Zola Movie Review

Zola (2020)

Rent Zola on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Janicza Bravo & Jeremy O. Harris (screenplay by), A'Ziah King (based on the tweets by), David Kushner (based on the article "Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted" by), Andrew Neel & Mike Roberts (story by)
Directed by: Janicza Bravo
Starring: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun, Colman Domingo
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
A stripper named Zola embarks on a wild road trip to Florida.

Verdict
It's a purported story about a wild road trip that keeps escalating. The only notable thing, and the reason a series of Tweets became a movie, is precisely because it's so wild. It's another crazy Florida story. We aren't here learn anything or see characters develop. This is a shallow farce. It's a series of outrageous events packaged into a movie. That worked well on Twitter, not so much on film.
Skip it.

Review
It's a movie based on a series of tweets from 2015. Despite my reservations and the potential for this to be a train wreck, I had to see the gimmick in action. While this is purported to be a true story, Zola later admitted some of the more outrageous aspects were added for entertainment. She had posted the story to Twitter twice before with little reaction. When she sensationalized it and added dark humor, it became a hit. This is a wild story like Spring Breakers without as much depth.

Two dancers meet and hit it off. Zola (Taylour Paige) joins Stefani (Riley Keough) on a road trip to Florida to dance and make good money. Zola doesn't really know Stefani, and she definitely doesn't know Stefani's boyfriend Derrek (Nicholas Braun) or their driver X (Colman Domingo). She has second thoughts but doesn't bail.

Riley Keough, Taylour Paige play Stefani, Zola

This feels a bit like a dream, or it could just be this disorienting adventure. On one hand, you can chalk this up to 'Florida People' as media has created this wild stereotype. Some of this is wondering how real is the story? It took Twitter by storm because it was so outlandish.

Zola wasn't recruited to dance, Stefani and X want her to be a prostitute. Despite outright refusing, Zola does give Stefani some tips, coaches her on pricing. This keeps escalating. From dancing to sex work , then an argument gets violent. Derrek is a buffoon that serves as a plot device that puts them all in trouble. I do like how Colman Domingo's accent changes when he's mad. It's a great detail. 

I thought this was going to provide an alternative narrative from Stefani, but it's just a quick intercut where she begins a dialog mirroring Zola's that began the movie. I'm not sure why we get those couple of scenes other than to fill time. It would have been more interesting to see at least part of this from another point of view since something like this is so subjective. This feels like a tall tale because it is. It hopes that by continually to escalate each scene it will keep our attention, but it's all a ruse. It's not a great movie, but it's not bad for a movie based on a series of Tweets.