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There’s a thing online where people highlight movies that would have been ruined by a cellular phone. I mean, of course there is; there’s something on the web somewhere about how any single thing can be ruined by any other single thing. Take your pick, want to know how music could and probably has been destroyed by people who brunch, or how custard creams are worse because of red panda rebreeding programs in Bhutan? It’ll be there somewhere; such has the internet become a great cesspool of bottomless poisonous negativity and hate. Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, mobiles ruining films. Yep, think of Home Alone, Romeo + Juliet or Finding Nemo if the characters had had text capacity or Google maps, blah, blah, blah!

How nice then to see a movie then that depends on one. Sure, we’ve all got them in our pockets so let’s lean into that. 

Not that Drop is a celebration of our ability to instantly connect with others or have any question answered; in it the lead is manipulated by someone giving her commands through airdrops. It’s a gripping narrative though and one that feels very contemporary. 

This is of more note because in many other respects the film actually feels quite old school. Most of the story is set in one location and most of the action centres around a small handful of players, like in Rope, Rear Window or 12 Angry Men, or maybe Die Hard or Dog Day Afternoon. There is proper title sequence as well which is not something you see much anymore. 

The plot centres around widowed mother Violet as she tentatively gets back on the dating scene. She meets the guy she has been chatting to online (something the web is actually great for – mostly) in a high end restaurant but someone at one of the other tables has their own idea about how her evening should go. As a chamber piece it is really effective and you are captivated by how Violet is going to manage her situation, what the guy she is meeting will do in response and who it is that, within a fifty metre Bluetooth radius, is pulling the strings. 

It is easy to criticise the film for being overblown, the ending in particular goes a bit OTT, there are a few possible plot holes and the final reveal of who the baddie is isn’t a massive revelation. It feels a bit reminiscent of last Christmas’ Carry-On too.  This all ignores how hard it would have been to get this right though. It won’t have been easy to keep everything moving with so much of it literally happening between two people sitting at a table and director Christopher Landon shepherds it really well. He keeps the tension and shows a strong mastery of the filmic tools at his disposal with interesting lighting tricks and text overlays. He also gets a great performance from his star and together he and Meghann Fahy (from The White Lotus and The Perfect Couple) give the story a human centre that everything hangs off. This also makes it distinctly a woman’s story and while this is not uncommon now, it is another thing in its favour. 

I’ve been a bit cool on everything else I’ve seen at the cinema this month; Flow, Snow and Unicorns all leaving me a little wanting but whereas they all had an ambition that escaped them, this just wants to entertain and does it really well. 

So call that in on your device, share it with anyone that you can (in a fifty metre radius and wider) and let’s send out a positive message on the internet for a change. #dropagoodreview