<em>'Drop'</em> is a great thriller! I was hooked for every minute. It gave me vibes of 2024's <em>'Carry-On'</em>, which is a film I also enjoyed. This one - albeit certainly different - has similarities, but it is much more atmospheric. It left me on fair tenterhooks, that's for sure. The performances are excellent, particularly from leads Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar. In the midst of the drama, there is actually a pretty solid romance in there featuring those two; they share terrific chemistry, despite also giving the necessary edge of first date awkwardness. I enjoyed how the film portrayed the messaging, each one is shown onscreen in a clear but not in an in-your-face or an eyesore-y manner; the font/effects fitted with the ambience that the film was setting up. It takes a basic plot device and impressively creates a mountain of thrill.

“Violet” (Meghann Fahy) hasn’t been on a date for years, since her husband died and left her to bring up their young son “Toby” (Jacob Robinson) on her own. Tonight’s the night, though, and so having been talked out of wearing a deckchair by her sister “Jen” (Violett Beane) she sets off to a rooftop restaurant for a rendezvous with her hunky online pal “Henry” (Brandon Sklenar). Things don’t go so well for her as no sooner has she sat down than she starts to get dodgy text messages, then her (extensive) home security system shows there to be a black-clad gent in her living room and he isn’t there to deliver the Milk Tray! Over the course of this increasingly perilous date, she is being given instructions that involve her in a cunning scheme to dispose of her new friend and of some damning evidence - but who is pulling the strings and can she possibly thwart their plan before disaster strikes her son, sister and/or poor bemused “Henry? It’s entirely far-fetched this film, but for a change there’s actually a certain degree of jeopardy as she and we try to work out just what’s going on in this big brother house with cutlery. It’s a sort of game of “Cluedo” but is it the waiter, the barkeep, the piano player, the lone diner, the blind date couple having a meet from hell? Is it even her date himself? What is the big secret? It’s peppered with snippets of a back story that becomes just a little more useful as we progress and though the ending isn’t the best, this is still quite a decently paced, occasionally cringe-making, drama that works quite well for ninety minutes and tells me all I need to know about eating panna cotta at altitude.

Great movie. Was very interesting without a single boring moment. Also, it was a clean movie without DEI propaganda and political messages which is another good thing. I think from now on we will see less and less propaganda movies since Trump won the presidency, which is again a good thing.