Zola

Zola is one of those movies where you either love it or hate it. I had many struggles with it early on as i couldn't quite grasp what it was going for. There are a lot of uncomfortable moments relating to prostitution which are quite disturbing but on the other hand, some genuine comedic scenes shine through. The part where they do the @Stefani was hilarious and some physical comedy like the boyfriend jumping from the beach house and seeing the aftermath are really well done. A mixed bag with another great characterization from Riley Keough.

A recent release whose backstory is probably more interesting than the film which was made. Published as a Rolling Stone article from a series of tweets a little while back, a professional pole dancer (no stripping, please!) embarked w/a newly minted friend for a wild weekend in Florida to hit some poles, make some money & have a helluva good time to tell about. The mirth turns however when the new bae expects her to participate tricking in hotels along the sandy strip w/a menacing pimp & her doofus of a boyfriend watch on. Starring Taylour Paige (from the also recent Boogie) & Riley Keough (Elvis Presley's granddaughter) as the mismatched ladies of the night, the film gets a lot of mileage from its premise which only flounders when things get a bit too real for the startled Paige who stays out of the action for the most part, only to step up when she feels Keough is selling herself (sorry!) too short. Also starring the mercurial Coleman Domingo as the pimp, Nicholas Braun (currently on HBO's Succession) as the dimwitted beau & Jason Mitchell (Easy E from Straight Outta Compton) as a Florida denizen who tries to make a move on Keough (who is making a solid career playing character roles in indie films, remember her as the pig girl in Magic Mike?).

Zola is pure, uncut black market Florida. Like Sprinbreakers or Florida Project, it IS the state incarnate - or at least what's so endlessly scrollable about it). It's also a riotous funny dark comedy about how uncanny and gross the sex work world is (visa vi Backpage and so on), but also how black women always seem to have to come to the emotional and physical rescue of white women. And ironically as much as I love Paige and Keough's performances here (the latter sounding like she listened/watched a lot of Nikki Minaj's Anaconda song and or video, a fully sincere compliment), Braun - Greg from Succession, a true treasure at playing dumb and awkward, and Colman Domino's X (and his going between two accents just ::chefs kiss::) are stunning in their perfection of identifying an authenticity of these people. That's the key here: as wild as this gets, we always believe the people... at least as far as Zola's oh maybe 85-90% reliable narrator takes us.

I do wonder if this will have the same punch once the surprise wears off on a repeat viewing, but for now I can bask in the glow of this magnificently directed and truly modern comic exploitation yarn. The secret MVPs here though are the background detail players, like the two kids repeating the same basketball moves on the balcony at the motel or the couple performing whatever the hell music that is in the hotel lobby when Zola comes storming in.

As a story, viewers are ultimate left wondering how much of this fantasied adaptation is real. As a film, the production feels scrambled - at times the protagonist and antagonist become caricatures of themselves, while at others the character dynamic is glossed over for continuity.

That said, the entertainment value is absolutely there; after all, we go to movies to enjoy ourselves. There are dabs of humor in this film (an elderly stripper counting money), political activism insertion (police beating a suspect), and a climatic ending. Take the approach I did and enjoy it for what it is...

I really liked this movie. It tells the story which the screenplay was made from the real life tweets from one of the characters.

A chance meeting of two girls in a diner ends up with a trip from Michigan to Florida with one taking her boyfriend and "roommate" and her new friend "Zola" to do some pole dancing for a few days then back. What it turns out is far more dark and somewhat deadly.

Note the tweet sounds in the movie alongside the narrative, quite graphic in parts but for me it was justified as it added to the quick decent both girls found themselves in.

This movie is a good one to watch as a public information ad, some teenagers should definitely watch it to be warned how easy it is to get trapped in a situation with little room for a way out.