Kristoffer Borgli’s provocative new The Drama turns on the revelation of a secret past that is more of an abstraction than the one in the other half of this pairing, making the resulting relationship rift between Zendaya and Robert Pattinson’s characters both frustrating and fascinating to parse. After talking through our responses to the film’s button-pushing, and our vastly different takes on its ending, we bring A History of Violence back in for Connections to see how two films with very different agendas court our sympathy for both the secret-keepers and the secret-kept, and explore the intertwined questions of how much a person can change and how much punishment they deserve for their past. Then in Your Next Picture Show we recommend a couple other films that would make a good The Drama double feature, Sleeping Dogs Lie and The Celebration.

Please share your thoughts about A History of Violence, The Drama, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Next Pairing: Bet Wheatley's Normal and Joel & Ethan Coen's Fargo.

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#520: Past Imperfect, Pt. 2 — The Drama