[ film + tv ]
The plot twists that were breathtaking in 140-character bursts are barely wiggles on the movie screen, accustomed as we all are to absurdly convoluted prestige-TV thrillers. Truly, the only revelatory moments come in the details. Zola is full of juicy, almost haptic detail: the sound design, lush with clicks, whooshes, trills, whistles, glissandos; the locations, purely down-home to any Central Floridian, giant crosses, even bigger Confederate flags, 1-800-ASK-GARY billboards, sickly-green fluorescent fixtures buzzing with insects. Appropriately for a story that originated on Twitter, the smartphone is a central character — Derrek, Stefani and Zola live life on their phones, their experiences mediated by screens, their careers and bodies facilitated with apps and filters. No, the real suspense, the real twists (and even the “kinda long”-ness, considering how long it took to get to the screen) are present behind the scenes of Zola. This story was written and (to some extent; how much is “true” is any writer’s prerogative) lived by A’Ziah King. Yet the film option was taken out on the article in Rolling Stone, written by David Kushner, a white man. The first script — billed as “based on an article by David Kushner” — was written by two other white men. It was picked up by James Franco’s production company, for Franco to direct. And then Ferguson happened, ushering in #BLM. MeToo broke (and took Franco down), Cardi B. became a subTaylour Paige in Zola urban icon (now your mom knows what “trap” means), PHOTOS COURTESY OF A24 #OscarsSoWhite gained traction. Not just Twitter but the whole country changed in extraordinary ways, inconceivable five years earlier. Those five years interposed between King’s thread and A24’s movie might have been a bitter wait for King, but in the end they were a blessing. Finally there was buy-in on ‘Zola’ tells A’Ziah King’s story as it should be told — as the lived experience the idea that women can and should own their own stories. Instead of Franco flattening King’s thread into more grist of a Black woman, not a cartoon for the male gaze for the Spring Breakers mill, Black director Janicza Bravo and Black writer Jeremy O. Scott were brought in. BY JESSICA BRYCE YOU N G And they told the story the way it should be told — from ou wanna hear a story about how me and this feckless boyfriend Derrek (Nicholas Braun, playing a low- behind Zola’s eyes, not in front of the eyes of the men who bitch fell out? It’s kinda long but it’s full of rent version of his Cousin Greg character from Succession) wanted to profit; as an experience lived, not observed. and Stefani’s “roommate” (actually her pimp) — Zola is suspense.” jyoung@orlandoweekly.com That was the tweet that introduced A’Ziah King, aka having misgivings about the crowd she’s rolling with. By the Riley Keough and Taylour Paige in Zola @Zola, to the world. And in a 140-character world in which time she realizes Stefani has duped her into accompanying threads had yet to become an art form, it was full of sus- her to a much nicer hotel room to turn tricks, Zola is gritting pense (especially if you were reading along in real time, as her teeth, determined to just get through the weekend and I was lucky enough to be), and it was unthinkably long by never see these people again. Events spiral from there. 2015 Twitter standards. It’s clear Zola is no babe in the woods — she’s bemused As for the movie, though, which finally hits screens by the club’s pasties-and-thongs requireJune 30 — if you read that thread, you ment, stressing that she’s “a full-nude already know the story, so there’s not type of bitch.” And from the very first much suspense. And at 80 minutes long, ZOLA scene, Zola is more efficient than anynot counting the end credits, it’s not that opens in theaters June 30 one around her: the hostess at her diner, long. her clueless boyfriend, and eventually, So there’s no such thing as a spoiler here Stefani’s pimp. (In the hotel, she’s got no when it comes to Zola’s plot. It’s a buddy problem with Stefani trapping, though movie of a sort, in which Zola (Taylour she’s angry Stefani attempted to coerce Paige), a Black waitress/part-time stripper, meets and falls deep into a friend-crush with Stefani her into it as well; she snaps into get-shit-done mode and (Riley Keough), a white stripper/part-time prostitute, who tells Stefani her pimp is lowballing her.) But, while she may invites her on a road trip to Florida to dance and “make be experienced in this milieu, she reserves the right to pass some cash.” Even before they’ve lugged their Vuitton bags on any part of it she doesn’t care to participate in. That into a nasty Tampa motel room — Zola, Stefani, Stefani’s agency is the difference between the two women.
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orlandoweekly.com
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JUNE 30-JULY 6, 2021 ● ORLANDO WEEKLY
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