Zola (Cert 18, 86 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Comedy/Drama/Romance, available from November 5 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available exclusively at HMV from November 22 on Blu-ray £14.99)
Starring: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Colman Domingo, Nicholas Braun, Ari'el Stachel.
DETROIT waitress Zola (Taylour Paige) is enduring a long day at work when she serves another stripper, Stefani (Riley Keough), and sparks an instant connection.
The following day, Stefani invites Zola to join her on a trip to Tampa to perform at a club where one girl reportedly made "Five Gs a night".
Zola ignores the protestations of her boyfriend Sean (Ari'el Stachel) and excitedly hits the road with her new friend plus Stefani's roommate Abegunde Olawale, aka X (Colman Domingo), and boyfriend Derrek (Nicholas Braun).
After a long, troubling car journey, the threats and intimidation begin. It transpires that X is Stefani's pimp and he "takes care" of her by posting her for sale on a website.
Zola is a wild cautionary tale based on a series of more than 140 tweets posted in October 2015 by waitress Aziah 'Zola' King about an ill-fated excursion to Florida.
Truth is crazier and more entertaining than fiction in Janicza Bravo's blackly humorous road trip, which spawned an article in Rolling Stone magazine that confirmed King may have embellished the more lurid aspects of her tale.
Paige's grounded performance is countered by an all-guns-blazing turn from Keough as the manipulative minx, who somehow retains a thin veneer of likeability despite every lie and betrayal.
They are a dynamic pairing, feeding off the whirling energy of Bravo's camerawork which repeatedly laces moments of exuberance (the road trippers singing together in the car) with discomfiting reality (a Confederate flag fluttering in the breeze to signal their arrival in Florida).
Composer Mica Levi heightens our disorientation with a woozy score.
Rating: 4stars
FINCH (115 mins, streaming from November 5 exclusively on Apple TV+, Sci-Fi/Action/Drama)
MORE than 20 years ago, Tom Hanks was Oscar-nominated for developing a close relationship with a volleyball christened Wilson in the survival drama Cast Away.
The actor faces another bout of cinematic solitude as the sole human character on screen for the majority of director Miguel Sapochnik's futuristic adventure, set in the devastating aftermath of a cataclysmic solar event.
Robotics engineer Finch (Hanks) avoids the sun's scorching rays by living in an underground bunker for a decade, where he creates a carefully ordered world with his dog Goodyear and a quirky robotic companion named Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones), whom he hopes will take care of his beloved four-legged friend after he is gone.
The mismatched trio embark on a road trip into a desolate American West, designed to create a bond between robot and dog. However, there are myriad dangers outside the bunker that will test Finch's courage and resolve to breaking point.
