DRAMARAMA (2021) is about a group of friends who met through their high school drama club. It’s the summer of 1994 in Escondido, Southern California. Having just graduated, they get together one last time before going their separate ways in the world. The primary point of view is told through Gene (Nick Pugliese), a somewhat geeky, closeted gay boy (as he’s not quite eighteen).
I found this movie fun and touching in places but also irritating at times. The intentional over-acting got tiresome, perhaps because I grew up around so much ebb and flow of emotional drama. That said, I do think the nearly constant histrionics, though sometimes humorous as intended, diluted the more intimate and sincere moments. I did find the leading character Gene to be the most relatable and developed among the ensemble.
DRAMARAMA is uneven, its finer moments evoking for me a sense of endearment for the cast. This is often a cute little screenplay, albeit far more stilted and strained than the more emotionally effective 1985 classic THE BREAKFAST CLUB, which it has been compared to. If you choose to watch this, your mileage may vary.
The Practical, Fanciful Pagan 
Haven’t watched this movie yet but am sure to with company this afternoon. I laughed my ass off when I read your last line.
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I’m glad you found my post entertaining. : ) Feel free to report back here about what you thought of the movie.
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I actually watched this movie twice, yesterday and today. The first time I found it more hilarious. After a while, it felt like they were acting as if the party itself was a play.
The way they brought up religious beliefs and following them so seriously surprised me. Having grown up Catholic in the sixties, those rules were never to be broken, come hell or high water. When push came to shove, they went straight out the window.
I can’t imagine parents leaving the house while the kids have a party, let alone a sleepover. I suppose they may have been friends for a very long time so the parents felt it would be safe enough to trust them.
The comments you made about the movie being “irritating at times, “intentional over-acting” and “constant histrionics” hit home. I agree that growing up “with so much ebb and flow of emotional drama” left me impatient for the movie to be over.
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Your commentary is insightful and interesting. This movie was about middle class suburban teenagers in a more conservative leaning community, so the characters were pretty insulated with religious beliefs around them than, say, how I was brought up, which was by parents who had largely rejected organized religious beliefs (though my former stepmother did become Zen Buddhist– more of a philosophy in thought, but certainly a religion in practice). I gather that you grew up where there was less discussion amongst you and your peers about religion and embracing your passed down faith vs. questioning it/parts of it? I do get how you were taught that Catholic doctrine was not to be questioned and was to be understood as absolute. My husband was raised that way too in his Catholic family.
I think you surmised correctly that the parents trusted these kids in the movie to be safe and responsible having a sleepover. Remember, the parents did arrive home for the night, so they weren’t left in an empty house, completely unsupervised. The movie’s believability would have diminished quite a bit if they had the run of the house overnight.
That’s interesting and affirming that you found yourself feeling impatient at times for the movie to be over, for the reasons I stated.
I’m glad you found this movie worth watching (twice, no less) and commenting about.
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