From White Lotus to Drop: Meghann Fahy Stars in Christopher Landon’s Gripping SXSW Debut
At the world premiere of Drop in Austin, Texas at SXSW, writer and director Christopher Landon told a touching story about what the city means to him. Landon explained that when he’d been younger and felt his career had ended before it ever truly began, he moved to the city and found community in Austin’s film scene. He was inspired, took another stab at screenwriting and wrote a little movie called Disturbia. Landon would later go on to write numerous studio successes including the Happy Death Day duo, Freaky and the Paranormal Activities. Though this isn’t Landon’s first time in the director’s chair or even his fifth time dropping a juggernaut into the mainstream, something about Drop feels fresh. It’s timely, layered, cathartic. But most importantly… it’s riveting.
Landon returns to his classic thriller roots after nearly a decade playing with the supernatural in his latest film Drop, releasing everywhere April 11th. The film stars Meghann Fahy, who the world saw as Daphne in HBO’s cultural phenomenon The White Lotus beside Aubrey Plaza and Theo James—a performance that got her an Emmy nomination. Fans of the series have been eagerly awaiting Fahy’s next move (the actress has two other films slated to release later this year). Fahy is Violet, a soft spoken widow on her very first date since the tragic passing of her abusive husband. The message is clear from the very beginning. Violet is a single mother just trying to make this next chapter of her life finally work. She’s looking for safety. Enter Brandon Sklenar as Henry—her charming date.
Fans of the Yellowstone universe might recognize Sklenar as Spencer Dutton in the Paramount+ series 1923. Book lovers will certainly recognize him as Atlas Corrigan in the Colleen Hoover adaptation of It Ends With Us. Once dinner starts at an elegant restaurant with a gorgeous view of the skyline and a very eccentric waiter (Jeffrey Self), everything seems to be going well. That is, until Violet starts receiving unsolicited airdrops—called DigiDrops—directly to her cell phone. As the courses roll on, the seemingly harmless messages take a turn once she receives footage of her child at the mercy of a masked captor. And a command to murder her date.
Enter me—almost falling off my chair from anticipation at the Paramount Theater. Drop will have audiences on the edge of their seats from the very beginning. Fahy brings her brilliant subtleties to a blockbuster thrill ride, allowing a movie with obvious scale to play with a shocking amount of depth. Though trailers often gain a bad reputation for spoiling their own movies, once audiences go into this movie knowing Violet will be harassed by someone in the restaurant, they’ll suspect everyone around her from the very first moment.
Drop might ask you to suspend your disbelief for a large portion of the film, but its performances and plot make up for the silly inconsistencies you might find. Though many viewers might prefer the action we get in the second half, the first is powerful and very understated.
The best parts of this movie lie in the unsettling mystery boiling beneath the opulent atmosphere. Alongside Landon and the rest of the film’s impressive crew, production designer Susie Cullen had an entire restaurant built for the film. In an interview with @thewatchedlist Bree Stephens, Landon reveals the restaurant was fully functional—with a real menu and chef (and a very dedicated script supervisor who ensured every meal was delivered in time to ensure continuity). Drop is at its most interesting the longer we remain in the dark about Violet’s circumstances. Who’s texting her? What do they want? Why have they picked her? And why do they want her date dead?
As we got closer to the end, things began going notably off the rails but managed to remain fun and wildly exciting. Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach wrote a heartfelt story about a woman’s battle with abuse, the bravery it requires to open yourself up to new people and the strength she must find in herself to finally fight back. As Kylie Cheung at Jezebel said it: Drop is a non-stop thrill ride about how women fake it to survive.
Drop is in theaters everywhere on Friday, April 11th.
[Review by guest blogger Jurgen Sosa the Part Time Binger]