@Zola

Director: Janicza Bravo
Starring: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Nasir Rahim, Colman Domingo, Nicholas Braun
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Runtime: 86 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2021
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc

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Rating notes: Strong themes, sex, nudity, sexual violence and coarse language

Based on tweets in 2015 during a trip to Florida by two strippers. It is an outrageous story of two women who hit the road to score quick cash dancing for money in Tampa, only to find their friendship tested when one of them isn’t who she claims to be.

This is not an easy film to review for a wide audience and definitely best to find out what the themes and storyline are before buying a ticket or downloading.

The film is based on a series of tweets by an American stripper, A’Ziah King, aka Zola, during a trip from Detroit to Florida in 2015. The story was taken up by David Kushner in Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted. And that’s the story this film tells – but more . . .

We are introduced to Zola (Paige), who is befriended by Stefani (Keough). Stefani convinces Zola there is easy money to be made in the strip clubs of Florida’s Gulf Coast. In the film, Zola is quite a puzzling character, sometimes highly intelligent, thoughtful and observant, at other times quite ditzy and seemingly helpless. And, it is something the same with Stefani, though intelligence is not her forte. While there is some stripping during the trip, it is really a story about prostitutes, pimps, and danger.

With the women is their pimp, X (Domingo). He is obnoxious – to them and certainly to the audience. He is violent and misogynistic. Also on the trio is Stephanie’s gangly boyfriend, Derrek (Braun).

Some audiences have found the film rather funny. While on the other hand, some have found the themes and the treatment of the women serious. @Zola is not a film for everybody.