ZOLA: The First of Its Kind

Taylour Paige (right) stars as title character ZOLA, a Detroit waitress, strikes up a new friendship with a customer, Stefani, who seduces her to join a weekend of dancing and partying in Florida.

by Jacob Nadir

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

ZOLA Is the first film based on a Twitter thread, so at its core, it’s an experimental film. The film is full of narrative risks and moments designed to lure the audience into a world that normally requires familiarity in order to navigate.

In short - a road trip brings clashing personalities into a series of shady endeavors where they each reassess their involvement in said shady endeavors. That said, Zola is full of memorable moments but lacks the cohesion necessary to fully drive the themes of the film home.

The original Twitter IP was created by Aziah “Zola” Wells King and the film is directed by Janicza Bravo and written by Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris. The casting of every role is excellent, it’s beautifully shot on film, and the dialogue shared between the characters feels rooted in reality. With Zola at the center of the film, the audience truly gets into her perspective as she welcomes in, then immediately regrets peak shenanigans. She dons an expressionless face for a lot of the film, nonverbally communicating that in order to survive this nightmare she has to lay low and play it cooler than cool while everyone else says and does absolutely too much.

The strongest element of Zola is how it highlights the dynamic between white women and Black women. Although this film is a very specific iteration of this dynamic, it touches on the universalness of white women often feeling entitled to the time and energy of Black women. And if that time and energy is granted, it’s often taken advantage of. And if that time and energy is reclaimed, then it’s often perceived by white women as an attack on them. The specific dynamic between Stefani (named Jessica in real life) and Zola is one where the savior role is bestowed upon Zola and even though she does save Stefani time and time again, her deeds go unthanked.

Zola (right) and Stefani (Riley Keough, left) knee-deep into their “glamorous trip full of “hoeism””

In fact, not only do Zola’s efforts go unthanked, they get used against her in a poignant portion of the film where it’s no longer titled Zola, but rather the film becomes Stefani. With a whole new title card to accompany it, Stefani recites the Reddit thread she created to tell her fictional version of the times she and Zola spent together. This may be the overall highlight of the film because it makes what is probably obvious to Black viewers, obvious to white viewers. The obvious being Stefani’s parasitic and manipulative behavior which is rooted in inherent racism. Stefani has a Black baby, moves in a predominantly Black environment, and wears Blackness as a costume all while degrading the actual Black people around her.

As mentioned, there are several moments that succeed in making the audience empathize, laugh, and identify with Zola. This is critical as characters like Zola are rarely presented as fully dimensional, capable of expressing a spectrum of emotions and ideas. Yet, this portrayal exists within a narrative that just feels rushed and where the experimentation of basing a movie on a Twitter thread comes into play.

The glaring flaw of the film is how unnatural the progression of events feels. This especially applies to the ending. The movie feels like it’s just getting started then it ends very abruptly. The Twitter thread is a recollection that gets posted after these events take place, so the film could have taken us up until that moment of Zola opening up Twitter to share #TheStory. The way the film ends is completely void of any kind of feeling that feels like an ending. This often enhances films, but not in this case. The open-ended ending here leaves us wanting more as if it were a TV episode.

Additionally, there are sporadic and blatant surreal elements that don’t add to the narrative, enhance the tone, or really serve any purpose at all. The closed captions translating “On God” into “I feel seen” feels like a random catering to the white audience. The boys dribbling the basketball in an eerie repetitious way at the motel feels like it’s in the wrong movie. Stefani’s boyfriend Derrek jumping off the balcony to land across from the pool seems outright comedic although the intention seems more serious.

Again, translating a Twitter thread into a visual medium was an experiment. Zola was the first to do it and it may not be the last. It’ll be interesting to see the perception of Zola change from now until awards season, and from awards season going forward, as new social media IP gets adapted into the cinematic medium.