In the beginning of Drop, there’s a scene where our heroine, Violet (Meghann Fahy) arrives at a restaurant and the hostess offers to check her coat. She hands her coat to the hostess and then walks inside—no coach check ticket, no identification, no way to make sure she gets her coat back. It’s such a small thing, but it serves to set the bar for logic in the rest of the film.

Violet is a widowed mother who survived an abusive relationship and is venturing out into the dating world for the first time in ages. Her date, Henry (Brandon Sklenar) is a photographer and an all-around good dude. They’ve been chatting online for a while and finally meet for the first time at a fancy restaurant in a Chicago highrise.

But the night takes a terrifying turn when Violet keeps getting airdrops from a sinister source. At first, it seems like a prank, but soon things turn threatening and a panicked Violet has to follow a series of escalating commands or risk the lives of the people she loves most.

Drop is clearly a movie where you need to suspend your disbelief and go with the ride. Why would you accept an airdrop from a total stranger? Why would you continue to accept them after the first few were just memes trolling you? Could the whole movie basically be solved by the heroine not looking at her phone every 30 seconds? Sure! But then we wouldn’t have this tight little thriller that amps things up to an absolutely ridiculous level by the end.

Similar to Companion or Heart Eyes, Drop is more cheeky than suspenseful. The supporting cast gets this, and they lean into the funny aspects—particularly Jeffrey Self, who has a hilarious turn as their server. 

The on-screen text and the demands from the unknown assailant grow increasingly menacing to the point where they become comedic, especially with the giant, all-caps font they use. There are moments where it’s clear the film knows it’s being funny, cranking things up way past the point of logic, and that’s when it’s at its strongest and most fun.

It’s absurd in that ‘90s teen slasher way that used to be a lot of fun. After all, we didn’t ask for logic and deeper character motivation in I Know What You Did Last Summer. We just ate our popcorn and had a good time.

Drop stumbles when it tries to switch up the tone on occasion. A woman tearfully recounting horrible domestic violence clashes against the silliness of the rest of the film in a way that can feel jarring. 

I’m never one to want paper-thin characters, but so much of Violet’s backstory feels unnecessary for a “just a bit of fun” movie like this. It doesn’t really serve to influence her actions or motivate her decisions, it feels like it’s just there in an attempt to add depth, but when the rest of the movie is this goofy, that depth just isn’t necessary.

Despite the clunky tone shifts, there are a few admirable things about this film that feel refreshing. It’s inexpensive, set mostly in the restaurant, features fun performances from its leads and solid supporting actors. Drop keeps it tight at just over 90 minutes, and provides a nice combination of laughs and tension. Aside from the smartphones at the center of the plot, it feels like a movie you’d see in the early 2000s, and that can be fun. 

But it’s also a movie you shouldn’t think about too hard. Nothing makes sense, the characters make decisions that are hilariously unmotivated or illogical, and the climax is so over the top that it feels like it comes from a completely different film. 

So if you want to enjoy Drop, check our logic at the door along with Violet’s coat.