'Zola' is a Modern Black Fairytale
It’s fun, it’s energetic, but it’s also understated and vicarial. Zola is a modern black fairytale and future of black movies.

In 1973, a news crew shadows a wounded Vietnam war veteran around Manhattan as he tries to find a job and a place to stay, and follows his complex interactions with old friends.
It’s fun, it’s energetic, but it’s also understated and vicarial. Zola is a modern black fairytale and future of black movies.
Everyone needs a BFF and a "wing person" like Yumi (Chloris Li). Li brings the "straight person" persona, literally and figuratively balancing James Aaron Oh's perfectly timed comedic delivery as the unlucky-in-love.
"A Drowning Man" (2017) explores the unseen aspects of the Refugee Crisis. In, 15 far-too-short minutes, viewers are given a detailed snapshot of what it's like for a refugee to drown in the waters of poverty and otherness while trying to navigate a land whose promise has worn off, and only 'strange' remains.
"Godzilla vs. Kong" is all style and very little substance. It's also the most fun I've had in months.
The film is a powerful narrative encompassing a theme that many people can identify with.
This is not a story of oppression but a story of liberation.