The Drama has been branded ‘the most uncomfortable film of the year’ and ‘cringe out loud satire’ as critics call Zendaya and Robert Pattinson ‘a match made in hell’ in the genre-busting new film.

The new romantic comedy, written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, premiered on March 17 in LA and is set to be released in the US on April 3.

It follows the story of a young couple called Emma Harwood and Charlie Thompson and their lead up to their wedding.

But just days before their big day, one of them admits to something totally shocking, which sends the other into a spiral.

Bride-to-be Emma confesses to planning a school shooting as a teenager, but never went through it – and this leaves Charlie wondering if he truly knows the woman he is marrying.

Euphoria actress Zendaya, 29, has taken on the role of bookstore clerk Emma, while Twilight star Robert, 39, plays her fiancé Charlie.

Although it’s not out until Friday, critics have been able to get a sneak peak of the film – and it has certainly received a mixed bag of reviews.

The Telegraph’s Tim Robey headline stated: ‘Zendaya and Robert Pattinson are a match made in hell.’

He continued: ‘The Drama’s trailer took the internet by storm, promising dark twists and compelling romance, but the film is a damp squib.’

He adds: ‘The Drama promises bombshell revelations and the wedding from hell, but serves up a cramped, feel-bad, unromantic comedy with characters we don’t care about.

‘Before they both appear in The Odyssey and Dune: Part Three later this year, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson spar as a couple whose contentment is shredded in the run-up to their nuptials.

‘But any chemistry we might expect from this pair is extinguished by the story, and they’re powerless to stop the film from feeling like an implausible wind-up.’

However Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey was a fan of the movie.

Her headline states: ‘Zendaya movie’s big twist makes this the most uncomfortable film of the year.’

She adds: ‘No other film this year will make you feel as uncomfortable as The Drama. Don’t miss out on it.

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It follows the story of a young couple called Emma Harwood and Charlie Thompson and their lead up to their wedding

‘It’s provocative and compulsively watchable – a romcom that obliterates the very meaning of the word, by thrusting love under the psychoanalyst’s microscope and tearing laughter by force from its viewers’ throats.’

‘That makes it a small miracle in our modern artistic landscape: a film that never spoon-feeds its audience or worries too much about having every screw on its carriage tightened.

‘It’s conflicted, messy, ambiguous, and imperfect, but it’s treated with enough of a delicate, scrupulous hand to test the moral waters and not degrade itself in the process.’

And The Times chief film critic Kevin Maher couldn’t agree more, having awarded the film five stars, describing it as ‘cringe-out-loud satire’.

He writes: ‘The first half of the film is a satire, with tonal echoes of the Swedish film-maker Ruben Ostlund (The Square especially), as Charlie and Emma’s entitled and quietly affluent milieu is pilloried for its affectation and for its reliance on wood-panelled dining rooms, executive suites and high culture while something rotten lurks beneath.

‘A fabulous early sequence revolves around the crafting of Charlie’s wedding speech, and here both Borgli’s pitiless writing and Pattinson’s exquisite timing let us see that Charlie is reconstructing his relationship to reflect his own wit and perspicacity rather than his love for Emma.

‘Pattinson is sublime at playing the unexamined dolt (see him also in Damsel and High Life) and this film feels like a potent palate cleanser after his previous dramedy misfire, the cartoonish Die My Love.’

He adds: ‘The film’s only flaw? That awful title.’

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But just days before their big day, one of them admits to something totally shocking, which sends the other into a spiral

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw adds: ‘So The Drama is an insouciantly offensive mashup of two American phenomena: the Hollywood marriage comedy and the high-school shooting. Part of its ingenuity is this generic ambiguity: satire or thriller?

‘We may not be sure of the tone in which the secret is presented; its status as a macabre black-comic absurdity depends on accepting Emma’s complete recovery.

‘A female shooter is vanishingly rare compared with male ones, but Borgli’s script pre-empts that objection with examples.

‘Charlie begins to wonder if Emma’s latent tendency to violence may resurface. And the film makes the perfectly serious point that there are probably thousands of people like this walking among us: the secret near-murderers who didn’t go through with it and pivoted back to normality.’

Empire’s Emma Stefansky adds: ‘It’s a testament to Borgli’s skill as a writer and director that the big reveal is not the movie’s main focus.

‘It’s the driving force behind everything that comes after, sure, but The Drama is more interested in tracking how people deal (or fail to deal) with finding out their loved ones are maybe not who they seem to be, the little ways in which we punish each other for not acting the way we should, the abject humiliation of putting your partnership on display for all to see and scrutinise, and determining whether or not any of that even matters.

‘Relationships — familial, romantic, platonic — are built on a foundation of tiny decisions, and if those decisions start to crumble, the whole thing comes crashing down.

‘The drama of The Drama is visible in every uncomfortable stutter, every moment of avoided eye contact, every back turned instead of consolation offered.

‘You can pinpoint the exact moment when the central couple hits a decisive, defining crossroads for their future.

‘You can pinpoint the exact moment when they both realise it, too.

‘Zendaya and Pattinson both thrive in this environment, relishing the kind of dialogue exchanges you want to watch through your fingers.

‘Emma is woefully unprepared for her past to come back and haunt her, especially by her own doing.

‘Charlie is completely adrift without a model on which to mirror his heretofore charmed life, and the pureness of his panic shocks even himself.

‘Together, they’re a total disaster when real cracks start to show in their partnership. Borgli traps them in glamorous close-ups that reveal every flinch.’

New York Post’s Johnny Oleksinski writes: ‘Good thing it’s called “The Drama.”

‘A nice name like “The Wedding” would be extremely misleading. Even “The Couple” could end up a date-night disaster. Titling this oddity “The Drama” is, at least, not a bait and switch.

‘Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some furious theater walkouts about a half hour into the shocking A24 movie starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.

‘That’s when a nuclear revelation completely rewires this tricky movie’s whole identity. What exactly am I watching here? Well, what you definitely are not at is a romantic comedy. Don’t enter expecting to smile. Many will leave having experienced “The Trauma.”

‘For the brave, avoid any spoilers or even vague whispers at all costs. Going in cold, you’ll never guess the bombshell. Be warned: When the scene arrives, you might absolutely loathe it.

‘Even if what happens after that jaw-dropper doesn’t pack the same punch — how can it? — much of “The Drama” is gripping, quite stressfully so, and it’s sometimes stomach-churning in the topical subjects it touches.’