Most awards-season darlings take their inspiration from classic novels, accomplished auteurs, and successful plays. Director Janicza Bravo took a different route and made Zola, based on a viral Twitter thread. This biographical and mostly true story swept the critics and though it did not make it all the way to the Oscars, it was one of the more successful independent films of the year. Zola follows a young black exotic dancer (Taylour Paige) who, after meeting a fellow white exotic dancer (Riley Keough), decides to take a trip to Florida to make money. Once there, she finds that the plans have changed and she is taken on a dangerous ride through the modern world of sex trafficking. Zola’s voice is irreverent, funny, and powerful in the face of life-threatening danger. For those who couldn’t get enough of this wild and new kind of story, here are seven more movies about wild nights and the trials and tribulations of the world’s forgotten.
Red Rocket
History was made at the Independent Spirit Awards this year when both Taylour Paige from Zola and Simon Rex from Red Rocket won the best actor and best actress awards for artfully and sympathetically playing sex workers. Red Rocket follows Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), an ex-porn star, who has recently returned to his Texas hometown after a recent downward spiral. He decides to stay with his estranged wife and her mother and begins selling drugs when he meets Strawberry, a teenage girl whose sex appeal, he believes could be his ticket out. Rex, who was previously a star in movies like Scary Movie 3, pulls off one of the best performances in recent memory. Mikey is an endearing but morally dubious salesman at heart and Rex hits all the right notes. You feel sorry and disgusted for him, sometimes in the same breath. With director Sean Baker (The Florida Project) at the helm, the movie is an honest, sympathetic, and unflinching view of a person at their lowest moment.
American Honey
Before Riley Keough stunned audiences everywhere with her performance in Zola, she made waves at the Cannes Film Festival with this honest, optimistic, and generation-defining film, American Honey. The movie follows Star (Sasha Lane), a teenage girl who leaves her dysfunctional home to join a group of traveling magazine salesmen and gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard partying and young love as she travels through the Midwest. Keough plays the head of this group who’s cool demeanor seduces many, but whose icy heart destroys more. Similar to her character in Zola, she creates much of the conflict in the film as she peels away layer after layer. Keough is just one of many things that shines in this film. With a great soundtrack, compelling characters, and an unflinching lens, this film accurately and poetically depicts the glory and the cost of youthful abandon.
Hot Girls Wanted
Rashida Jones may be known to many as the straight man to Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope in Parks & Recreation, but in 2015, she established herself as a formidable documentary producer. Where Zola uses zany and surreal methods to tell their story, Hot Girls Wanted gives an all too real look into the lives of young porn stars. The film follows up-and-coming and barely-legal girls who live in a porn house in Miami. The girls struggle with being away from home for the first time, maintaining a healthy love-life, and adapting to the increasingly violent shoots. Though it’s important to remember that this is not a moralist film. The filmmakers understand the reason for pornography’s existence and that it is here to stay. Rather than political grandstanding, the filmmakers simply focus on the sincere emotions these girls have and their need for belonging.
Hustlers
Unlike some of the other movies of the 2019-2020 awards season, Hustlers has aged like a fine wine. This Jennifer Lopez vehicle also follows down on their luck strippers and the effects that late capitalism has had on their dignity. Hustlers tells the story of Destiny (Constance Wu), a young stripper who is taken under the wing of Ramona (Jennifer Lopez), a senior employee of the club. All is going well when suddenly the economic recession of 2008 hits and they are out of business. To take back their earnings and get back at the men who took advantage of them, they begin drugging and robbing Wall Street tycoons. Based on a true story, this movie showed how the system turns all of us into crooks. With standout performances from Lopez and Wu and a killer soundtrack, it’s a perfect addition to any movie night!
One Night in Miami
While Zola takes us through a wild and perverse couple of nights in Florida, One Night in Miami takes us on a thrilling and much more fulfilling ride through the state. The celebrated actress, Regina Hall (If Beale Street Could Talk) made her directorial debut with this masterful adaptation of the play of the same name and delves into issues of race, class, and religion. The film depicts a fictional night between Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke. The best and bravest minds of their respective fields, these men battle it out in this intellectual danger zone and come out better for it. Still, as the movie takes place shortly before the untimely death of both Cooke and Malcolm X, Hall understands that this conversation was a first step that we need to follow through on. Ending with a beautiful rendition of “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Leslie Odom, Jr., this is a night we certainly should never forget.
After Hours
The original “good night gone wrong” movie, After Hours is often forgotten in Martin Scorsese’s celebrated repertoire of classics but it stands up there with Goodfellas and Raging Bull as one of his best. Starring Griffin Dunne, the film follows a word processor in New York who decides to go on a date with a girl he met in a coffee shop. A series of unfortunate events lead to him being hunted by the entire neighborhood of Soho. A comical Kafka-esque tale, Scorsese crafts one of the best New York movies of the 1980s and playfully lampoons every subculture of the city and American culture at large. With a cast including Catherine O’Hara, Rosanna Arquette, and Teri Garr, this film remains a must-see.
City of God
When watching City of God, it’s easy to see how Zola director Janicza Bravo was influenced by the colorful visuals, outrageous story, and dark humor. This Brazilian classic put Latin American cinema on the map for many Americans who had otherwise been ignorant of the continent’s contributions. The film takes place in the City of God favela of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s and 80s. All seen from the point of view of the narrator, Buscapé, a precocious kid from the neighborhood who fights to make it out. Directors Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund paint an unnerving but endlessly entertaining portrait of the city and leave you on the edge of your seat from the moment the screen lights up. For a fast-paced and visually exhilarating story, travel south and enjoy this Brazilian classic!