A24’s dark comedy feature DramaStarring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, the film has already become the center of debate, despite efforts by the studio to hide the film’s true subject matter from its marketing.
As revealed in media reports about the project hitting theaters on Friday, writer-director Christopher Borgli’s film (spoilers ahead) centers on Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Pattinson), whose upcoming wedding is thrown into jeopardy when the bride-to-be reveals that she planned a school shooting as a teen – and even took her father’s weapon to school – but ultimately that doesn’t happen. Could.
during a conversation with hollywood reporterJackie Korine – co-founder of March for Our Lives and survivor of the 2018 Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which took 17 lives – calls the film “an inevitable evolution in storytelling”, noting how often school attacks are part of the cultural narrative.
“Gun violence, especially in schools, is not just another dramatic device,” says Korine, who has not yet seen the film. “Art has the ability to deepen public understanding and create emotional clarity and awareness, but it can also flatten and distort reality, especially when it relies on shorthand or tries to make something more palatable than it really is. As with something like a nearby school shooting, even small tonal choices can change whether a story feels productive or dismissive.”
Drama It is noteworthy that the film clearly aims to examine the mindset of a person who thinks of carrying out such a tragic event, but it plays the plot partly for comedy. Mia Treta, who survived being shot in the stomach as a student during the 2019 shooting at her high school in Santa Clarita, California, recently reported USA Today“A character planning a school shooting is not something that should be joked about.” For her part, Corrin acknowledges that humor can be a way for audiences to overcome fear or sadness and that this approach is not inherently inappropriate.
Jackie Korin was the guest tonight show In 2022.
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“I’m a survivor of the Parkland school shooting, in which 17 of my classmates and teachers were killed,” says Korine. “There’s no shying away from the subject matter. So when humor enters the frame, it can feel very alienating. Unfortunately, it’s not even just the people who live through it. It’s the millions of kids across this country who fear it every day. So what may be satire or tonal contradiction for one audience can be very disturbing to another. Is.”
When asked if casting two glamorous celebrities – Zendaya and Pattinson – in the lead roles might add a cool factor to the idea of planning a shoot, Korine was quick to point out that this had been a concern of hers.
“That was my biggest concern when I heard about the conspiracy,” she says. “When you have someone like Zendaya and Robert Pattinson attached to a project, both of them – separately, but especially together – bring an enormous amount of attention and cultural weight. They are icons for a lot of young people. That can be a real asset if the project is handled carefully, but it also means the message reaches an audience that might not otherwise connect with the issue.” “It increases the risk.”
robert pattinson and zendaya Drama.
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The studio chose not to acknowledge the shooting topic prior to the film’s release, as journalists were instructed not to tease anything about the revelation of Zendaya’s character in advance screenings. in his review Drama For hollywood reporterCritic Richard Lawson wrote, “This is a deceptively simple drama of cold feet, of pre-wedding jitters, only tainted by higher-minded, more piercing social inquiry. What Emma specifically reveals does not ultimately matter.”
Korine says that the stars do not use their press tour to address anything related to the subject matter of the shooting – the press events are mostly light-hearted and include conversations about the pair’s real-life friendship – which has made it difficult for audiences to understand why the cast felt the film was worth making. (“Definitely an interesting strategy—that’s one way of saying it,” she quips about the decision to hide the shoot from marketing.)
Korin says of Zendaya and Pattinson, “I hope they use their platform to talk responsibly about gun violence because they’ve decided to play these characters.” “I don’t think the question is, ‘Should someone like Zendaya or Robert Pattinson be in a project like this?’ But does this project really live up to the level of care that its platform brings?
