their best when they are together, the two have this chemistry that automatically works as soon as you get into the film. Their characters are grounded and communicate a whole lot through their expressions and body language, there is one scene early on in the film that is a very clear showcase of this and only keeps adding up throughout the film. Alana Haim also takes the cake for playing one of the most unlikable characters I have seen in a film in a while which she absolutely nails.

The Drama goes for a couple of directions here, it obviously goes for the romance genre which is no surprise if you read the simple plot synopsis. What the film also goes for here though is this absurdist black comedy that really works for a number of factors. For one thing as I mentioned earlier the body language and expressions really help create this atmosphere that connects everything together. It’s like the pieces to a puzzle, it connects so effortlessly and just makes a whole lot of sense especially as the film slowly reveals the whole picture.

I’m not going to say too much else here since getting into the specifics with The Drama most definitely leads into spoiler territory, but I will say that The Drama is both quite a hilarious and truly chaotic ride that ends up being one of the best films so far this year. Everything comes together incredibly well which leads to fascinating results, go into this one as blind as you can.

The Drama is available on all VOD platforms.

10/10 A+

Challengers (2024) Film Review

Tashi, a tennis player turned coach, has transformed her husband from a mediocre player into a world-famous grand slam champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she makes him play a challenger event — close to the lowest level of tournament on the pro tour. Tensions soon run high when he finds himself standing across the net from the once-promising, now burnt-out Patrick, his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend.

Challengers is directed by Luca Guadagnino director of A Bigger Splash (2015), Call Me By Your Name (2017), Suspiria (2018), Bones and All (2022) and a few others.

One thing that I truly love in film is when you see a film you knew was going to be really good and it ends up surpassing your expectations by a lot. That’s the case with Challengers. Luca Guadagnino takes the sport of tennis and what seems like a straightforward premise and flips it on it’s head. Thrilling, captivating and erotic are just some of the words to describe the film.

Starting with performances since Challengers is a very performance heavy as well as a character heavy film. Zendaya gives a career best performance, her performance as Tashi Duncan is truly exciting to watch and truly captures the film’s atmosphere. Just by looking into the eyes of Tashi the viewer is able to get a good idea of her, Zendaya truly masters the subtle and careful character moments with body language and some speech patterns that are truly investing. Her performance is one of the best so far this year and quite honestly one of the most fun performances of the year as well.

Similarly Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist are both brilliant as well, it’s some of the best pairing I’ve seen in a film so far this year. Each and every time the two share a screen together they have this natural connection that makes the scene in question all the more interesting. The dialogue the two share to each other is raw and really brings the viewer into the film’s world. What’s great is we get a ton of information about the two Art Donaldson (played by Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (played by Josh O’Connor) have a lot of their information told through some flashbacks which the film does a excellent job of jumping back and forth. It also helps build the film’s world as well.

Together all three have this chemistry that is just oozing with style and powerful development that is shown throughout the film, the more we learn about each of the three the more you get put into the film. It’s truly remarkable how natural and easily the script by Justin Kuritzkes brings in the viewer to a wild ride.

One thing that is often brought up in a ton of reviews is the score, which let me tell you right now it’s for a good reason. I was not expecting the score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to take this electronic direction that it did. Tennis is the last sport you would think of to associate with electronic music and yet it fits perfectly, especially combined with the cinematography and many camera angles during the tennis matches it creates some quite electrifying and stylized moments that really make the film standout.

I do not want to say much else because Challengers is definitely a film you have to experience for yourself, it’s a truly brilliant film that I can’t recommend enough!

Challengers is available in theaters.

10/10 A+

Euphoria: F*ck Anyone Who’s Not A Sea Blob (2021)

Over the Christmas holiday, Jules reflects on the year.

I didn’t think the first Euphoria special could possibly be topped but wow this second part might just have. The second part focuses on Jules played by Hunter Schaefer who pretty soon we will be calling Emmy winner Hunter Schaefer because she did an incredible job here. Schafer really shows her full potential and brings an emotional performance, combine that with some very raw writing and you have yourself a one of a kind experience. There’s a ton of scenes here that are worth talking about but the two I feel very strongly about, let’s start with the opening. The opening sets up the mood for what the rest of the special is going to be like, Lorde’s Liability plays and you see all of the moments of Rue and Jules in Jules’s eye. It’s really a beautiful scene that hits you really hard, it’s filled with emotions and sums up Rue and Jules’s relationship without saying a single line of dialogue. The second scene of course is the scene with Billie Eilish and Rosalia’s song Lo Vas A Olvidar, not only is the song itself beautiful but the scene itself is mesmerizing scene. It captures a montage of Jules and Rue seemingly happy, then towards the end things change a bit. It gives you mixed emotions which in this case works, the whole special itself actually does feel like you are there with Jules listening to what she has to say. Which is quite incredible, it really makes you feel for her and believe everything she’s going through. I don’t want to give anything else away so I’ll stop here, but trust me when I say this is absolutely worth it! Like the first Euphoria special I will be counting this on my ranked movies list, it’s definitely one of the strongest so far this year highly recommended!!

10/10 A+

Malcolm & Marie (2021)

A director and his girlfriend’s relationship is tested after they return home from his movie premiere and await critics’ responses.

Malcolm & Marie was one of my most anticipated films of 2021, I got the chance to see it early and I’m really happy about that because this film truly delivers. I especially got excited when Sam Levinson director of Assassination Nation and Euphoria said that Malcolm & Marie is going to be a lot like the first part of the Euphoria special Trouble Don’t Last Always. In a lot of ways Malcolm & Marie is a lot like that, in Trouble Don’t Last Always Coleman Domingo and Zendaya are both in one location which is a diner and they entire time they talk about their problems mostly tackling drug addiction. Malcolm & Marie has a couple Marie (Zendaya) and John David Washington (Malcolm) talking about a wide range of topics mostly about Malcolm’s film in one location which is there home. So there’s a lot of similarities and let me tell you Sam Levinson’s direction is unbelievable, it’s truly some of the best direction I’ve seen. I can’t put into words how much power Levinson’s direction has, he’s able to take two characters and create a raw, emotional story with them with some very impactful dialogue. The film is also shot entirely in black and white which really gives it a special feel to it, the writing is brutally honest and doesn’t sugarcoat anything. The conversations, disagreements, arguments that both Zendaya and John David Washington both have comes off as very real. The music also helps create the setting and atmosphere, which is no surprise given that the music is done by Labrinth who is also heavily involved in Euphoria. There’s also some very strong song choices that also match the scenes as well! Zendaya gives the performance of her career, she gives such an authentic performance and has tons of dialogue that’s incredibly impactful to the point where you are left speechless. The same can be said for John David Washington, he truly gives it his all and shows how much of a fantastic actor he really is, both Zendaya and John David Washington show a huge range of emotions and of their acting abilities it’s something that you don’t see very often in a lot of films. The film itself also feels like a hybrid of a throwback film to the classic movie era combined with a modern film, the atmosphere really captures all of that in 1 hour and 46 minutes. The parts of the film that focuses on Malcolm’s film really gives off as I said before a classic movie feel, while a lot of the other topics and the mood of the film gives off a modern movie feel. It’s a perfect balance where one doesn’t make the other feel less. Lastly there’s final dialogues where Zendaya gives her absolute best moments throughout the film, she really shows how incredible of an actress she really is and gives some of the most realistic pieces of acting I’ve seen. Overall Malcolm & Marie is a one of a kind experience, it’s something truly can’t be matched. I strongly believe this is going to get Zendaya nominated for best actress, after this performance she will be one of the favorites to win. John David Washington could also score a best actor nomination as well, as I said before he truly gives it his all. Sam Levinson could also get a best director nomination, before seeing the film I wasn’t 100% sure but after seeing the film I truly think he has a strong shot. Finally there’s the film itself while it is going to be a very tough year, Malcolm & Marie feels like one of the most authentic and overall one of the best of the best picture candidates. Malcolm & Marie is a film that a lot of people are going to absolutely love, I highly recommend checking this one out when it comes out February 5th 2021 on Netflix! This is going to be very hard to push off of my list of the top spot of the best film of 2021!

10/10 A+

Euphoria: Trouble Don’t Last Always (2020)

In the aftermath of being left by Jules at the train station and relapsing.

For the last several days I’ve been debating if I should count Euphoria: Trouble Don’t Last Always as something I would put on my 2020 Movie Ranking list. I eventually decided I will mostly due to two factors, one Sam Levinson himself said originally this special episode and the next one (January 24th) were going to be a movie (I would love to see Euphoria have a movie somewhere down the line) and second I’ve seen a lot of other people count it so why not? Besides this is one of the best written and well directed TV or Film of the year, Euphoria is one of the best TV series in recent memory the first season was fantastic and even got Zendaya a Emmy Win. So Trouble Don’t Last Always had a lot to live up to and it did a magnificent job, everything about this was truly perfect. Zendaya and Colman Domingo’s performances were absolutely incredible, this gave Domingo’s character Ali time to really shine, it’s some of the most beautiful acting and the most raw I’ve seen all year. Every single moment you believe everything that is going on, the conversation that Rue and Ali have in the diner feels very down to earth it really tackles drug addiction and does that beautifully. I remember crying at least three different times while watching this, it’s some very powerful stuff that truly gets to you. The arguments of the episode being “boring” is completely ridiculous Euphoria as a series is not all about glitter and drama, it tackles several issues and in this case it tackles one large issue that gives a massive amount of character development to Rue and Ali, it’s helping connect to season 2. Sam Levinson’s direction is absolutely beautiful and truly shows why he’s quickly becoming a director that’s going to end up having a very large career. I’ve heard Malcolm and Marie is going to be very similar like this special so not only might that get Zendaya an Oscar nomination (for Malcolm & Marie) but could see the potential of getting a best picture nomination. Overall Trouble Don’t Last Always is masterful, I just wanted to go over the basics because I definitely don’t want to spoil this for anyone, it’s truly something you must experience! I do recommend watching the first season of Euphoria as well!!

10/10 A+