Dramarama

A last party between lifelong theater geek friends before they scatter to college reveals just how much they don’t know about one another in first-time director Jonathan Wysocki’s warm, funny, and ultimately moving coming-of-age dramedy. Gene (Nick Pugliese) frets with coming clean about a long-withheld secret, but he is not the only one hiding something. Set in 1994 in Escondido, CA, the filmmaker’s hometown, among a mixed-gender group that is largely Christian, Dramarama engagingly depicts the jealousy and competition that exists among even the tightest friends but also the love that makes them closer than family. Pugliese and Danielle Kay as Ally are standouts as the most self-aware amongst a quintet of naïve teenagers for whom murder mystery role-playing games and sparkling cider are the height of adult sophistication.