Weddings suck. They aim to be a joyful celebration of love, an outward declaration of commitment, and blah, blah, blah. Really, though, they’re a source of stress and chaos. The drama of planning a wedding overwhelms the pleasure of having one. Like, how many weddings in the grand tradition of cinematic nuptials actually seemed fun? Life is more The Deer Hunter than Crazy Rich Asians or Melancholia than Bridesmaids.

Add The Drama to the great list of wedding movies that are more likely to inspire audiences to say “I don’t” than “I do.” It’s cringe comedy in top form as Zendaya and Robert Pattinson push their bride and groom to be to the brink. Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Pattinson) seem to be moving along to a dream wedding, but a game with their friends Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie) changes everything.

As the happy couple finalizes the wedding menu days before the event, and they decide to try another wine, Rachel asks a question. “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” The answers prove generally banal, if plausible. However, Emma outdoes everyone with a shocking secret. The revelation reframes the table’s perception of Emma, as well as their relationships with her. Things get messy very quickly.

When Emma’s revelation quickly marks her as a potentially violent threat to her friends and family, she ultimately seems like the sanest person in the wedding party. (Mike gives her a run for her money, arguably offering the film’s voice of reason.) Rachel, for example, quickly pivots and makes Emma’s transgression—one of thought, rather than action—all about her. It’s a pivot laced with privilege and entitlement, as if Rachel feels the need to defend herself for being outed as the loser of the bunch and therefore needs to work overtime so that Emma can’t atone for the bad deed that she considered, but never followed through with doing.

Writer/director Kristoffer Borgli (Dream Scenario) relishes the opportunity to push buttons. The Drama has a rom com hook, but blows away the make-cute premise. It positions itself within the cinema of discomfort that sets out to make audiences squirm in their seats with pointed questions about relationships. The unease it provokes encourages audiences to tackle everything that bubbles beneath the surface. It also invites audiences to weigh questions of morality and intentionality, but also rules of forgiveness and commitment.

As The Drama cuts between past and present episodes of Emma’s relationship with Charlie, the film observes how one seed of information, however old it may be, changes everything. Some labels are impossible to shake, and Charlie can’t help but worry that he’s committing his life to a sociopath. The film’s design shifts and twists perceptions and allegiances, too. Flashbacks interrupt contemporary scenes with breakneck speed, while cutaways to fantasies twist notions of reality. This film unfolds in spaces where the truth matters less than the perception of things, of course, as weddings seek to fashion a comfortably Instagrammable snapshot of two people who’ve achieved perfection. But Emma and Charlie worsen matters as much as they possibly can leading up to and throughout the big day.

The Drama forces intensely uncomfortable conversations with its gambit of extreme awkwardness. Much in the fashion of After the Hunt, The Drama could and should spark some heated post-screening discussions. As with the Julia Roberts drama, it’s not going to satisfy audiences who want the contemporary issues spoon-fed to them. Sure, it could tackle hot-button topics like gun violence in America or racial inequity more explicitly, but it’s not about those issues. Instead, it holds up a mirror to anyone who defaults into Rachel’s me-me-me mode and centres himself or herself over matters like their friend’s mental health. The film treads condescension by refusing to give audiences anything to work with cleanly, but audiences willing to dig into the greater questions invited by its rich psychological warfare are in for a treat.

This darkly funny tête-à-tête only works because Zendaya and Pattinson embrace the challenge. They create two characters who are frequently unlikable, but also sympathetic because they’re so reliably flawed. We’ve all been there and have dreaded things we’ve said or done, or had negative thoughts that never grew into anything more. (Although, hopefully, not so violent ones.)

They’re great scene partners as Emma and Charlie wrestle with internalized agony, wanting to sweep the whole situation under the rug while aware that every passing second of leaving things unsaid escalates the ticking time bomb of their relationship. When The Drama explodes, it does so spectacularly, leaving no party innocent or unsullied. You’ll learn a lot about your friends by how they receive it.

The Drama opens in theatres April 3.