Divalicious Review! Drop Is a Bonkers Enough Date Movie
By Caroline Cao | April 10, 2025 | Celebrity & Culture
Posed with the question of whether the AirDrop smartphone feature is a cause for trouble, Drop serves up plenty of dishes that work in this thriller.
A woman, Violet, goes on a date at a swanky restaurant in a tower. The charming Meghann Fahy plays her, a single mom and survivor of domestic abuse out to make a fresh new start. Her chance comes when she goes on a first date with photographer Henry (Brandon Sklenar) at a swanky Hightower restaurant.
While meeting her date, her phone gets a mysterious airdropped message, flashing an image of her son and sister held hostage at her home. She then must follow the text’s instructions to murder her own date. As she tries to warn people and the outside world, the texted threats pile on, forcing her to stay silent and on guard while pretending everything is hunky-dory before Henry.
Director Christopher Landon finds a playful grammar with the onscreen text fonts wiping before her. One suspenseful scene sticks the lethal surveillance footage on the bathroom walls, filling Violet’s consciousness. Intermittently, when characters are distressed, the scene goes dark, save for a stranger who may be a suspect in their perspective.
What keeps the film going is its explicit sense of humor, even through the sledgehammer suspense of the score. Jeffery Self, as the frazzled and chatty waiter Matt, steals the scene as the comic foil.
Was I entirely into Drop? Not personally. I did wish for the film to exploit more intricacies in the dark comedy of the date interactions, but I admired Landon’s craft here.
Drop opens in theaters on April 11.
Photo credit: Universal
