The filmmakers, writers and cast are so criminally funny they should all be hailed for shining a light on a serious subject and then arrested by the vice squad for their naughty humor.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 15, 2021

All in all, the tale of what happened in the aftermath of her extended saga sounds a lot more fun than the adventure itself.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 19, 2021

It's very arch and very funny in its tone... It's sort of vibrating at this slightly scary frequency, and it really walks the line between comedy and drama.

| Aug 20, 2021

A film that brashly merges traditional and disorientingly new ways of telling stories, and finds both chaos and wisdom in the chasm between them.

| Aug 16, 2021

The story Bravo tells in Zola about innocence and experience – and who is allowed to have each – makes this slim, runaway road movie something else entirely.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 16, 2021

That rarest of things: a film inspired by new media that deftly acknowledges the platform on which the story originally played out without becoming enslaved by it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 8, 2021

Domingo brings both charm and terror; Braun is the ideal wet noodle.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 6, 2021

Keough is exquisite.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 6, 2021

Raw, boundary-pushing cinema.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 6, 2021

Time will tell if the social media thread is set to become the epic poem of the new millennium. For now, Zola feels like a triumphant lunge into fresh territory.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 6, 2021

What's funny about exploitation? You'd be amazed.

| Aug 5, 2021

A whip-smart critique of the very modern, not especially psychologically steadying notion that our life experiences can now be repackaged for strangers' amusement as "content", rather than honestly reckoned with.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 5, 2021

Bravo stylishly delivers a dreamlike odyssey with slick, character-driven performances full of conviction, but that courage dissipates by the final act with nary enough steam to power a satisfying ending for its eponymous hero.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 4, 2021

If the subject matter is bleak, and the story itself grim, the film is lifted by the comedic bounce of the performances and the sheer audaciousness of the filmmaking.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 4, 2021

An icily slick and funny Florida urban thriller in the style of Carl Hiaasen, carried with great deadpan style by Paige.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 4, 2021

It's the perfect visual language for a movie about the comedy, terror, and life-changing perspective of being along for the ride.

| Jul 19, 2021

The smart, hyper-stylish, coded and colorful direction of Janicza Bravo, who wrote the script with playwright Jeremy O. Harris, is what really makes it all swagger and singe.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 6, 2021

Ultimately, Zola is the perfect summer film; it's a freewheeling joyride through the seamy side of stripping that balances the thrill of voyeurism with the dangerous reality.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 3, 2021

Yet as an extravagant, not-meant-to-be-taken-as-gospel yarn, it's like a rollicking group chat brought to life, and it makes one hell of a story.

| Original Score: B | Jul 2, 2021

In Janicza Bravo's Zola, the tale is preserved -- repackaged as not just a comedic thriller, but as a way to explore social media as testimony, a source of perspectives we never had access to before.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 2, 2021