Back to trending
Zola

Zola

Comedy · Crime · Drama · 2021

A waitress agrees to accompany an exotic dancer, her put-upon boyfriend, and her mysterious and domineering roommate on a road trip to Florida to seek their fortune at a high-end strip club.

Movie details

Zola

“Y'all wanna hear a story?”

2021 Comedy · Crime · Drama 1h 26m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.2 / 10

Community rating

A waitress agrees to accompany an exotic dancer, her put-upon boyfriend, and her mysterious and domineering roommate on a road trip to Florida to seek their fortune at a high-end strip club.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Zola?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

The Doom Generation

The Doom Generation

Comedy · 1995

Jordan White and Amy Blue, two troubled teens, pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red. Together, the threesome embarks on a sex- and violence-filled journey through a United States of psychos and quickie marts.

Small Apartments

Small Apartments

Comedy · 2012

When a clumsy deadbeat accidentally kills his landlord, he must do everything in his power to hide the body, only to find that the distractions of lust, the death of his beloved brother, and a crew of misfit characters force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him.

King Cobra

King Cobra

Crime · 2016

It’s 2006, YouTube is in its infancy, and internet porn is still behind a paywall. Taking the stage name Brent Corrigan, a fresh-faced, wannabe adult video performer is molded into a star by Stephen, a closeted gay porn mogul who runs the skin flick empire Cobra Video from his seemingly ordinary suburban home.

Gummo

Gummo

Drama · 1997

Teenagers Solomon and Tummler kill time in Xenia, Ohio, a small town that has never recovered from the tornado that ravaged the community in the 1970s.

Family Weekend

Family Weekend

Comedy · 2013

A 16-year-old girl takes her parents hostage after they miss her big jump-roping competition.

In the Soup

In the Soup

Comedy · 1992

An aspiring young filmmaker gets involved with an eccentric gangster for the financing of his first film.

Hooking Up

Hooking Up

Comedy · 2020

Bailey and Darla embark upon a misguided and mutually deceitful form of therapy, one in which they must drive across the country, re-enacting Darla's colorful history as a sex addict. As their true motivations for the road trip come to light, the unlikely pair force one another to confront their issues, discovering that there might actually be more to love than just sex.

...All the Marbles

...All the Marbles

Comedy · 1981

A two-bit promoter tries to take a women's wrestling team to the top.

Heavy Traffic

Heavy Traffic

Animation · 1973

A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.

Bully

Bully

Crime · 2001

A group of teenagers in South Florida enact a murder plot against their mutual bully, Bobby, who has emotionally, physically, and sexually abused them for years.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Janicza Bravo

Written by

Janicza Bravo · Jeremy O. Harris · Andrew Neel · Mike Roberts

Taylour Paige

Taylour Paige

Zola

Riley Keough

Riley Keough

Stefani

Colman Domingo

Colman Domingo

X

Nicholas Braun

Nicholas Braun

Derrek

Ari'el Stachel

Ari'el Stachel

Sean

Nelcie Souffrant

Nelcie Souffrant

Gail

Nasir Rahim

Nasir Rahim

Jonathan

Court is in session

Put Zola on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.