Unpacking Zendaya In ‘The Drama’ & The Film’s Discourse

I don’t agree entirely, because I think this confession tells us a lot about Emma. How often do we see an anxious Black woman onscreen who did something so bad, she isolated herself from everyone? Friendship is integral to a lot of Black women, but lonely Black folks exist. And even if they didn’t, it’s fun to get to see a character onscreen I truly have never seen before, played by a biracial Black woman. Emma is someone who threw herself into an interracial relationship with an older man and did not care that he bamboozled her into a first date by pretending to have read the book she was lost in when he first spotted her. She diffuses arguments by pantsing him. Emma draws the line at her DJ doing heroin (allegedly), but shrugs off Charlie’s infidelity. She’s confusing and utterly captivating, thanks in large part to Zendaya’s careful performance. I would have watched another hour of Zendaya’s Emma trying to figure out her feelings and Pattinson’s Charlie fucking up as his feelings eclipsed hers. Together, they are eccentric and electric. My biggest beef with The Drama is that Zendaya and Pattinson’s palpable chemistry, at times, feels wasted on a comedy with very little romance. As a twisted dark comedy about forgiveness, the price of radical honesty, and the limits of unconditional love, The Drama works. As a romance, it leaves a lot to be desired.