Zola

You wanna hear a story about how I found this enjoyable but ultimately uneventful? It's a movie with pretty people but the way the plot builds up and never really resolves the conflict between Paige and Keough/Domingo is a letdown. It's refreshing to see Paige's Zola act reasonable, even confident, while facing those challenges. I've only watched Keough in American Honey, so I'll need to catch up on her many other credits. Fav scene: flipping the script to Keough's POV: "she only made $1."

Well, that happened. Well-acted and all, and Bravo throws in a lot of little details to capture the absurdity that is Florida. But afterwards it's hard not to feel a bit like "...and then what?"

If you look at the story in its original Twitter form then sure, it's exciting. As a movie? We've seen similar shit done in movies before, because at its heart it's a movie about sex trafficking. That doesn't mean it's bad though! It's got a playfulness to it that actually makes it feel different than other films of this ilk. It gets by a lot on how kinetic it can feel. Keough and Paige play off each other well.

Based on true events or not, there just isn't much of a story here. The four leads pour everything they can into their characters, who are interesting enough moment-to-moment. The relationship dynamics between Zola and Stefani are especially intriguing, but the film shies away from ever exploring them too directly. I can imagine this was a riveting read in 140-character chunks, and whatever producer decided to option this probably thought they couldn't go wrong with this much juice.

An interesting idea, but this based-on-a-Tweet-storm screenplay starts to show its lack of depth or insight pretty quickly, keeping things at the shallow, reactive level that you would expect from a tale told by social media; at least Paige and Keough are bright and charismatic presences that at least keep the film borderline watchable, though Keough’s appearance might evoke memories of the similar, but much better, AMERICAN HONEY. Might have worked better as a short subject.

Putting aside feeling like I'm listening to Riley Keough do an Iggy Azalea impression for 85 minutes, I'm down with this. It's entertaining - "pussy is worth thousands, bitch!" - and does get satisfyingly tense, while at the same time underscoring that these people are all fucking morons. There have been better explorations of "stripper culture", sex trafficking, etc., but this is interesting enough and brief enough that it's totally worth the watch, buoyed by a very believable ensemble.

Interesting narrative directions with an aesthetic that belongs to Sean Baker's new American indie. Gorgeous cinematography and unwaveringly steady tone is only let down by underworking the thematic grounds that were merely touched upon.

It's all about that Florida life, huh? You just know that it happens in the same universe as Spring Breakers.

I never know what to think of movies based on true events like this, in terms of critiquing them. How do you critique real shit that actually (mostly) happened? The performances are top notch, with Riley Keough turning in another memorable one & Taylour Paige owning every bit of deadpan delivery she has. Nicholas Braun is really funny. It just gets wilder as it goes, reminded me of Ingrid Goes West with how gleefully batshit it became. Overall, many reasons for me to never visit Florida.

A colorful Floridian comedy about sex workers that's sex-positive if sardonic at times, and doesn't really come off as over-the-top as it ought to. I read it is based on a tweet thread, which is inspiring really.

(SPRING TWEETERS)

I love the idea of it, but the screenplay failed to fill in the parts needed to transition an entertaining twitter thread into any kind of impactful movie. There are some great performances, but they can only carry the film so far. Worth a watch for the novelty, though, I would say.

Greg the MF egg

Loved it! I found myself imagining this as the light relief in a triple-bill sandwiched between Spring Breakers and the Florida Project.

Keough heartemoji. a horror that drapes comedy over it like a silk sheet, only to have it slowly slip away.

A more realistic Spring Breakers (with more inchoate commentary about race relations) that rambles along as an aimless vaguely-Herzogian yarn. Oh and for some inexplicable reason it features a Succession-prequel-version of Cousin Greg. Well-acted and convoluted enough to be compelling, but there doesn't seem to be any point to this film. I guess this is the last bits of postmodernism being purged out of the arthouse movie system.

There are some funny moments and there are some shocking moments, but mostly there are a lot of dull moments. It didn't grab me like I thought it might. Generally enjoy most A24 films even some of the more deliberately paced, but this felt more of a miss than a win. Strong reviews setup unrealistic expectations perhaps. I like Keough quite a bit, but the character she plays is insufferable. That's the point, it's just not an enjoyable or entertaining watch. I thought Paige was pretty good. 5.1.

Zola really needs to be funnier. While it's not in my wheelhouse, it is unique and has appeal.

fascinating cultural artifact

Top badass moment? The pole dancing. No, not for 'that' reason, it’s just I don’t think I could learn to do it and I’ve got the physique of Superman, so that makes it badass. This is a movie about trailer trash doing what trailer trash does. Honestly, I'm not criticising; my mother lived in a trailer, although because we’re British and bought up proper like, we call them mobile homes. It’s a well-made film but goes nowhere, although the pimp is entertaining. No cats, chainsaws or decapitations.

And after all, twitter is not all garbage, right?

It's tweet-sized in its story, too often feeling like a short film stretched thin with gaps where deeper character or theme development should be. The scattered script pieces are excellent though, provoking in their subject matter, plot thrills, and relational dynamics, and Paige's great Zola provides a steady emotional core throughout. Its construction is also amazing: the film grain, fades, and freeze frames, the unique camera angles, the vocalized texts, the unnerving sound design and score.

a remarkable dark and funny movie that's ultimately about dissociating yourself from the reality of sexual exploitation that ending though.. might have to rewatch it because it just plain stopped, leaving me a bit perplexed

The film seems to know that there's not a lot to the story since it tries to liven it up with an absolutely frenetic style. For me, it felt like the film was hollering it's fairly dull story in my face.

Mostistrue+ilovethemlol+sendusniggaslordlmao+didntknowhookin-getshernuffmoremoney+theyfuckeditwassogrossetclol+whiterecountnicebsversion:Pfromherredditpost-ifuckwithjesuslol++basedonhertweetsandarticle

The original twitter thread was a real gem and this was the best possible way to put it on film. I really loved all the performances (u/Alan_Laidlaw is right that this feels very Sean Baker) and it's got exactly the right amount of dark humor, much of which is directly drawn from the original tweets. Underneath the laughs, it's a bizarrely humanizing drama about human trafficking in general. Time to donate to a good cause.

i tend to enjoy Florida-set movies and when it’s as well-made as this then that’s a good movie for me

Viewed December 10, 2021. With the exception of the (admittedly pretty funny) "Hannah Montana" sequence, Janicza Bravo avoids social media generation tics and instead shoots this in dark, textured images that keep this from being a straightforward wacky comedy and take it into some thornier dimensions. The comic timing is superb throughout and often used to provoke some unsettling tonal changes, and the performances are impressive.

Bitch film. Arkadaş kurbanı olan Zola, gittiği her yerde, arkadaşını erkeklere satmak zorunda kalır. Colman Domingo'nun kötü adam rolünde çok başarılı. Genç kızların yaşadığı kolay para kazanma ahlaksızlığını yüzümüze vuruyor. Bunu da hiç utanmadan anlatıyor. Filmin sonunda, durmak yok yola devam. Senin için Abegunde Olawale olduğunu söylüyorlar.

I kept having to remind myself this is a real story(maybe) because part of me wanted things to be crazier. Still, there is an absurdity to the whole thing that is blended expertly with an underlying sense of dread. Keough's performance is hilarious as well as striking the tone of "wait should I be laughing at this?"

Way better than any film based on a tweet thread should have the right to be, this hit me in a similar way as Tangerine. And is Riley Keough ever not the best?

Not engaging as it is read -- I mean, how do you shoot a thread on Twitter and make it really interesting? -- and pretty sub-Sean Baker as expected. Cast is good, though, and there is some amusing chaotic energy all over it -- although it eventually falls short of something more than its viral force.

I watched this while high af and my main memory is feeling so sorry for Stefani for having to sleep with all those dudes which is I feel like not totally the intention here

As trashy as trashy comes

I've said it before I'll say it again I love aesthetic movies about girls doing things. This movie was really fun, a brisk 90 mins, and captured the mania of the Twitter thread.

A lot of promise but ultimately completely insubstantial.

Fairly well-made and stylish. But I don't think the story was translated very well to the screen; the narrative felt choppy and uneven.

It turns out you CAN make a movie out of a bunch of tweets. And a funny, suspenseful, and altogether interesting one at that.