Zola (2021)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Zola is an unflinching, audacious comedy about two strippers in Florida, meeting, and then going on a crazed 48-hour adventure. Lots of buzz coming from film festivals makes this a highly anticipated film.
Riley Keough gives a performance you simply must see.
Those looking for a jolt at the movies - Zola dials everything up to 11 - and something of a whiplash viewing experience.
NO
Zola presents sex-workers and the stripper lifestyle in a feminine-positive light. If you cannot accept or allow yourself to tolerate a story like this, Zola is likely not a movie you will enjoy all that much.
Falls into something of a pattern of being the cinematic equivalent of someone repeatedly turning to you, hitting you on the arm, and saying, “OMG, can you believe this?!?!” over and over again. Mileage most certainly may vary on this.
In the end, we have a movie adapted from a viral Twitter thread. Zola may become notable for other reasons perhaps, but if you cannot get past that set-up - this is a doomed endeavor for you.
OUR REVIEW
Zola is an experience, maybe a whole damn mood.
Likely to win over as many folks as it will turn away, writer/director Janicza Bravo’s second feature is full of sex, guns, and violent misogyny. Yet it also can be celebrated as a feminist tale supporting women and sex workers finding ways to earn and survive on their own terms.
Proudly, Zola is billed as the first film to be adapted from a Twitter thread. That thread of 148 tweets was posted by A’Ziah King (@_zolarmoon) in 2015, which started with a rather irresistible first tweet:
“Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this b**ch here fell out????????”
Over the course of the thread, King tells a wild, bizarre, and increasingly deranged story of meeting a stripper at Hooters. Then, over the course of 48 hours, she accompanies her to Florida, stands guard while she has sex with multiple men, discovers the woman’s boyfriend and her pimp. Then later, said boyfriend inadvertently befriends a man at a hotel who will later try to rob them of all their money. Seems that guy answered an ad he found in Backpages and is posing as one of the girl’s clients, because the woman is engaging in consensual prostitution when she is not dancing.
Did you get all that?
Of course the Twitter thread went viral and King’s story caught the attention of Rolling Stone magazine, who tracked down A’Ziah King for an article. King would admit to some rather substantial embellishment, but the article caught the attention of several Hollywood folks, including James Franco who originally planned on directing a feature-film adaptation of the tweet thread.
Franco departed the project when personal scandal started to derail his career, and the long, winding road of Zola’s wild 48-hours in Florida has now finally made it to the big screen with Bravo’s latest film.
Bravo opts for a vivid, candy-colored presentation to make Zola’s outlandish story inviting and bigger than life. A synth-heavy score by acclaimed composer Mica Levi lays a disorienting vibe to the proceedings and Bravo utilizes cell phone notification alerts and beeps randomly throughout the film to keep us alert and on edge.
Portrayed by Taylour Paige (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Zola is willing to risk venturing into the unknown with the brash Stefani (a stunning Riley Keough), deeply in way over her head with all the men in her life telling her what to do and how to do it.
Though promises have not been kept with manchild boyfriend Derrek (Nicholas Braun), Stefani also must answer to her pimp “X” (Colman Domingo), who, in turn, must answer to his girlfriend Baybe (Sophie Hall).
What’s interesting about Zola is how defiantly it takes a stand to advocate for its people; unapologetic for the behavior shown by its two main characters. Paige is very good throughout, but Keough is short-fused dynamite in a performance amplifying one of the more unlikable and intriguing characters we have seen on screen.
Initially, Stefani is someone we hope spins out of her situation. Yet, as we learn more about the fact that Zola may not be the first woman coerced into these Floridian adventures of hers, we now are tasked with deciding whether we personally embrace or reject her - a decision not all that easy to make.
Do we criticize Stefani for grooming and lying to people for financial gain, or is she trying to earn money and survive the best she knows how? How easy is it for us to condemn and disparage from a comfy theater seat, rather than understand and try to empathize with all parties involved?
Zola lives in worlds of grey, and this proves to be the movie’s ace up its sleeve. Yet Bravo, who co-wrote her screenplay with Jeremy O. Harris, enthusiastically adopts Hollywood-style embellishment of an already exaggerated story. Rapid-fire in its cuts, dialogue exchanges, and cadence, Zola is a movie full of sexual encounters with countless scenes of illicit behavior, a whole lot of attitude, and disquieting decision-making.
Often you cannot help but wonder how these characters got to this place in their lives? Why is the Nigerian man, dubbed “X”, a pimp? How does Derrek continue to stay with Stefani when she lies to him all the time? Does Stefani really have a daughter? Why would Zola so willingly take these risks?
Movies like Zola are less cautionary tales than tabloid-adjacent romps, which matches to the Twitter source material exceedingly well. That Bravo aims for a comedic angle to this whole situation makes sense, because King’s tweets were so over-the-top and ridiculous, you have to make this story equally as brazen to make it entertaining.
The dramatic undertones never stray far from the surface. Stefani’s #IDGAF path through life is definitely of her own design, but her reliance on pimps, boyfriends, and prostitution makes you wonder where she will be, say, 5 or 10 years in the future.
As entertaining as Zola can be in a lot of ways, you just want it to dig a bit deeper - to punctuate the events with some depth and meaning. The reckless nature of what we see leaves an impact, but imagine if Bravo found a way to connect us more deeply to the stakes involved with everything happening before us.
Zola is ultimately barricaded by its source material: Once we are done reading about (or watching) the events which transpired, we will likely go find the next nutty thing to entertain us. There’s no reason to stick around with all of this. With all the snappy dialogue, great performances, and visual dazzle on display, Zola is fleeting in its entertainment value, just missing the mark as being something truly memorable.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun, Colman Domingo, Jason Mitchell, Sophie Hall, Ts Madison, Ar’iel Stachel, Nelcie Souffrant, Nasir Rahim
Director: Janicza Bravo
Written by: Janicza Bravo, Jeremy O. Harris
Adapted from tweets written by A’Ziah King
Based on the article “Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted” by David Kushner
Release Date: June 30, 2021
A24