Zola (2020) Movie Review
Zola has such an interesting backstory it almost seems like it was made up to promote the movie. The story was inspired by a popular Twitter thread containing 148 tweets in 2015. The tweets and the story itself came from a Detroit waitress by the name of A’Ziah “Zola” King. The Twitter thread quickly went viral and Hollywood came calling. Both the Twitter thread and the movie begin, “You wanna hear a story about how me and this bitch fell out? It’s kinda long, but full of suspense.”
Zola (Taylour Paige) meets Stefani (Riley Keough) at the restaurant where she works. Although they don’t hang out for long, they become friends of sorts. Stefani tells Zola about a chance to make a lot of money stripping down in Florida. Excited about the process of making some real money, Zola agrees. But little does she know, Stefani is also bringing along some other colorful characters. X (Colman Domingo) is driving the girls down to Florida and Zola makes it a point to mention that she doesn’t know his real name for the first few days of interacting with him. There’s also Derrek (Nicholas Braun), who is by all accounts Stefani’s boyfriend although there’s an odd dynamic between her and X as well that leaves Zola feeling uneasy.
After an entirely too long car ride, they arrive at a seedy motel to drop off Derrek before going to work at the strip club. The truth eventually comes out that Stefani is posting ads for prostitution which Zola emphatically and repeatedly states that she did not sign up for. We see how much money the two girls make as a team and then things go sideways. X is a loose cannon who winds up being Stefani’s pimp, Derrek is heartbroken over Stefani, and competing drug dealers and pimps show up at inopportune times. It’s honestly an incredibly wild ride that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief and awe.
Interspersed throughout the movie are verbatim quotes from the original Twitter thread, brought to your attention by a “tweet” sound. These are by far the funniest lines in the movie and speak volumes to A’Ziah King’s ability to spin a tale and weave humor into the story. Both Paige and Keough put in marvelous performances worthy of recognition. Paige delivers lines with a blatantly deadpan wit that proves time and time again that Zola is the smartest one in the room. Keough portrays Stefani as a young and naive girl who is just trying to survive. But she infuses her with a wild streak that constantly leaves you off balance each time she opens her mouth. Is she lying? Is she telling the truth? It’s hard to know, really. Colman Domingo is also remarkable, adopting a Nigerian accent at the drop of a hat and enhancing the story by adding a menacing and intense character into the mix.
Zola suffers a bit from a lack of character development. Countless times I wondered why Zola stuck around instead of just ditching Stefani when things got dicey. Their connection wasn’t really established prior to embarking on the trip. But this sort of cavalier ‘cruising through life even when it’s absurd and tough’ fits the characters and the story particularly well. Zola is a thrilling ride with each scene more ridiculous then the next. It effectively showcases how young women get caught up in questionable situations and get taken advantage of while doing sex work. Plus it showcases how social media can be used to tell a heck of a story and make an impact. Zola is far and away one of the most interesting movies of the year.
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like absurd stories
2. You know the background of A’Ziah King
3. You like movies that keep you guessing
