Dramarama review: ‘Charming tale of 90s teens gone mild is sheer fun’

Words: Jamie Tabberer; pictures: Provided

How many Christian teen films can you name? The Mandy Moore-starring Saved! was decent, if obscured by another high school-set movie from 2004. (Clue: it starts with Mean, ends in Girls).

Dramarama, then – about a gaggle of god-loving, drama-club-going teens, and their last alcohol-free sleepover before college – feels fresh and new. Maybe even groundbreaking. And this, despite a 1994 setting where everything, from minimalist Coke bottles to dowdy bed covers, is utterly of the era.

Nick Pugliese carries the film smoothly as the closeted Gene, rubbing up against the straight expectations – almost literally in one case – of well-intentioned friends Ally, Rose, Claire and Nico. (Played by Danielle Kay, Anna Grace Barlow, Megan Suri and Nico Greetham, respectively.) 

A crisis of faith plays out, and you wouldn’t blame Gene for feeling tormented. Instead the sardonic Pugliese is all raised eyebrows and rolling eyes. You don’t fear for him, for it’s as if he has the knowing confidence of a young LGBTQ slowly finding their feet in 2021.

Other angsty subplots are treated with similar delicacy. Indeed, Dramarama never deviates from bright and breezy for more than a few minutes, and that’s mostly a relief. Because the best thing about the film is undoubtedly the chemistry and sheer sense of fun between the core five.

Elevated by superb writing and limelight split equally, the actors have a ball. A fast-moving script is jam-packed with jokes, from the arch to the literary to the outright silly.

The night begins with an over-the-top costume party and riotous impersonations of Miss Havisham and Sherlock Holmes, then morphs into a hyperactive murder mystery party taken far too seriously, followed by an entirely innocent game called ‘surprise homosexual’. (It involves a flashlight, FYI…) Somehow, even that turns theatrical.

With no sex, drugs or rock and roll to be seen, just how much sugar are these lot consuming?

It all gets a bit much by the end. Every giggle, scream and moment of physical comedy feels choreographed to within an inch of its life. and characters grate. (Although not the too-cool-for-school Kay; dream BFF material by the final scene).

Despite all that happens, this reviewer was left with annoying questions about what went before and what happens next. The absence of a wider TV show to refer to for context was noticeable. But in a way, that speaks volumes about the characters’ worth.

3.5/5

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