Drop Movie Review:

Director: Christopher Langdon Writer: Jillian Jacobs, Chris Roach

Cast: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane

The Drop is not your ideal first date, but it does have excellent lighting and a view to die for. The premise is simple: Violet, charmingly played by Meghann Fahy, is on her first date since her husband’s death, the man, a photographer who works for the mayor and sweetheart, Henry, (Brandon Sklenar), her 5-year-old son is at home with her sister, Jen, and she starts receiving menacing airdrop (coined as digidrop) messages in the form of memes—not even good memes either. Ancient memes.

The messages in question: kill your date, or your family dies.

It’s a sleek, uncomfortable techno-thriller that allows you to suspend moments of disbelief and turn your brain off for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Cameras are planted, her phone is cloned, and someone in the same restaurant is watching her. Claustrophobic small talk devolves into a psychological game of cat and mouse and Violet tries to figure out who’s threatening her and her family, all while holding a terrible attempt to feign that everything is okay.

Langdon dials down his camp and instead serves an atmospheric, tense film that is as intriguing as it is awkwardly funny. It weaponizes the first date jitters to keep you on edge, not allowing you to feel comfortable for a moment. We are gifted existential horror in the form of technology, how little control we have when we rely on devices to keep us in touch with the world, from WiFi-enabled security cameras at home to a program pre-installed on your phone that gives just about anyone access to you. 

There’s no reinvention of a genre here, but it pokes at the intersection of modern tech, paranoia, losing control, and the unnecessary nature of AirDrop. It does this with beautiful, precise shots, up close and personal with tight frames and graphics that linger on the screen. The lighting is moody and ambient and deeply untrustworthy. Moricef knows when to let things breathe and to tighten them back in. There is a strange with the growing sense of compression as Violet’s options disappear, and Meghann plays with these beautifully as she is unafraid to truly cry, show frantic facial expressions and show she is distraught over the entire situation.

The score hovers in this film, there’s more vibration than melody. It hums like the sound of technology hums. It amplifies, offers no comfort, and never brings catharsis. It lurks. It knows exactly what it’s doing and does it perfectly.

This movie won’t blow your mind, but it does offer entertainment and it offers it well. It’s a solid little thriller with some gems of good for her mixed in it. Maybe next time, go out for coffee.