Zola: Sundance Review

Synopsis

From Sundance Institute:

Zola meets Stefani at a restaurant where Zola waitresses, and the two immediately click over pole dancing. Only a day after they exchange numbers, Stefani invites Zola on a cross-country road trip, where the goal is to make as much money as possible dancing in Florida strip clubs. Zola agrees, and suddenly she is trapped in the craziest, most unexpected trip of her life. 

Review

Everything in this movie technically is on point. From the bravura direction from Janicza Bravo (she's such a cool person) to the beautiful cinematography from Ari Wegner. The performances in this film, specifically Riley Keough and Colman Domingo (his accent switching is a bit jarring though).This film is quite funny ("I f**k with Jesus," in the context of this film, is one of the funniest things). This film is so raw and honest, maybe a little too raw. Admittedly, it was a little awkward watching with my dad (there’s a montage of d*cks, so...). The film does have a few structural issues, but I think that came with the territory. It seems to have a very loose, go-with-the-flow attitude that leads to some plot holes. But that is the product of it being a Twitter movie. The film ends a bit abruptly, which kind of leaves you with a feeling that the film is just unfinished, BUT you have to remember that this is a Twitter film. Sometimes, things just end as twitter threads do. In the talkback after my screening, the co-writers of the film explained that a lot of things were left up to interpretation in the original tweets (like the entirety of the car ride).  See what I did there...