History Film / Zola

-->-- '''Aziah King''' in her [[https://imgur.com/a/WDwyW original thread]].

* ActorAllusion: [[Film/MagicMike This isn't the only movie where Riley Keough's character is involved with the life of a stripper in Florida]]. It's also not the first time she's played an escort/sex worker (although her character in ''The Girlfriend Experience'' was more of a HighClassCallGirl).

Has nothing to do with French writer Émile Zola.

* RunningGag: An increasingly annoyed and abrupt "They started fucking, it was ''gross''" whenever Zola has to witness Stefani having sex in the same room as her.

* RunningGag: An increasingly annoyed and abrupt "They started fucking, it was ''gross''" whenever Zola has to witness Stefani having sex in front of her.

* StylisticSuck: Halfway through the movie, [[spoiler:Stefani suddenly launches into her own version of events]]. She depicts herself as a wholesome Christian girl trying to make ends meet while Zola is a [[grotesque, astoundingly racist caricature of a stereotypical ratchet]] who shows up with literal straw in her hair and ''literally'' wears a garbage bag to the trip.

* AdaptationalDumbass: Mixed with AdaptationalJerkass: Jarrett in the original thread carried on a long, interesting conversation with Zola despite his bipolar swings, and it turned out to be one of the only high points of Zola's trip to hell. Derrek is a whiny, melodramatic idiot who is slavishly devoted to Stefani despite her constant exploitation of him, whose only bright spot of intelligence is keying Zola into the fact ''Stefani has deceived several other strippers in the exact same way before''.

* FauxAffablyEvil: X is an absolute garbage human being, but for a while, he at least seems to respect Zola on some level, and is generally charismatic and somewhat charming when he isn't demonstrating his ownership of Stefani. Then he [[spoiler:agrees to allow Dion and his boys to make her their bitch while trying to negotiate his way out of the robbery, and allows Dion to sexually assault her in front of him]], and it becomes clear that at the end of the day, he's a truly monstrous human being through and through. The original thread revealed he was a ''human trafficker''.

* RunningGag: An increasingly annoyed and abrupt "They started fucking, it was ''gross''" whenever Zola has to witness to Stefani turning tricks.

* StylisticSuck: Halfway through the movie, [[spoiler:Stefani suddenly launches into her own version of events]]. She depicts herself as a wholesome Christian girl trying to make ends meet while Zola is a [[UncleTomfoolery cackling hoe bag]] who shows up with literal straw on her hair (y'know, like an animal) and ''literally'' wears a garbage bag to the trip.
* TakeThat: Stefani's [[spoiler:fake as hell and racist as shit]] version of the events of that weekend is posted on Website/{{Reddit}}. In a film where Website/{{Tumblr}}, Facebook, and Twitter are mentioned positively, it's not very coincidental a website associated with white supremacy and privilege has white trash queen Stefani posting on it.

* AdaptationalDumbass: Mixed with AdaptationalJerkass: Jarrett in the original thread carried on a long, interesting conversation with Zola despite his bipolar swings, and it turned out to be one of the only high points of Zola's trip to hell. Derrek is a whiny wigger, all-around simp, and drama queen whose only bright spot of intelligence is keying Zola into the fact ''Stefani has deceived several other strippers in the exact same way before''.

* AccentSlipup: Whenever X gets serious, he speaks with a heavy Nigerian accent. Lampshaded by Zola when he loses his cool in the car.

* FanDisservice: Several close-up shots of the callers visiting Stefani unzipping their pants to reveal a variety of penises.
* FauxAffablyEvil: X is an absolute garbage human being, but for a while, he at least seems to respect Zola on some level, and is generally charismatic and somewhat charming when he isn't demonstrating his ownership of Stefani. Then he [[spoiler:agrees to allow Dion and his boys to make her their bitch while trying to negotiate his way out of the robbery, and allows Dion to sexually assault her in front of him]], and it becomes clear that at the end of the day, he's a truly monstrous human being through and through.

* JerkassHasAPoint: X is a violent asshole, but he was dead-on about Derrek endangering them by sharing far too many details about their location with Dion.

* {{Manchild}}: Derrek, in addition to being not being very bright, is also very emotionally underdeveloped and behaves like an overgrown teenager.

* NotTheFirstVictim: Possibly. When Derrek is fighting with Stefani, he reveals that Stefani has brought other "new" friends to Florida with him and X before. Given that they run into sex traffickers and that X is a violent pimp, it probably didn't end well, but it's not made clear how.

* RunningGag: "They started fucking. It was gross." whenever Zola is in the room with Stefani when she begins having sex.
* ScaryBlackMan: X, as shown when he threatens Zola after she attempts to leave him and Stefani.
* SuicideAsComedy: Derrek's abrupt jump from the balcony during his AnguishedDeclarationOfLove for the disinterested Stefani and speechless Zola, especially as he actually survives.

* ActorAllusion:
** [[Film/MagicMike This isn't the only movie where Riley Keough's character is involved with the life of a stripper in Florida]]. It's also not the first time she's played an escort/sex worker (although her character in ''The Girlfriend Experience'' was more of a HighClassCallGirl).
* AdaptationNameChange:
** The woman Zola befriended was named Jessica Rae Swiatkowski, but is named Stefani in the film. Likewise, her boyfriend was named Jarrett Scott but renamed Derrek in the film.

** [[Film/MagicMike This isn't the only movie where Riley Keough's character is involved with the life of a stripper in Florida]].
** It's also not the first time she's played an escort/sex worker (although her character in ''The Girlfriend Experience'' was more of a HighClassCallGirl).

* ArcWords: Stefan has what seems to be a TrustPassword with Derrek where she says "who's is this?" (points towards Derrek's heart), to which he replies "yours", and "who's is this?", to which he replies "mine." It comes up multiple times in different contexts, most notably when X humiliates Derrek by doing it with Stefani.

* ArcWords: Stefan has what seems to be a TrustPassword with Derrick where she says "who's is this?" (points towards Derrek's heart), to which he replies "yours", and "who's is this?", to which he replies "mine." It comes up multiple times in different contexts, most notably when X humiliates Derrick by doing it with Stefani.

* One

* ActorAllusion: [[Film/MagicMike This isn't the only movie where Riley Keough's character is involved with the life of a stripper in Florida]].

* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: Stefani's exaggerated ratchet mannerisms, affected AAVE dialect, and white girl cornrows are all defining traits of hers. According to the real-life Zola, the actual person was also extremely fond of the N-word and casually dropped it at every opportunity.

* FauxAffablyEvil: X is an absolute garbage human being, but for a while, he at least seems to respect Zola on some level, and is generally charismatic and somewhat charming when he isn't demonstrating his ownership of Stefani. Then he [[spoiler:agrees to allow Dion and his boys to make her their bitch while trying to negotiate his way out of the robbery, and allows Dion to sexually assault her in front of him]], and it becomes clear that at the end of the day, he's just as irredeemably awful as Stefani.
* HateSink: Stefani is a vulgar, obnoxious, selfish, treacherous, manipulative, and racist (as evidenced by her "version" of events) person whose aggressively affected AAVE is only the tip of the iceberg as far as her deeply unpleasant personality goes, and she is so prone to saying whatever she thinks will get her out of trouble or back into Zola and Derrek's good graces that it is unclear whether her few apparent moments of vulnerability are genuine or if they're just another cheap attempt at emotional manipulation and/or a calculated weaponization of white womanhood. As a person who is not only accustomed to the abyss, but thrives in it, Stefani, like her equally repulsive pimp, is clearly intended to be loathed by the audience, and Riley Keough even apparently felt the need to apologize to the cast and crew for her portrayal of her because she was so disgusted by her.

* AdaptationNameChange: The woman Zola befriended was named Jessica Rae Swiatkowski, but is named Stefani in the film. Likewise, her boyfriend was named Jarrett Scott but renamed Derrek in the film.

* AccentSlipup: Whenever X gets serious, he speaks with a heavy African accent. Lampshaded by Zola when he loses his cool in the car.

* AdaptationNameChange: The woman Zola befriended was named Jessica Rae Swiatkowski, but is named Stefani in the film. Likewise, her boyfriend was named Jarrett Scott but renamed Derrek in the film. The pimp's alias was Z in real life, but was changed to X in the film, as was his real name (Adekunle Oluwale in the film, Akporode Uwedjojevwe in real life).

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Stefani is rescued and Zola is able to return home unscathed, but their brief friendship is ultimately destroyed by Stefani’s deception.]]