Tampa Ying and Tampa Yang

 

Zola is a true story that questions both the validity and necessity of "truth" and "story," and its nascent gorgeous sense of style supersedes all nitpicking.  It moves like a bullet in a dream, with intention but without trajectory, and yet you still are compelled to follow along its twisty path.  

Directed and co-written by Janicza Bravo it is effortlessly nasty but also innocent in its associations and travesties.  Based on a series of tweets by a Detroit waitress tricked into tricking, it feels exploitative but also aware of exploitation, fun and dangerously not fun.  In other words, it gets the joke the whole way through without losing its heart to gallantry or bullshit.  It also is a devastating evisceration of social media without trying too hard, without shrillness.

The performances help.  Taylour Paige is perfect in personifying disgust and exhaustion in a world she does not belong in, and Riley Keough (Elvis's granddaughter for Christ's sake) brings it as a really sad and lost stripper trying to understand the world through cash and fucking.  They are the ying and yang in a terrible Tampa, Florida porniverse full of pink and lime-green neon, plush but seedy hotels, and johns and pimps always fluttering around them. 

What makes this movie so beautifully unique is its melancholy and aloofness.  Unlike Scorsese, Bravo seems interested in what isn't there:  the richness is in the peripherals, not in the furious alpha-dog full-frontals.  The movie is a joke and a lark and a nightmare, but it somehow finds time to skewer male egos without paying attention to male egos.  It's me-too but without the stupid pussyhats.   

One of the best movies of 2021.

Here's my top 10 of 2021 by the way:

1. Mass
2. The Power of the Dog
3. Red Rocket
4. The Humans
5. Zola
6. Licorice Pizza
7. The Lost Daughter
8. The Sparks Brothers
9. Dune
10. Cruella