Carter Haskins

The Drama (2026)

April 6th, 2026

A cinema of symbols with no interest in their referents. A few of the concepts are interesting to me—mass shootings, mass shootings that aren’t followed through on, the way that knowing that about someone would affect the way you see them, etc. Unfortunately, Borgli has almost no real interest in any of these things, and when he does it is extremely childish. The young Emma vignettes are cartoonish and silly at best, punctuated with cheap jokes. Yes, the film is a comedy, but at times Borgli’s script gives the air of genuine interest in the loaded topic he settled on for this film, so it is frustrating that he is unable to earnestly engage with it at all.

Borgli’s camera is unbelievably boring and the staging of every scene is lazy and uninspired. His biggest crime, though, is his decision to edit the film himself. I’m sure someone else could have scraped together a serviceable product with this footage, but like Ti West before him, Borgli can’t help himself. The choppy cutting around to imaginative scenarios, embarrassing cutaways with young Emma replacing Zendaya, all stand out as distracting asides.

The third act, cashing in on the immensely profitable Safdiesque tension building, is as effective as it can be until the film comes to a screeching halt in the diner. I was hoping the ending would be interesting or at the very least exciting, giving the audience the expected gun violence, but no. Borgli seems to have forgotten to come up with an ending to his film.

The Ari Aster DJ bit is extremely good, though.

And for the love of god, get Alana Haim out of the movies.