Zola (2021)

Based on a viral twitter thread from 2015 involving Aziah ‘Zola’ King, the film tells the story of the titular character, a stripper, who is informed by fellow stripper Stefani of an easy way to make money in Florida, and the two of them embark on a road trip along with mysterious figure ‘X’ and Stefani’s idiot boyfriend Derrek (who some of you may recognise as Greg from Succession). Zola really is an original; I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s not often you see a film based on a twitter feed, and these characters (bar Zola) range from insufferable to horrible, leaving you with a feeling of nausea as Zola realises the actual way in which her and Stefani can make the promised extra money. We are told in the opening scene that we’re about to learn how Zola slowly realises how Stefani is a horrible ‘bitch’, and the film offers some very amusing voice-over throughout as the film freezes to accompany Zola’s input. We’re also ‘treated’ to the constant sounds of twitter notifications and are once again made aware of the dangers of social media (Zola updates Stefani’s online call girl bio to charge more money and update more revealing pictures) and this proves extremely effective at joining the film to its tonal roots. Despite being a difficult watch at times, Zola is very funny as well, mainly due to the stupidity of some of the characters but also Zola’s disdain at the people she’s spending time with. The performances are really top drawer, most notably Taylour Paige as Zola and Riley Keough as Stefani. 7.9/10