76
Metascore
46 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 85Vanity FairRichard LawsonVanity FairRichard LawsonThough premised on the slight pretenses of Twitter, the world of Bravo’s film is no fictionalized, seedily appealing underbelly. It’s simply America: often frightful, sometimes grimly amusing, and ever rattling along in its entropy.
- 83Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattEntertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattIf Paige and Keogh weren’t both such indelible, fiercely charismatic characters, the whole thing could easily fall apart. But their presence, and Bravo’s singular vision, give Zola a sort of electric buzz: the thrill of watching something stranger than fiction, and somehow better than true.
- 83The PlaylistJessica KiangThe PlaylistJessica KiangEmpowering, saddening, amusing and aggravating in roughly equal measure, with a very small side order of social critique, Bravo’s film marks a huge step up for her and a definitive answer to the question that @_zolarmoon posed to Twitter in October of 2015: yes, y’all do wanna hear the story about why she and this bitch here fell out!!!!!!!!
- 80The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMore or less playing straight man to Keough's comically unflappable liability, the incandescent Paige conveys the disappointment, even disdain, of Zola for a woman she believed was a friend, but also subtly introduces notes of poignancy as she figures out ways to stay safe in the stickiest situations. Her self-possession is a thing of beauty.
- 75The Film StageJordan RaupThe Film StageJordan RaupAccompanied by Mica Levi’s score–which mixes fairytale-esque harps to introduce the story and Southern-fried beats and synths as the craziness progresses–Bravo elevates the material and provides a unified, eccentric vision.
- 75SlashfilmChris EvangelistaSlashfilmChris EvangelistaIt’s crass, it’s cruel, it’s wild, it’s often hilariously funny.
- 70Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangLos Angeles TimesJustin ChangAs funny and ferocious as much of Zola is, it’s let down by an increasingly haphazard script that doesn’t know how to either sustain its humor or negotiate its turn into darker territory — and so, disappointingly, it waffles.
- 60The GuardianBenjamin LeeThe GuardianBenjamin LeeThe Twitter-to-screen adaptation of Zola is as scrappy and imperfect as the original story but just as likable. There’s something unusually compelling about what Bravo does with the material that makes up for its missteps.
- 60Screen DailyAnthony KaufmanScreen DailyAnthony KaufmanIt’s ultimately unsatisfying—more style than substance.