It is truly is wild to see pop culture moments that you lived through making their way to the screen. Zola’s incredible tweets was something I lived through in real time and it was one of the most engrossing stories I’ve ever read, no matter the medium. As such, the A24 adaptation of the film titled Zola has this immense pressure but also is something we had to imagine in our minds, in a way we don’t do with books. Having watched the film and lived to tell the tale, the movie presents a fascinating journey with some truly crazy characters and gives its actors a ton juicy material to indulge in.
Zola is honestly a story best experienced fresh so if you haven’t read the tweets I’ll just say this, it’s a story about a woman who goes on a trip and has a wild weekend.
Director Janicza Bravo does some Herculean work with this movie, handling the many elements with a deft hand. She has a really impressive eye for staging and understanding that sometimes the smallest details can make the biggest impact. Even something as quick as seeing how the two women use a public toilet is a chance to show character.
Most impressively, the movie shifts perspectives, as if at certain times it becomes a movie directed by Zola or directed by Janicza or some objective viewer. I liked that the movie both invites us into the craziness of the story and keeps us at arms length enough to understand just how messy all of these people are, ensuring we’ve got some safety.
But it’s hard not to want to continue to play with danger when you’ve got actors this in tune with the movie they are making. Every single person in this ensemble is firing on all cylinders. Taylour Paige as Zola is a steady force, even as the world around her shifts when she meets the foolish Stefani. Riley Keough ain’t never met a southern character she couldn’t fully embody and I loved seeing her interactions with Nicholas Braun as the “roommate.” Last, but not least, Colman Domingo manages to nail what has to be the most difficult part of the script, given the twists and turns his character provides. It’s a thrill getting to watch him vacillate between fun and then evil and then fun because he’s evil.
All of these elements make Zola a fun watch, even as the ending sort of lands like a dead fish. I do wish there was something more final about the story, especially considering the original tale does have a definite more satisfying resolution. But for minute to minute entertainment, there hasn’t been many movies this year to match the zaniness of Zola, which arrives in theaters this week.