Zola

A24 takes some risks by adapting a Twitter thread into a 90-minute movie. The end result, "Zola," is a mixed bag with a bold directorial style but a limp, flat screenplay.

It all started with one tweet…

“Okay listen up. This story long. So I met this white bitch at Hooters…”

What came after was an epic 148-tweet tale that captured audiences on Twitter in 2015 with a hashtag known as #thestory.

Aziah “Zola” Wells mastered the art of 140-character storytelling by keeping followers engaged with a saga about her run-in with a blonde white stripper who asks her to come along to Florida to dance for the weekend. Zola tags along, thinking she’ll make some money with a new friend and finds herself trapped in a hotel room with Jessica and her African pimp “Z.”

Zola helps her meet johns on Backpage (a now defunct competitor to Craiglist that was free-reign for prostitution) and the whole ordeal ends with guns pointed in people’s faces.

It’s a mess. A funny and entertaining one though.

For five years, A24, the edgy and experimental indie-film studio behind such hits as “Moonlight,” “Hereditary,” “Ex Machina” and “Uncut Gems,” has been trying to turn this twitter thread into a feature film. Originally James Franco was set to direct but it’s best that he backed out. Someone that’s been accused of sexual misbehavior shouldn’t be making a movie about sex workers.

Janicza Bravo was recruited to direct this weirder-than-life dramedy and she brings a visual flair that announces her as a voice to watch in the filmmaking world. She fills your eyes with dream like imagery and your ears with melodic sounds of social media alerts, cell phones chirping, basketballs bouncing and rap music thumping. She orchestrates the whole thing like a ballet.

Obvious parallels will be made to A24’s earlier offering “Spring Breakers” but that might be setting the bar a little high.

Bravo constructs a mesmerizing flick that entertains more than it should but its down falls is that it relies so heavily on previous knowledge of the original tale, as if everyone should be familiar with the social media odyssey.

I had not read the thread before watching this movie and honestly I didn’t understand the hype at first. It was billed as “the strangest real story ever” and it didn’t seem that out of the ordinary to me. I watch a lot of Discovery ID, so this is no big deal.

But after finishing the movie, I scrolled through an archived thread and read the Rolling Stone article that featured the story. The movie made more sense and I get why hardcore fans might be excited to see this come to life on the screen.

That might be the failing of the screenplay which takes some risks but neglects to connect the dots. Perhaps increased narration from Zola would have captured her voice better but the end result is those that never followed the thread might end up wondering, “What’s the big deal?”

Nonetheless, a stylish eye from the director and some charismatic acting performances keep your eyeballs glued despite a lack of story momentum.

Taylour Paige, who is on the rise after a small role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and the female lead in “Boogie,” portrays the titular character with an understated charm. But she’s upstaged by the deliciously turbulent Stefani (Jessica in the thread) played by Riley Keough. She’s basically playing another white trash character like she did in “Logan Lucky” and “American Honey” but she’s just so damn good at doing it.

(Side Note: Keough is the granddaughter of Elvis Presley and when she was young she had both Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage as stepfathers at different times. She’s had some role models for odd, eccentric behavior. Honestly, she could probably tell stories even weirder than “Zola.”)

I would say this is a star-making turn for Keough but in my mind she was already a star.

Colman Domingo, who was underrated in “Ma Rainey,” plays the pimp and Nicolas Braun, from HBO’s “Succession,” provides some comic relief as Stefani’s clueless boyfriend.

In the end, it’s a mildly amusing lightweight caper. It’s not in “must-see” territory for me and it might fall short of A24’s marketing hype, but “Zola” is a fun romp through the seedy world of Backpage hookers. When it’s available to stream for free it’s worth pushing play.