Summary
- A24's Zola movie tells a wild story based on a true viral Twitter thread about a chaotic road trip gone wrong.
- The film closely follows the basic plot of the original story, but takes liberties and makes some changes for dramatic effect.
- Adapting a social media post into a movie requires significant reworking, but A24 has successfully done this before with films like Tusk.
A24's Zola movie hit theaters in 2021, telling a wild story about a Florida road trip gone wrong. The film tells the story of Zola, a waitress who is convinced by the larger-than-life stripper Stefani to go on a road trip to Tampa, suggesting they can dance at several clubs along the way and make some money. The journey becomes a descent into chaos, featuring not only Stefani but also her boyfriend and her pimp. Things quickly escalate into a nightmare weekend for Zola, filled with drama and violence.
It's a tale so unbelievable that it might never cross someone's mind while watching that Zola was based on a true story. Despite the film taking liberties, Zola is based on a viral Twitter thread from 2015. The real-life Zola recounted her captivating tale in a 148-tweet thread that trended worldwide (via Rolling Stone). As for what horrors the Zola movie gets right, it's not much beyond the basic plot. How Zola (Taylour Paige) and Stefani (Riley Keough) meet is accurate to the original story, but the events of the road trip differ from Zola's real-life story.
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The Twitter Thread That Started It All
The Zola movie's true story, as told through the original Twitter thread, is truly a stranger-than-fiction roller-coaster ride. After meeting Jessica at a Hooters in Detroit where she works, Zola agrees to join the road trip to Florida, enticed by the possibility of how much money she can make while stripping there. What she doesn't bargain for is the addition of Jarret and Z, Jess's unstable boyfriend and their "roommate," who Zola only later learns is Jess's pimp.
Once the group is in Tampa, one surprise after another follows. Zola learns that Jess and Z plan to sell sex while in Florida, and Zola ends up taking over for Z in finding Jess's clients. Zola has to contend with Jarrett's spiraling mental state and eventually watches Jess get kidnapped, overhearing what is likely a murder as a result. In the end, Zola makes it safely back to Detroit with Jarrett, having left Jess and Z behind in Florida, only to later learn that Z is wanted for human trafficking and murder.
How Much of Zola Is Based On Real Events?
The Twitter Thread Was Only The Main Basis
While Zola's wild road trip in real life did contain a lot of unbelievable and potentially illegal antics, Zola's depiction is generally fictitious, using Zola's tweets as more of an outline than anything else. In this way, Zola's approach is similar to another based-on-a-true-story movie, Hustlers. For example, in the movie, Zola is forced into sex work by Stefani's pimp, X (Z in the thread) — but in reality, Zola wasn't in that hotel and stayed away from that part of the trip.
Other scenes are exaggerated for dramatic effect, like the moment in which X fatally shoots a man. This was the story that Z recounted, but Zola insists it did happen and that she heard the gunshot. Although there is some truth to this adaptation, Zola is generally more of a dramatization of the events of Zola's Twitter thread rather than a step-by-step recreation — but the movie still gets the basic story elements correct.
Zola and Jessica's meeting and the regression of their "friendship" in particular are portrayed in an accurate light according to Zola's tweets. Zola uses the tribulations and trials of the true story as a template for a more cinematic retelling that entertains but still honors the real-life tale.
Basing A Movie On A Social Post Means It Has To Adapt Events
A-24 Has Created Movies Based On A Small Source Before
Unsurprisingly, basing a movie on a social media post requires significant reworking of the story. Even adaptations based on full novels need to adjust the story's pace to fit a cinematic telling, but a Twitter post (even one as detailed as Zola's) is truly bare-bones. This isn't the first time A24 has pulled off such a feat, however. 2014's Tusk was loosely derived from a fake Gumtree post by UK poet Chris Parkinson advertising live-in accommodation for anyone willing to pretend to be a walrus for an hour a day.
The film ended up taking a much darker turn into body horror, though. Ideas can come from anywhere – but many of those ideas don't appear as fully-formed movies. Often, there's a give, especially when it comes to super viral Twitter threads.
Where To Read The Original Zola Twitter Thread Story
It Isn't On Twitter Anymore
While the Zola film tells a rollicking story, the 280-character energy of the original thread is hard to top. It's been deleted from Twitter, but for those interested, it's still viewable in its entirety on Imgur.
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Zola
- Summary:
- "Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense." Thus began the odyssey of one A’Ziah King, aka ZOLA. From acclaimed writer/director Janicza Bravo, Zola's stranger than fiction saga, which she first told in a now iconic series of viral, uproarious tweets, comes to dazzling cinematic life. Zola (Taylour Paige), a Detroit waitress, strikes up a new friendship with a customer, Stefani (Riley Keough), who seduces her to join a weekend of dancing and partying in Florida. What at first seems like a glamorous trip full of “hoeism” rapidly transforms into a 48-hour journey involving a nameless pimp, an idiot boyfriend, some Tampa gangsters and other unexpected adventures in this wild, see-it-to-believe-it tale.
- Release Date:
- 2021-06-30
- Assistant Director :
- Shahrzad Davani
- Cast:
- Colman Domingo, Taylour Paige, Nicholas Braun, Riley Keough
- Cinematographer:
- Ari Wegner
- Director:
- Janicza Bravo
- Distributor :
- A24
- Genres:
- Comedy, Drama, Crime
- Main Characters :
- Dion, Stefani, C.C, X, Aziah "Zola" King, Jonathan, Sean, Gail, Derrek
- Producer:
- Dave Franco, Gia Walsh, Kara Baker, Christine Vachon, David Hinojosa, Elizabeth Haggard
- Production Company:
- Killer Films, Ramona Films, Gigi Films
- Rating:
- R
- Runtime:
- 90 minutes
- Story By:
- David Kushner, A'Ziah King
- Writers:
- Janicza Bravo, Jeremy O. Harris
- Main Genre:
- Drama
