Want to Cancel ‘The Drama’? You’re Missing the Point

The Sam Sanders Show

KCRW & Sam Sanders

Tv & Film, Society & Culture

4.9 • 707 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Note: This episode contains spoilers!

A24’s ‘The Drama’ has pissed off many moviegoers.

The film, directed by Kristoffer Borgli, follows a newly engaged couple played by Zendaya and Robert Pattinson. The trailer gives rom-com vibes, until a shocking confession threatens to end their relationship.

This movie (and the discourse around it) raises a lot of tricky questions: What does a movie studio owe to the public? How provocative should a mainstream film ever be? What kind of movie star is Zendaya? Sam dives into all of this with Amy Nicholson, film critic at the ‘Los Angeles Times’ and co-host of the ‘Unspooled’ podcast.

The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey y'all, Sam here. Thanks so much for listening to my show with KCRW.
0:09.8	This episode, going to talk about a movie called The Drama.
0:15.4	It's a new A24 film written and directed by Christopher Borgley.
0:20.7	Got to say, right here, there will be spoilers in this chat.
0:24.4	But also, I think people take spoilers too seriously.
0:28.0	Anywho, the drama.
0:29.5	It stars Zendaya and Robert Pattinson,
0:32.3	looking as if they are about to get married to each other.
0:35.2	The wedding is this Saturday.
0:36.7	The stories are you going to do? What are you going this Saturday? The stories are you going to do?
0:37.7	What do you mean for my speech?
0:41.2	Are you going to use the first time you met?
0:43.1	Yes.
0:44.4	Okay, what about the first date?
0:45.9	The marketing makes it feel like this would be a rom-com with the dash of A-24 weirdness.
0:52.9	But the drama is a lot more than that.
0:55.2	And it's already pissed off a lot of viewers.
0:57.6	Like City Girls rapper J.T.
0:59.9	Whoever thought of that need to be in jail.
1:01.8	Like whoever, like they need to be in jail.
1:04.2	Like, call the police.
1:05.6	Zendaya was on Jimmy Kimmel's show recently to talk about the drama.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KCRW & Sam Sanders, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KCRW & Sam Sanders and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.