The drama of The Drama isn’t a total secret—if you’re looking to spoil the button-pushing premise for yourself, a quick Google search will do the trick. But the writer-director Kristoffer Borgli’s new film hinges on the viewer’s reaction to one character’s shocking revelation. The film doesn’t linger on its provocation, however; instead it sits with the moment’s ramifications in ways both darkly funny and sneakily challenging. Whether it tickles or offends, The Drama seems intent on generating a strong reaction from everyone who sees it.And with Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as its stars, many people will likely go see it. Both actors are fond of taking some risks in the projects they pick, and this time they’re rolling the dice with Borgli. The Norwegian filmmaker’s last effort was Dream Scenario, a surreal comedy that never quite gelled. The Drama thankfully has a tighter focus. Charlie (Pattinson) and Emma (Zendaya) seem to be an ideal couple, well matched in looks and career—he’s a bumbling but handsome British museum director; she is a spunky, beautiful bookstore clerk. That impression changes when, days before their nuptials, while she and Charlie hang out with friends, Emma shares a dark story from her past, throwing her fiancé into a deep existential crisis.What she tells them is crucial, and not just as a way to get the plot rolling. Emma’s history is jarring, rooted in her uncomfortable experiences as a teenager. Charlie isn’t sure how reliable she is as a narrator of her earlier misdeeds, and neither is the audience. That disconnect is the point of Charlie’s panic—can you ever really know someone? Even the person you’re planning to spend the rest of your life with? Emma’s past behavior is very specific and horrifying to consider, yet what makes The Drama broadly appealing is Charlie’s anxiety about it. Anyone who’s even been adjacent to planning a wedding of any size has borne witness to what this couple is going through: pondering what fond memories to put in their vows, what friends they should pick to give speeches, how to present their coupledom within the expectations of matrimony. Borgli has nasty fun with that pressure (an obnoxious photographer, played by Zoë Winters, is a highlight), before really twisting the knife with Emma’s big admission.[Read: The existential terror of monogamy]That comes at a dinner table with Emma and Charlie’s best friends, Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Alana Haim). Rachel dares the group to reveal “the worst thing” they’ve ever done, then reacts with total revulsion when Emma actually divulges something alarming. Weddings are designed to portray the most manicured vision of a couple, but Borgli wants his viewers to reckon with a question: What secrets could everyone involved—including the guests and members of the wedding party—have buried to protect that image? Zendaya, who has the more dramatic role, deftly captures the growing isolation that comes with her confession; she constantly looks on the verge of either vomiting or scratching her skin off once her friends and fiancé begin to perceive her differently.Pattinson is Zendaya’s incredibly funny foil. He leans into full buffoonery, stumbling over furniture and stammering every other line like he’s Hugh Grant from Four Weddings and a Funeral on turbo mode. It’s a sweetly observed take on gentle masculinity coming unhinged, and stands among the best performances Pattinson has ever given. Since hitting it big with Twilight (as the longed-for romantic lead), the actor seems to be most interested in attacking the concept of alpha heroism in every way he can—for example, as the dirtbag grifter he played in Good Time and the Looney Tunes–voiced grunt worker in Mickey 17. In The Drama, Pattinson embodies Charlie as the model of tame, harmless Brit charm, and the minute the actor has built his character up, he clearly takes perverse delight in unraveling him.But Borgli isn’t just delivering a biting satire on the ultimate case of cold feet. He also offers little snippets of Emma’s past in flashback to chew over, and leaves it to the viewer to decide what is or isn’t forgivable. Her transgression is one of the worst things imaginable; in a way, what Emma is hiding stems from a societal ill that gets papered over every day. The Drama doesn’t know how to solve that problem. It does know that there’s a wicked sport in picking away at it.