Film

zola

GALLAGHER’S

FARM MARKET & BAKERY

SWEET CHERRIES! SWEET CHERRIES, BLUEBERRIES & LOCAL VEGGIES Home-baked Bread & PiesHome-baked Bread & Pies Homemade Jams & JelliesHomemade Jams & Jellies Local Honey & Maple Syrup Local Honey & Maple Syrup Ice Cream & Donuts Cherry Products & Wine Cherry Products & Donuts Wines

ON M-72 JUST 3.5 MILES WEST OF TC 231-947-1689•gallaghersfarmmarkettc.com OPEN DAILY 8am - 8pm OPEN DAILY 8am-6pm

TC MEXICAN

DINE IN • TAKE OUT • CATERING Cherryland Center 231-421-5080 • tcmexican.com

“Y’all wanna hear a story about why me and this b---h here fell out?”

It may not be Austen, or Dickens, or Tolstoy, but it’s one heck of an opening line, one that I would posit embodies storytelling’s ability to capture the drama of the human experience. It was with that first tweet that a then 19-year-old A’Ziah “Zola” King kicked off her viral Twitter saga (some 140 tweets in total) about a nightmare road trip. And it truly is a modern-day epic — a sordid story of stripping, sex trafficking, and the inherent dangers of traveling to Florida. Ulysses has nothing on Zola. It’s no surprise that Hollywood then came calling, making Zola the first film to be adapted from a Twitter thread. But the film is more than just a gimmick or curious artifact of social media, or a let’s-watch-a-trashytrainwreck romp. It’s stylish, smart, surprising, sly, and significant — a glittering, candycolored dark fairytale that is undeniably teeming with life while also constantly teetering into problematic territory. It all starts when exotic dancer Zola (Taylour Page) bonds with a fellow dancer she’s serving at her second job, as a waitress. The two exchange numbers, and later perform as a duo at a club. Stefani (Riley Keough) then invites Zola on a quick “Hoes Trip” to Florida to hit up some clubs, grind, twerk, and come home with a stack of bills.

But when Stefani comes to pick her up, Zola sees the first of the veritable parade of red flags that is yet come. In the car, Stefani has in tow not only her dopey boyfriend Derek (Nicholaus Braun, playing perhaps the most cuckolded man to ever be cuckolded) but also her so-called “roommate,” a large and possessive man played by Colman Domingo. It soon becomes clear that Stefani doesn’t just strip, she also traps. And her “roommate” is her violent pimp. But Zola is a smart girl; she thinks she can handle this. And she’s come too far to not make this whole ordeal worth her while. Matters escalate, and the story gets bigger and bigger, more outrageous and audacious, and incredibly dangerous, all while moving at a dizzying pace. Taking you into this wild and unfamiliar world is director Janicza Bravo, who, like an Olympic gymnast, makes moves with a high degree of difficulty look incredibly easy. Balancing wild extremes, tonally and otherwise, she moves the film from zany crowd-pleaser to dark survival story. And even if the story and subject matter is 100 percent not for you, you can’t help but be impressed by the clear-eyed artistry and the electric wonder of experiencing such an authentic and distinct voice.

Critical elements of high drama are here: adventure and danger, betrayal and lust. And Bravo meets them with gorgeous 16mm cinematography and a kinetic collage of aesthetics, employing devices like freezeframes, voiceover, changing POVs, Twitter chirps, and on-screen texts and other social media interactions. Trashy and sophisticated, frisky and surreal, gritty and enchanting, this is daring work that is no better expressed than in a sex scene where Zola serves as “social secretary” for Stefani’s night of Johns. It is truly a masterclass in filmmaking, and let’s just say on this particular montage I cannot imagine having been the editor. A freaky fantasy with the realities of trauma at its edges, Zola puts on display issues of agency, race, sex, class, social media, and the commercialization of ourselves (and more). But Bravo is not here to make moral judgments; she makes her points without necessarily making a particular point, allowing the audience to marinate in discomfort and complexity. This is a film directed by a black woman, about a black woman. It respects its characters and their humanity and allows them to be exuberantly themselves — in some cases, no matter how grotesque they may seem. And the performances are truly something else. Paige and Keough prove themselves to be two bright, shining stars. And even though Keough might be playing a familiar character (see her work in Honeyland and The Girlfriend Experience), here she is so much more funny and dynamic, this role is really her trashy masterpiece. Of course, being adapted from tweets, there is a lot for the film to fill in, and it manages parts of the story more successfully than others. Case in point: the ending. Zola doesn’t nail it. But how could it? With such a fevered frenzy of a pace throughout, it seems any conclusion would feel unsatisfying. Repulsive and inviting and bewildering as possible, the film leaves you feeling a lot like Zola herself — totally overwhelmed yet absolutely along for the ride. It’s raw and vivid and, believe me, you’ll want to keep scrolling.

U-PICK BLUEBERRIES

231-360-9964 7187 E Harrys Rd, Traverse City bulldogberries.com

* Blueberries available mid July