'The Drama' Has a Big Reveal

Films don’t come much more self-consciously provocative than Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama. It’s a cautionary tale about the power of gossip, designed to pique the curiosity of a social mediasphere in thrall to its gorgeous A-list stars. The sheer wattage on display is a bit blinding; putting Robert Pattinson and Zendaya together as upwardly mobile, slightly hipster-coded lovers against a metropolitan Boston backdrop is inspired bordering on diabolical. When museum director Charlie (Pattinson) chats up bookstore clerk Emma (Zendaya) in a coffee shop—he has to try it a couple of times because she’s deaf in the ear that isn’t crammed up by headphones— it’s the most nuclear-powered meet-cute in recent memory.