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A24’s new movie, “The Drama,” is being criticized by some gun safety advocates who say the studio should have done more to warn audiences about the dark plot at the center of the film.
The movie, which is being released in North American theaters on Friday, follows soon-to-be newlyweds Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson), who grapple with how to proceed with their upcoming nuptials after the bride-to-be confesses the “worst thing” she’s ever done: plan a school shooting as a teen.
While she didn’t go through with it — and the film does not show any actual gun violence — some scenes feature flashbacks of a younger Emma who appears fascinated with her father’s rifle and is seen filming a shooter’s confessional video while planning the massacre.
“With a subject this serious, especially in the U.S., that conversation cannot begin and end on screen,” March for Our Lives, a youth-driven organization first created by students who survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday. “It has to carry through in how the film is presented.”
A24 did not respond to NBC News’ requests for comment.
Many moviegoers have yet to see “The Drama,” but people began weighing in online after the plot was revealed in a March TMZ article. The publication spoke with Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was killed during the 1999 Columbine High School shooting. Mauser, who hadn’t seen the movie at the time of the interview, said he believes the plot “humanizes” shooters and “normalizes school shootings.”
Some criticism has also focused on the film’s marketing, which has been described as misleading.
In the months leading up to its rollout, A24 went all in on wedding-themed promotion. The studio put an ad in The Boston Globe in December that looked like a fake engagement announcement. It opened a one-day wedding chapel in Las Vegas, where couples were promised a “spontaneous,” “glamorous” and “a little bit dangerous affair.”
The March premiere in Los Angeles had an after-party that featured a Champagne tower, tiered cake, red balloons and roses, and themed cocktails.
“The way this film has been marketed is deeply misaligned with the reality it engages,” March for Our Lives wrote in its post. “We expect better from A24 and the artists behind it.”
Mia Tretta, a gun violence survivor, also rebuked the film’s premise in a statement provided to NBC News through the nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety.
“Hollywood is treating school shootings like ‘edgy twists’ to drive ticket sales, but for me, this isn’t a plot point,” said Tretta, who also serves as an adviser for the group Students Demand Action.
Fifty-nine percent of adults in the U.S., or someone they care about, have experienced gun violence in their lifetime, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. “More than 4,300 children and teens (0-19) are shot and killed every year and over 17,000 more are shot and wounded,” the organization said.
“It’s a reality I lived through when I was shot at my school at 15 years old, and again as a terrified student at Brown this past December,” Tretta said. “Using a planned massacre as a rom-com hook isn’t ‘starting a conversation,’ it’s exploiting a crisis. There are ways to show nuance without using trauma as a gimmick. Studios and stars have massive platforms and they should use them to give dimension to survivors, not perpetrators.”
Pop culture depictions of school shootings have often stoked controversy, with many viewers debating the line between storytelling and sensitivity. Some projects, like 2011’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” drew mostly positive reviews for tackling the subject head-on. Others have struggled to land — a reboot of “Heathers,” for example, was repeatedly postponed amid a string of mass shootings in 2018.
“The Drama” has so far generated a positive response: As of Friday, it had garnered an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, which compiles critics’ reviews.
Online, some Redditors have echoed gun safety advocates’ concerns when discussing whether they want to see the film after learning more about the plot.
“I’m glad the twist is getting leaked so people have an opportunity to avoid it,” one Reddit user wrote. “I don’t think shock-jocking mass shooting survivors is worth preserving a movie’s twist. I get that A24 wants to make money but it shouldn’t be at the expense of people who have experienced something traumatic.”
Others have come to the movie’s defense. “Art is art — it’s meant to be controversial,” another user wrote. “And these events are already kinda normalised aren’t they? That’s the problem?”
Writer-director Kristoffer Borgli appeared to anticipate a polarizing reaction, telling the audience at the L.A. premiere that it’s been “a challenge to put a genre on the movie.”
“You decide what it is for you,” he said before the film was screened. “You can laugh. You can cry. You can leave the theater if you want to.”
In an interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Zendaya also touched on the film being tough to describe.
“What’s difficult about even talking about the movie is there are so many different genres. It is a romantic comedy in many ways, but it’s also a drama. … Everybody has their own kind of feelings leaving the theater, especially with the big twist,” she said. “There’s so many conversations that are had after you watch it. … I really hope people don’t spoil it for each other, so they are allowed to go into it unknowing and really experience the drama.”
March for Our Lives said it hopes the film does spark conversation.
“But,” the organization wrote in its Instagram post, “when something like a school shooting is treated lightly or played for irony, it raises a deeper question: what kind of conversation is this meant to start?”
