ZOLA BD + DGTL [Blu-ray]

I loved this movie. Everything about it is fresh, authentic, and ultimately moving, but not in ways that are expected. Who wants to keep watching the same kind of films over and over, variations on overused themes and tropes, where you absolutely know 10 minutes in, what is going to happen throughout the entire film?Smaller independent films like this are where the talent and close-to-the-bone real life are portrayed. Watch it. Both lead actresses are superb.

I would've loved to read these tweets this movie is based on but I've heard they've since been deleted. The movie was raw with some grainy footage adding to its authentic feel, minimal dialog, and overall totally watchable again. I've seen it twice and can totally relate to the characters (we all know someone like them). In the theater I actually jumped at the gunshot scene because it felt like I was there! Well done, well directed, great actors, great costumes, filmed on location in Tampa! Recommend!

I was on Twitter for the original tweets back in 2015, & it was a roller coaster. A'ziah is an amazing writer. The story she told was gripping. I was so excited when I heard this was going to be a movie. Being an African American woman and knowing it was created and directed by African American women, I couldn't wait to watch it. I rented it during early access. The actors and actresses were great, but the writing and filming overshadowed their performances. For such an iconic moment in Twitter/internet history, the movie didn't meet expectations.

Saved ur 20 worst thing i ever spent 20 on

ZOLA may finally be that movie where I have to say “I think I’m just the wrong audience for this film.” I’m a 58 year old male, but I’ve been a huge film-goer my whole life. I’m a pretty avid consumer of film & TV. I have a Fine Arts degree in Performing Arts. I consider myself to be very open-minded about a wide variety of film: if it’s “good” I’ll watch it. This is all just to try to set up my feeling of disconnectedness with ZOLA.Based on a series of tweets, it tells the ostensibly true story of Zola, a young African American stripper in Detroit, who develops an immediate and intense friendship with Stefani, a white stripper who encourages Zola to travel with her, her boyfriend Derrek (Nicholas Braun from SUCCESSION) and her pimp (known as X and played by the always engaging Colman Domingo) to Miami to dance at some high dollar clubs. Zola doesn’t fully understand that the hope is she’ll be agreeable to some prostitution as well once she gets to Miami.The tone of the film is of wild exuberance and empowerment. Taylour Paige, as Zola, is a paradox, a composed free-spirit. A woman who feels great about being a stripper, but also is very strong and sure about her boundaries. She’s smart and fun and funny. Wary & world-weary yet somehow naïve. On the other hand, you’ve got Stephani (Riley Keough in a role that would have put her on the map if more people had seen the film), a free-spirit with seemingly no boundaries. She’ll do anything with her body (or allow anything to be done) for money. And she literally can’t understand why her boyfriend Derrek would have any feelings of jealousy or unhappiness about it.The plot of the movie involves, to a large degree, Zola’s growing awareness of the situation she has gotten herself into. She’s expected to be a prostitute. X is more dangerous than he originally appeared. And outside forces have taken a real interest in both women, and not with good motivations. Friendships and relationships are tested and reconstructed into new shapes. There are certainly scenes of immense tension, but the overall feel of the movie is that these 4 companions are mostly on a bit of a lark. The loud music, smiles and garish but fun costumes invite smiles and enjoyment. The “bad” things are just minor obstacles to be overcome. Being a prostitute is a minor life choice and being a stripper is a downright honorable profession.I get it. Zola, in particular, makes her boundaries clear and also makes clear that stripping is an empowering way to make a living and to be true to herself. And it’s in this realm that the film begins to lose me. I don’t get “sex work” as empowering. I understand that difficult circumstances, abuse and ignorance can lead to this dangerous line of work. But for a bright, intelligent young lady to make that choice willingly, even defiantly, is tough for me. And the abuses Stefani endures are not minor. I won’t detail them here, but in one night she makes $8000…a figure we clearly understand means she has slept with 16 different men. She’s barely bothered by it; just a little tired. Is that “good?” The film argues that it isn’t a real problem if the woman is in “control” of the situation. But is she really in control or is it just an illusion (to say nothing of the fact that her pimp, X, still gets virtually all the money in the end)? How is she NOT being exploited and used? Later, she’s driven to an encounter with a group of men that surely is just objectively distasteful. But everyone emerges with a smile. Basically, the tone of the film eliminates any feeling that we need to feel sorry for, or worry about, these two women. They are strong, independent women (one of whom still has a pimp). I’m sorry but I struggle to accept that “thesis.” And that’s, finally, why I wonder if this film has just passed me by due to my age and circumstance. I did not enjoy or appreciate being asked to applaud the subjugation of these women. The film argues, I think, that they are not being subjugated. We are to just accept that one has boundaries, the other does not (it seems) and please just instead focus on the sometimes amusing and sometimes scary plot points that happen to Zola that were doubtless the focus of her famous series of tweets.The 4 lead performances were all outstanding (although I had to put on the subtitles to understand Keough’s crazy accent) and full of energy and commitment. I was fairly unfamiliar with Taylour Paige, but she’s certainly on my list of actors of great interest now. Domingo is always great fun, whether menacing or playing a “kinder” role and even Braun brings a schlubby dignity to his role. The film is short, fast-moving and crisply edited. For a low budget film, the production values are high. But finally, for me, it was in the service of a movie that made me uncomfortable for what I see as the wrong reasons.

the twitter thread was way better

Frankly this movie is over-hyped. I was stoked for it and disappointed. Its not very deep, its not very well acted, its not very well directed. I know its not well directed because I usually like all of these actors a lot, like these are ACTORS, and I found all their performances to be one-note the entire time. Taylour Paige, for example, is a very interesting actor with huge range and this director just has her scoffing the literal entire movie. The performance is arc-less, as are the rest. Director has great taste in actors but doesn’t know how to use them. The editing and tone were all over the place. Its trying to do one thing but does that one thing so many ways that it looses itself. Seemed almost like a big budgeted student film. A24 likes to make boring, paceless, movies about people in poverty literally just living their lives, throw some colorful lighting on it, and call it very hip and deep. This movie relies on the plot of sex work and gender violence to make it hardcore and fun colors to make it “sex work and gender violence, but quarky!” and hopes that will trick you into thinking this boring incohesive paceless character-arcless flick is cool. Still waiting for a well-done movie about sex workers to come out, this aint it. Two stars because in small fragmented bits it was entertaining, and cause the only nudity is male.