'The Drama' Is Insane...

My favorite thing about The Drama is how Emma’s “worst thing” story doesn’t even involve her actually hurting anybody while all the other stories do.

My theater was empty (😔) so during the wedding speech scene I started pacing around my theater

the wedding photographer killed me

SO glad that none of the trailers spoiled the conflict. Got to see it in a packed theater and the crowd reactions were priceless

I find it really interesting that Emma is the only one of the four who didn't actually harm anybody and she is treated the by the far the worst. Literally moments before Charlie confessed to bullying someone to the point that he moved away and they minimise it by saying he was only young, yet Emma who was the same age and was bullied confesses to nearly doing something terrible at the same age and is treated like a psycho.

The most stressed out I’ve maybe ever felt in a non-horror movie

Summary of the movie : The people who bully vs the people who got bullied when they become adults.

The build up to the insane twist of the DJ working with one of the servers actually made my jaw drop.

the entire wedding scene had me watching through my fingers

The gag is how the people who are so quick to shame her were actually horrible people themselves. Mike used his girlfriend as a human shield against a dog; Rachel took advantage of a special needs kid and locked him in a closet; Charlie bullied someone to the point of leaving school, he's litterly in the same group of people that caused Emma to make that plan.

I found it confusing how they kept saying they would call the police. The thought police?!

the way I wouldn't have cared about her confession

Had a mostly full theater of people who clearly weren't spoiled and all the horrified gasps and faces buried in hands was a joy to be a part of

why is no one talking about THE GENIUS of having that cable jump right when emma's father was mentioning his rifle? I was so on edge I jumped from my seat!! genius

Tbh I think Rachel never really liked Emma, their first scene together, when they're talking about Emma's vows, Rachel was already judging Emma and treating her like shit there, I think she exploded about the "almost shooting" bc she wanted to fully hate Emma from the start, if Emma had told me that story, I'd just say "I'm so sorry" and move on, Rachel wanted to justify a dislike for Emma that was already there

I wonder what Rachel would have wanted to happen. For Emma to never be able to start anew? To always be shackled to the plans she made as a child but didn't go through with? No second chance for anyone who has made a mistake or even thought about doing something horrible?

Watched it last week. I think it was a clever choice to focus the perspective to Charlie for 99% of the time. It forces the audience to construct who Emma is at the same time as charlie, from her retelling of her story and her actions before and after the reveal, and to come to their own conclusion if they want to ultimatly belive and trust her, or reject her.

The side characters (photographer, dj, Charlie’s coworker) were hilarious and felt like actual people

Drama

I'm seeing a lot of people say things such as "Well Rachel is actually worse than Emma because Emma didn't go through with it" or "Emma wasn't even that bad because she didn't do it" and I think people are missing the point entirely. Yes, what Emma did (or the thought process) IS that bad and no sane or healthy person should ever have these thoughts of mass murdering innocent people, let alone children. I think this movie has a lot to say about the topics you discussed but I think the core of this movie is rooted in how we as a society treat mass shootings and why they're as common as they are. I think the three main characters that revolve around Emma (Charlie, Rachel and Mike) all represent a group of people or thought process when these events happen in real life. Charlie is obviously representing the group of people who downplay the severity of this issue in our society and/or justify why a person can be pushed to this level. We even see Charlie make up a lie to justify Emma's thoughts by saying she witnessed her best friend's car crash. Rachel, in my opinion, represents the group of people who become blindly outraged by stuff without trying to find the root of the problem or even a solution to the problem. We see all of the time politicians and media condemn school shootings, but what are they really doing to fix the problem? They cast judgement and disgust despite having major flaws themselves (hence why Rachel had the worst actual action out of the four) but fail to come down to a human level and see reason or try to fix a problem. And for Mike, I think he represents the people who don't do anything. The common man who sees the weekly headlines of mass shootings but has zero thoughts on it and doesn't do anything because it's not their problem. We see Mike put his foot in both camps but realistically doesn't try to make any attempt at helping and it honestly feels like he tries ignoring it completely. All three of these characters do one of these three things; Downplay and excuse her thoughts, judge her without showing any empathy whatsoever, or just flat out ignore it completely. Notice how no-one does what actually needs to be done, which is get Emma help. Emma has gone her whole life suffering through some type of mental illness and it's gone completely unchecked, which almost resulted in a fatal event. People like her father notice things like missing guns (a common stereotype in parents of school shootings) and completely shrug it off as a joke. Charlie rationalizes the decision by lying for her and saying, "She didn't kill anyone, though!" Charlie even acknowledges that the only reason she didn't go through with it is due to the fact that someone beat her to it but still defends her saying she wouldn't have done it no matter what, kind of like what Rachel was saying about herself and how she would've eventually said something abt the missing boy. No-one initially came to help Emma when she was younger and noticed the bullying. No-one checked on her or questioned her extensive knowledge on mass shooting statistics (Again, a very common stereotype in mass shooters.) People in her life had multiple opportunities to recognize potential problems and seek help but failed. I don't think anyone is flawed or a bad person for sympathizing for Emma, as I did, too. But we need to start recognizing that going through a rough childhood and getting bullied does not justify the thought or intention of mass murder. To me, it's clear Emma suffers from mental illness (my best guess is OCD) and the mass majority of mass shooters suffer from the same, they just went unchecked. No-one provided help or resources to these people to check these thoughts, and it happens every single day. I loved the movie and think it can be a strong contender for getting a best picture nomination at the end of the year. I think the movie has so much to say about society, mass shootings, relationships, trust, ethics and the question of, "Can anyone actually change?" There are so many smart story choices in this movie and I think each character is extremely layered that I could talk about it for hours on end. I just hope the discussion of this movie doesn't just boil down to "Rachel is worse than Emma" and that people can dig deeper to everything it has to say.