Zendaya’s new film “The Drama” has finally hit theaters, and as you might expect, it’s all that people are talking about. But while the film hinges on a big secret that her character, Emma, shares, it’s a completely different person who actually deserves extra scrutiny.
Suggested Reading
To be specific, it’s Emma’s white best friend Rachel (played by Alana Haim), who’s at the center of this argument. Now, fair warning, reading any further will expose you to some serious spoilers if you haven’t seen the film yet. Like, big, huge ones. We’re basically about to tell you the entire premise of the film, full stop. So if you want to see it sans spoilers—STOP READING NOW. Because we’re about to drag Rachel for filth, and this piece will hit so much harder after you’ve seen it for yourself.
OK, now that we’ve adequately warned you—let’s get into it. As seen in the trailer, the movie’s central plot revolves around Emma and Charlie’s (played by Robert Pattinson) upcoming nuptials. Prior to their wedding, they join their friends, married couple Rachel and Mike (Mamoudou Athie), who are the Maid of Honor and Best Man, to help them choose wines for their ceremony. After several glasses, and at Rachel’s suggestion, they all decide to play a game where they all go around and say the worst thing they’ve ever done in their lives.
For the sake of clarity, we’ll skip over Mike and Charlie’s confessions and go straight to the ladies. For Rachel, the worst thing she’d ever done was trapping a mentally “slow” kid in the closet of an abandoned RV when she was younger and didn’t alert his parents or anyone that he was gone. After seeing the shock and dismay from her friends and husband, she downplayed her actions and tried to tie it with a ribbon of positivity by revealing that the kid was eventually found.
Now, let’s get into Emma’s secret. The worst thing she’d ever done—which was teased as a big mystery in the trailer and the promo—was that she planned out a school shooting. Although she didn’t go through with it, she spent months planning it, posting manifestos online, and even brought the gun to the school. But, after hearing of a local shooting at a mall that took the life of one of her classmates and seeing the grief it caused the school, she opted against it. Instead, she found community in a group of classmates who subsequently dedicated their extra time to speaking out against gun violence and joined them, drastically doing a 180 from where she was before.
To be clear: Emma almost going through with a school shooting is bad. It’s really bad. It’s horrible. Full stop. And to make matters even worse, Rachel told the group that one of her cousins is permanently wheelchair-bound after having been injured during a school shooting years prior. But the thing that she and some viewers keep pointing out is that Emma didn’t go through with it. She didn’t harm anyone, she didn’t cause any deaths or bring sorrow and grief to any families.
But, with the harsh way Rachel reacted in the moment over wine, all throughout the film, and later treated Emma during her wedding reception, you would think she did. And that is exactly why viewers are now seeing Rachel as the true villain of the film. Why? To put it bluntly: her selective outrage. When her friends tried to tell her how appalled they were at her locking a mentally disabled person in a closet and undoubtedly causing some form of mental trauma to that kid, she shrugged it off. She tried to make it less than what it was and instead blew up at Emma.
She actually hurt somebody, maybe not physically. But she definitely caused a level of sorrow for the boy and his family, especially after they realized he was missing and couldn’t find him. Rachel even insulted the kid by calling him “slow,” as if that was an excuse for her to treat him so cruelly. And if we really want to go there, we don’t know if she’s telling the complete truth about whether the parents ever found him, based on how she said it in the film.
What’s more is that, after finding out Emma’s big reveal—Rachel’s immediate response was rage and alienation. It festered and became even more of a big deal as the movie went on, so much so that it threatened to ruin Emma’s wedding (her “speech” during the reception was completely disingenuous and low-key threatened to ruin the whole ordeal). Rachel was just fine with people not being upset at her for what she actually did, but she drew the line at Charlie and others’ understanding of Emma for what she didn’t do? Give us a break.
And that’s exactly why viewers are calling her out on her BS on social media.
“overall, I feel like rachel was the only one who did smth ACTUALLY wrong. she KNEW the kid was challenged AND STILL left him alone and lied. when asked if would’ve said something if they couldn’t find him she said no DESPITE HIS DAD LOOKING?? girl gtfo,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.
Another user called out the hypocrisy in someone with a dark secret refusing to give grace to someone else.
“The hypocrisy in the drama is insane but also very well thought out because rachel actually DID something objectively awful but still positions herself as morally superior !! it’s such a perfect portrayal of how people weaponise morality,” said another.
One other user wrote, “Saw The Drama today. Left work early caught a mid afternoon showing. Not what I was expecting at all but had me thinking all day. Theres only one villain in that movie though and her name is Rachel.”
If you don’t think Rachel is the one who deserves to be judged, another user suggesting watching the film more than once.
Added another: “the drama does get better on the second watch once you realize how rachel is the actual antagonist of the film.”
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.