THE DRAMA**** (spoilers)

Kristoffer Borgli's THE DRAMA is a nasty little relationship drama and social satire about good people doing bad things and bad people who are po-faced and judgmental. Zendaya and Robert Pattinson continue to make challenging and interesting choices that belie their teen-star good looks.  They play Emma and Charlie - a young loving couple who seem perfect for each other until goaded into reveal the worst thing they have ever done by their best friends Rachel and Mike.  Emma reveals that as a young teenage girl she planned a school shooting but did not go through with it and is immediately shunned by her maid of honour Rachel (Alana Haim) despite the fact that Rachel didn't just plan but did something really horrific - imprisoning a young developmentally challenged boy and leaving him for dead. 

In fact, there is something wrong with the whole way in which the friend group reacts. Nobody thinks to ask why young Emma might have been so disenchanted and alienated and bullied that she felt she had to commit an act of mass killing.  Nobody asks how she is feeling now that she has revealed it.  Just judgy Karen being the true villain of the piece and dragging her poor husband Mike along with her.  And nice earnest fiance making poor Emma restate her motivations despite the fact that reliving the memory is making her throw up.  

The resulting film is a nasty, raw and occasionally mordantly funny drama. I really believed in Emma and Charlie and wanted their relationship to work.  I also really liked how Borgli was very consciously playing with rom-com tropes - the meet-cute, the dumb cutesy in-jokes, even the .... well... end-cute?  It's like he's saying I know this is dumb and makes no sense and is incredible but go with me because I am using this genre-bullshit to show you what's going on with this young black woman in this hyper-white judgy scenario.  And I was there for it. 

THE DRAMA is rated R and has a running time of 105 minutes. It was released earlier this month.

CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN'***

X-MEN actor James McAvoy turns director in this charming, fast-paced, you-cannot-believe-it's-true story of two young Scottish lads who adopt Eminem-adjacent American personas to fool the prejudiced London music industry into giving them a recording contract.  Unable to attract interest as "the rapping Proclaimers", Billy and Gavin get a recording contract as their California avatars Silibil and Brains, and predictably proceed to exploit their new-found access to booze and girls.  They want to reveal their true identities on a famous MTV show live on air, and show up the music industry as bigots, because will they have the courage to go through with it? And if they don't, what will lying to their colleagues, friends, family and even to themselves to do their psyches?

The arc of this film is pretty unexciting and predictable. Decent kids get fame, go crazy, fall out with each other, turn their backs on all that is wholesome and true, before a last-act redemption.  What makes the film worth watching are the kinetic, grab-you-by-the-balls direction;  the compelling central performances from Samuel Bottomley and Sean Maclean Ross, who have to rap as well as act; and the sheer insanity of the story.  After I watched this film, I went on to watch the documentary, "The Great Hip Hop Hoax", and to read the real-life Gavin's autobiography. If anything, this feature film re-telling underplays just how good the boys were musically, just how far they got in the music industry, and just what utter nightmares they were when they started exploiting alcohol and women. 

A special shout out to actress Lucy Halliday (currently starring in The Testaments), who forms the calm moral centre of the film.  There's something really transfixing about her stoicism and quiet, understated performance.  Where another actress or another director might have asked her for histrionics, Halliday just radiates good sense, disenchantment and a quiet fierce strength as Billy's girlfriend Mary.

CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN' has a running time of 107 minutes. It played Toronto 2025 and is currently on release in the UK.