Meghann Fahy has been turning heads lately with her roles on comedically dark shows like The White Lotus and The Perfect Couple, and her latest project on the 2025 movie calendar isn’t too far away from that mark. The upcoming thriller Drop centers around a widowed mother who is being tormented by an unknown person in the restaurant where she’s on a first date. Critics have seen the movie ahead of its April 11 release, and they pretty much agree it’s a fun time if you don’t take it too seriously.
First reactions from Drop’s SXSW premiere were overwhelmingly positive, and Jeannette Catsoulis of the New York Times agrees with the movie’s success, despite the “utterly bonkers” finale and only minimal suspense. The critic calls it “pleasantly silly,” saying:
Like a Jenga tower with half the pieces removed, Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach’s wobbly script grows more preposterous by the minute. (Not least because no woman as cautious as Violet would be this careless with her phone’s privacy settings.) Which doesn’t mean that Drop isn’t fun: Park your left brain at the door and enjoy Ben Baudhuin’s snappy editing, Marc Spicer’s glowing, gliding images and the easy chemistry between the two leads. The mood might be more ick than eek, but Fahy is wickedly entertaining.
Iana Murray of Empire also notes that its premise stretches to “absurd” heights, but it is still “ridiculously fun,” thanks to a grounded performance from Meghann Fahy. Murray gives it 4 out of 5 stars and encourages moviegoers to check their phone’s security settings. The critic writes:
The predictable end result isn’t quite as gripping as the journey there. At a time where our most private information is vulnerable to a phone-snatch or a single erroneous click of a link, Drop takes full advantage of our trusted tech’s most terrifying capabilities. No matter what Violet tries, or who she seeks help from, she’s caught by the cameras surrounding her and the device in her hand. The once-comforting luxury of the upscale restaurant becomes a gilded surveillance state. And the handy phone proves to be the ideal setting for a 21st-century paranoid thriller.
Jake Coyle of the AP says Drop doesn’t really reinvent the wheel as far as thrillers go, but it’s still silly and suspenseful. Coyle rates the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, saying:
Drop, directed by Christopher Landon, doesn’t differ greatly from the large swath of high-concept, low-budget thrillers that regularly flood theaters. But it’s a taut little movie, almost totally set in the restaurant, with a just keen enough sense of plausible and preposterous. It knows to keep the pressure-cooker plot moving while not overstaying its welcome. At a nifty 95 minutes, Drop knows when to hang up.
Not every critic thinks the fun outweighs the flaws, as Matt Schimkowitz of AV Club gives the movie a C+. Like an overpopulated group chat, the critic says, Drop can get pretty overwhelming, but still shows flashes of promise. Schimkowitz continues:
Landon brings a heavy hand to everything in the movie, when it could all use a lighter touch. Aside from its treatment of Violet’s backstory, Drop wants so badly to be a loose thrill ride that the action-packed third act strips her journey of any meaningful resonance and deflates the suspense that gave the narrative its early charge. Relying too much on bombast and shaky effects that diminish the tension, the movie isn’t confident enough to see its premise all the way through. At its best, though, Drop updates the small-scale, high-concept suspense that Hollywood has had on airplane mode for too long.
Robbie Collin of The Telegraph gives Drop 2 out of 5 stars, writing that it feels like “an off-brand Black Mirror episode masterminded by ChatGPT.” It botches its plot, according to Collin, and looks “nastily composited,” but even this critic admits it’s “not un-fun.” From the review:
Drop is bad, then, but not un-fun in its badness. You can make a fair guess at the villain’s identity... You can roll your eyes at Violet’s doomed efforts to tip off strangers. That never works! You can try and enjoy the fruity comic stylings of a gay waiter, who gets tiresome fast. You’ll never watch it again.
The critics mostly agree that Drop isn’t a perfect film, but there seem to be too many adjectives like “fun” and “silly” to think this won’t be 90 minutes well-spent in the movie theater. In fact, the Christopher Landon film holds an 89% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. If this sounds like something that’s a must-see on the big screen, check it out in theaters starting Friday, April 11.
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