Blaxsplotation for the 21st Century, Zola is a gritty, sex-enthused masterclass by director Janicza Bravo. Based on a "true" story that has to be seen to be believed, Zola wholeheartedly mixes glittery unreality with a raw, "post-Americana" realism seen in films like The Florida Project.
Pornographic to the point of pungency, Zola is a comedy so dark you will hit your shin on the coffee table. This film will give you all the trashy pleasure of binging an entire season of Love Island before throwing you off the deep end into a spiral of outrage and horror. Nothing is glamorised here, and everything from the skillfully constructed collages to the plastic-sheen of the 16mm gives the film a grimy falseness that really sells the picture while making a mockery of any notion of intimacy. Everything in this film feels unreal or all too real. On top of that it's one of the few films to integrate social media without feeling tragically out of touch.
Together with stellar performances from its core cast, a trippy score by Micachu and a killingly clever script, Zola is a transgressive delight, and the best part is that it's only one of many we have to look forward to as 2021 comes to a close.