According to the calendar (if not the weather), spring would be upon us. And at this time of year, we older folk have a saying about birds and bees. I don’t pretend to know everything about that, but I was surely stung by this latest film The Drama. Most of you probably have heard of this already. The controversy has certainly gained traction to keep the movie in the top ten. Robert Pattinson and Zendaya play fiancées Charlie and Emma. In a bout of pre-wedding jitters, their best man and maid of honor (married in their own right) try to get them to reveal the worse thing they had ever done during a food tasting for the reception. As some of you know, this doesn’t end well. Emma, drunk, lets her secret spill and all hell breaks loose. I will preface that I had figured out this early twist before going into the movie. However, this didn’t prepare me for the kind of shenanigans I was about to get myself into. And for those know Emma’s dark secret, isn’t she more sympathetic than her friends? Because, you know, they actually followed through their horrible plans.
Auteur (used lightly) Kristoffer Borgli is the kind of cause celebre of a director that wishes he was Spike Jones or Ruben Ōstlund. Sadly, he is barely Lars von Trier; at least he can create a compelling sequence. Borgli’s premises are half-hearted at best and mean-spirited at worst. Any point he wants to get across is blunted by the mere fact that the punchline never comes. All setup with no satisfying payoff.
In his last feature, Dream Scenario, you could argue that these are moments of magical realism not to be taken seriously. Everything that happens in The Drama (aside from a dream sequence) happens for real. You think seeing a real man you never meet in your dreams is unbelievable? How about our main character trying to have sex with his co-worker (Hello, Hailey Benton Gates) and she just goes along with it like she is a rag doll, in a post Me Too world? I started to think Zendaya should be the one to reconsider the marriage. In the end, you’ll have to wonder if her “crime” is worth the punishment. Only, the characters who deserve that don’t get it; we the audience do.
As Monty Python would say, now for something completely different. You, Me & Tuscany couldn’t be more polar opposite to The Drama. Here we are in safe hands with producer Will Packer, the man behind Think Like A Man and Girls’ Trip. Halle Bailey is our perfect heroine, this side of Sandra Bullock. A house-sitter for wealthy clients and a once-aspiring chef in culinary school, she stubbles into a hotel run by a close friend desperate for a room. In the bar, a suave Italian named Matteo tells her about his empty villa in central Italy. After waking up alone in his hotel room, Anna hatches a plan to skip out on NYC for the rolling wine fields of Tuscany. At the start of a major festival in his hometown, Anna can’t get a place to stay. So of course she breaks into Matteo’s villa. Unbeknownst to her, his family still works on the upkeep and happens upon our Goldilocks. Through a series of mistakes, Matteo’s family thinks Anna is engaged to him. And the usual tropes of the genre ensue, recalling such films as While You Were Sleeping and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. There’s even a brief blink and you will miss her cameo from the latter. But these cliches are employed so well with a cast so engaging, you feel like this is a lost romantic comedy classic.
Marco Calvani (last seen on Netflix’s The Four Seasons) is delightfully silly as a cab driver who befriends Anna. And I can’t mention the streaming service and forget about The Duke himself, Regé-Jean Page as a vintner who complicates Anna’s situation in more ways than I will go into here. All I can say is if you are looking for the sweetest Italian treat this side of gelato, look no further. You will Eat, Pray, Love it.
