Zola (2020)

Director: Janicza Bravo
Stars: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun
Runtime: 86 minutes

Synopsis: A stripper named Zola embarks on a wild trip to Florida.

Verdict: The latest A24 release has been making headlines for quite a while now. The film, which premiered at Sundance over a year and a half ago, has managed to keep its momentum going due to the good word of mouth it garnered as well as the unusual fact that it was based on a Twitter thread that went viral in 2015. I’ll be honest, it’s that last part that got me interested in the movie more than anything else, especially considering that I wasn’t aware of the content of that thread.

I won’t go as far as to call “Zola” a film that favors style over substance, but it’s most definitely the former that gives the movie its wild personality. By managing to simultaneously emit a trashy and ethereal aura, it succeeded in grabbing my attention very early on. The music choices and little reminders of the origin of the story only made the watch more interactive, and I was ready to embark on a crazy ride alongside a fantastic Taylour Paige, a menacing Colman Domingo, a scene-stealing Riley Keough, and Nicholas Braun. I don’t intend to sound mean, but the latter’s performance was distractingly similar to the character he plays on the hit TV show “Succession”, and I was never able to envision him as the goofy Derrek.

However, the main concern I had with “Zola” lied in its structure. It was a clean mess, but a mess nonetheless that never got its pacing right. It rushes in some places, drags in others, and I never believed that it utilized its short runtime of 86 minutes in an efficient manner. My immediate sentiment when the credits started rolling was one of slight frustration as I felt that I wasn’t delivered the bonkers product I was promised at the beginning.

Is “Zola” still a worthy watch? Absolutely, I can’t say that I wasn’t at the very least entertained by it. But the main goal of the film was to tell a story in which the stakes are immense. Something I never fully experienced as it really did just come across as a Twitter thread turned into a movie.

FINAL GRADE: 6/10