By: Andrew Wing

Zola is a 2020 American black comedy crime film directed by Janicza Bravo (Gregory Go Boom, Lemon) and written by Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris (known for his plays “Daddy” and Slave Play). It is based on a viral Twitter thread from 2015 by Aziah “Zola” King and the resulting Rolling Stone article “Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted” by David Kushner.

It stars Taylour Paige (White Boy Rick, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) as Zola, a part-time stripper who is convinced by her new friend Stefani, who is played by Riley Keough (Magic Mike, The Devil All the Time), to travel to Tampa, Florida, in order to earn money, only to get in over her head; Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead, Euphoria, If Beale Street Could Talk), Nicholas Braun (Succession), and Jason Mitchell (portrayed Eazy-E in Straight Outta Compton) also star.

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2020, and was released in the United States on June 30, 2021, by A24, following a year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Zola received positive reviews from critics, earning nominations in numerous awards shows including seven nods at the 37th Independent Spirit Awards, among them Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

THE GOOD

The main selling point for me when it came to this film was simply the fact that it comes from A24. Also the actors that I liked, but ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you I love everything from A24. I had absolutely no familiarity with this true story about the Twitter thread the film is based on that took place in 2015, but I guess the fact that this film is based off of a Twitter thread is pretty cool and unique. However, was the interesting true story enough to make Zola an overall good film in my opinion? Keep reading to find out!

First things first, I was very impressed with the direction we got in this from Janicza Bravo. It was clear that the director took this opportunity to create a film that is extremely stylish and modern. She did this by incorporating some internet isms, such as the constant Tweet sounds and also a black frame in the edit whenever someone took a selfie. There were just a ton of interesting stylistic choices in the movie with the editing and I thought they did a pretty good job with it. Continuing with Bravo who wrote the film with Jeremy O. Harris, I was a big fan of the screenplay. The screenplay is obviously interesting given the crazy nature of the true story, but it was surprisingly funny too. Ask Ted, I love love love black/dark comedy films and there are plenty of dry humor moments that might make you cringe and I was a fan of all of those. Those moments came thanks in large part to someone who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors, Nicholas Braun. His comedic delivery is truly second-to-none and you’re doing yourself a disservice if you haven’t checked out Succession yet because his character Greg in that is legendary.

Onto the performances we got. First with Taylour Paige as she plays the titular character “Zola”. I thought she was good in this film as the only level-headed and calm person in their group. I will get to it later in “The Bad” section, but I wanted more from her character as ultimately there was no character arc with her. Despite that, she is definitely a name to keep an eye out for in the future. Next with Riley Keough, she just dives head first into the crazy nature of the story with her character. Her accent in this is wild and she stole the show for me. She had a role that could’ve come off as over-the-top, and maybe it was, but I felt that she was trying to be a human being at the end of the day with some of the more emotional scenes she had. Also, Colman Domingo is amazing in this. He has this double accent thing that comes out and it was easily one of the funniest things in the movie. But for real, whenever I watch Domingo in anything, I want to see more of him and I predict that he will win an Oscar in the next five years because he is just that good.

I loved the film stylistically as I said earlier, but it can’t go unsaid how great the cinematography is. It was done by Ari Wegner, who actually might win an Oscar this year for Best Cinematography because she shot The Power of the Dog (see my full review here). It has a distinct grainy film texture that I appreciated and all the shots of the pink Florida sunsets we got were pretty. It also contains a solid score from Mica Levi. The score was enticing as it had both organic sounds and also a hypnotic quality with some digital sounds. I look forward to becoming more familiar with her work after I watch two other films she scored that are on my watchlist, Under the Skin and Jackie.

THE BAD

Don’t get me wrong, the events that take place are interesting and the Twitter thread it is based on is bizarre, but it just didn’t overwhelm me as much as I thought. Going into this I thought I was going to have similar feelings when watching as I had when I watched Uncut Gems for the first time. However, I didn’t because none of the more intense scenes moved the needle for me. It kind of felt like an extraordinary story was told in an ordinary way if that makes sense. I also thought the character building was underwhelming given how great the cast was. Maybe that added to the ordinary feel I discussed, but I felt there was something missing. I thought the ending fell flat too and I just never got the big payoff I thought I was going to get with a story as crazy as this one.

Also, here is a spoiler warning: the movie is weird and unique and it carries that A24 vibe that all of their films have. It’s definitely one of the weirdest A24 films I’ve ever seen, probably since The Lighthouse, but I loved that film as it went full throttle into the craziness, where this one didn’t and I think that’s ultimately what held it back.

Lastly, given that the premise of the film is about two strippers who travel to Florida for the weekend to make some extra money, just be prepared for some nude scenes and other inappropriate scenes. Just choose wisely who you watch this around if you end up taking my suggestion to check this out.

THE VERDICT

Despite some underwhelming character building and an ending I thought fell flat, Zola is a bold, stylish, wacky true story that will surely give you some good laughs with its dry humor. I was very impressed with Janicza Bravo’s direction here and I look forward to seeing what she does next. Also, I loved the technical elements too in this and all the performances we got were awesome.