Zola – Movie Review
Director: Janicza Bravo
Writer: Janicza Bravo, Jeremy O Harris (Screenplay)
Writer: Andrew Neel, Mike Roberts (Story)
Cast
- Taylour Paige (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)
- Riley Keough (American Honey)
- Nicholas Braun (At Middleton)
- Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton)
- Colman Domingo (Selma)
Plot: A stripper named Zola embarks on a wild road trip to Florida.
Runtime: 1 Hour 26 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Zola starts as a waitress Zola (Paige) meets stripper Stefani (Keough) who takes her dancing. The two quickly become friends as Stefani offers Zola a chance to join her in Florida for a chance to do more dancing.
Once in Florida Zola learns Stefani is searching for something else, prostitution, something Zola isn’t prepared to do. She helps Stefani improve the number of clients and money she could make.
Verdict on Zola
Zola is a drama based on a Twitter feed that followed a young woman that gets drawn into the underground sex business. It sees how things spiral out of control quickly despite how Zola tries to gain control.
This is a story that leads to chaos happening, even if the story isn’t as interesting as it believes it is. It wants to be edgy which helps with the performance from Riley Keough who makes us truly hate her annoying character. Taylour Paige is great in the leading role of the movie, the one thrown into the deep end before learning how harsh the reality is.
Final Thoughts – Zola is a wacky weird movie that doesn’t connect as well as it hopes.
