Americana Films: ‘Zola’, ‘American Honey’, ‘Wild Things’ and More!

If you were paying attention to the films I’d been watching when I updated my “Movies I’ve Seen” spreadsheet, you may have noticed a significant uptick in the films I’ve been watching. This dumb, depression-induced binge has, as I hoped, culminated in a cultured, introspective row of films.

Sets of Films; The Binge

You’ll only have noticed this pattern if you’ve been paying close attention to that spreadsheet, but I don’t blame anyone if they haven’t been. That thing is for me so I can brag to potential employers as I interview for jobs about how many spreadsheets I’ve got open on my desktop, and so I can feel like my life has meaning beyond a blur of cinematography and boobs.

I watch films in sets, especially when I can. Let’s roll back to June 4th. The pattern extends well beyond then, but I’m picking this date because this is around where I chose to feel comfortable with not writing a review for every little thing I watched. On June 4th, I watched the film The Europa Report, followed by Pandorum. Both films were B-grade sci-fi thrillers that mainstream audiences had likely not seen or heard of, but populated nearly every streaming service’s sci-fi category list. 

Without looking, I cannot remember what Report was about. I think it was a cheap Alien film. I can tell you what Pandorum was about. Vividly. I can also attest that I wasn’t all that enamored. It was a campy, plodding, chewy film. It had its moments of unique inspiration, but not enough, evidently to talk about. Both movies are late-night flicks that work best when you’re doing something else at the same time. Not enough to complain about on a blog.

I then traveled to Australia, when Sinners and Materialists happened. The former film, we all know, is a landmark movie. The latter movie was fun. Goofy. Indulgent. Nothing much to write home, or online, about.

I did some more sci-fi with Voyagers and Equals. I almost put pen to paper with Equals. Kristen Stewart and Nicholaus Holt both deliver great performances, but the film is, at the end of the day, just a reskin of 1984. Voyagers was a reskin of Lord of the Flies. Whatever, right? Then came Lady Macbeth with Florence Pugh and Ophelia with Daisy Ridley. There was a string of films, loosely connected, that then fell into a proper pattern again with Wild Things 3 on my birthday. Whaddaya want me to say? I wanted to see some boobies on my bday.

That film was a surprise. I knew that the Wild Things films were… a thing… but I didn’t expect a relatively complex murder mystery. I didn’t expect twists and flips and double-crossings and a stage full of unlikeable characters, and that I’d have to choose a favorite to root for. It was cool. Then I watched Wild Things 2, out of order. It was the same movie. I got bored. Same goes for all the other Wild Things movies. They’re just the same core story, with different characters and different softcore scenes.

I kept the theme going with hot and sexy- starting with Subservience, then Miller’s Girl, and then Anyone but You. Megan Fox, Jenna Ortega, Martin Freeman, Glen Powell, Sydney Sweeney. What a fucking stream of all-stars. I watched Subservience at about 4pm on July 18th. By midnight, I’d forgotten that I’d even seen it. I was in an uber, texting my fiance about my day, and had to literally come back to the website, on my phone, find the spreadsheet, and then relay what I’d just seen. It was so. Boring. Miller’s Girl was stylish and ambitious, but the story was flat and unremarkable. I’d recommend it if you like hidden gems, but not if you only watch ‘good’ films. 

I’d definitely recommend Anyone but You, though. It’s a romcom, yes, but it’s fucking incredible. Sexy, funny, clever, outrageous, indulgent, sincere. It’s fantastic. It’s at the same level as Anne Hathaway’s The Idea of You, but more complete. As an aside, I’ve written a really in-depth review for Idea and also Women Talking, which were also watched in a set. Unfortunately, I’m waiting for my fellow writers to read it and approve it before I publish it. That review is real writing, because the subject matter is real. This? This is boobies. All these movies? Boobies. Why did I hit play? Boobies. How do I gauge these films? Boobies. Boobies? Boobies.

I watched a set of Bollywood action films in Deva, Panipat, and Jaat, then wrapped with a western film that had literally the same vibe as the other films in Vin Diesel’s Riddick. If you’ve been with this blog since the beginning, it was founded on bullying the guy, so prepare yourself for that. But water is as water flows- and I don’t know if that’s a saying- I returned to the Wild Things series, then, without really thinking, hit play on a film that felt spiritually similar based only on the fact that the film descriptions and posters featured SEX. and BOOBS. and GIRLS. and BOOBS.

Except. The movie, Zola, was a complete surprise. My astonishment started within the first five minutes, when I realized Zola was an A24 film. Now, as a certified cinephile, I have vowed to watch every single A24 movie, ever (I’m not even close, btw), so I was quite happy to watch it. And, as it turns out, Zola was fucking incredible. As a movie I’d never heard of, it was absolutely stellar. I’ll get to it.

After that, we hit on American Honey. Both Zola and Honey star Riley Keough in featured/supporting roles. Never the lead, but important enough that the film would not have been the same without. Both films feature sex, sex work, and a black, female protagonist. So let’s talk Americana.

Talking about Americana

Let’s get the basics out of the way. I’m going to rave about Zola. It was incredible. A must-watch. Not for the boobs- but because the storytelling was insane. The acting was ridiculous. American Honey is… a lesser version. For a film purist, yes, watch it. If you’re on a schedule? No. It’s ok. 

I think Honey needed work. It’s good, yes. It’s beautiful from both a visual and a literary perspective. It’s fantastic. It needs editing. It needs a lot of editing. It’s not special. It’s special but not special. But it says something. Not a lot of movies usually say something.

I’ve mentioned what the point of films is in some of my other reviews. For Deva, Jaat, and Panipat, those Indian-made films were made for Indians. Indian pride. Indian joy. Indian values. The men make moves, they take the actions, they do the things. The women? They’re there. They’re not really important. The films wouldn’t really have been different without them. That’s Indians, for ya. I say that as an Indian. We got a ways to go, as a subcontinental, religion-based culture. But those are our movies. And if Americans think we’re beyond that, then… we got Riddick. We got Top Gun: Maverick. We’ve got an innumerable number of examples. It happens. We’re all working on it.

But the point of a film is based in its cultural, zeitgeist roots. For films produced and marketed for Americans, they indulge in Americana. The idea of being an American. A citizen or resident of the United States of America. Of course, that idea is a contentious issue these days. It fucking shouldn’t be, but it is. Oh well. Let’s talk about movies. And boobs. The punchline is boobs. My humor? Boobs. The jokes in this review? All boobs. 

Boobs.

Boobs

Let’s talk about boobs.

If you are a former coworker, employer, or potential employer, you should totally stop reading here. Actually, you should have stopped like ten lines ago, but I didn’t warn you, and as some of you can guess, I never edit my work, so I’m definitely not going to back to write that in.

The rest of this review is totally intelligent and clever and smart, and absolutely validates your decisions to have employed or to employ me. 

When I was a kid, I, with the same mindset and maturity I have today, hit play on a film titled Nymphomaniac, ironically also starring Shia LaBeouf. Then I watched Nymphomaniac Part 2. I cannot speak as to the films’ artistic capabilities, but I can tell you that I sat there, pants around my ankles, entranced. It was my feminist awakening. I still wonder about the films’ message. I’ve never found the courage to go back.

Instead, I got Zola. Boobies galore. Strippers, hookers, dicks, and boobies. Money, guns, slurs, and swearing. Absolutely indulgent. Except, the film found a way to tell its story, based on an insane and ridiculously true story, in an entrancing, flowing, fluent form. It was something to behold as the film unfolded.

The two most common, standout complaints that reddit had about Zola were that the ending was abrupt, and that the protagonist wasn’t active enough. See, one of the most intrinsic parts of the western three-act structure involves an involved protagonist who drives the story. That the story is told in neat, structured arcs. Zola is that, but also not that.

Zola flips the convention of ‘this is our main character’ and ‘this film is about the story, and not the characters’. It does so in structured, loose, strict, and aloof methods. The narrative is both straightforward and abstract. It’s both a tale and a story. It’s an account and a confession. It’s beautiful, funny, scary, sexy, and totally insane. That it’s based on something that actually happened to someone, in America, is telling and depressing. This is the American dream? These are the dangers of those who are oppressed and downtrodden?

American Honey is much like Zola, in that it’s a story about a poverty-threatened young black woman who is enticed by a white, successful girl played by Riley Keough into a world that strives for money and success, even if it means that sex has to be sold, and men have to be catered to. And, at the absolute, fucking end of the film, after I rejected Tubi’s 10-second threat to play something else, at the end of the credits, did Honey reveal itself to be distributed by, of all people, fucking A24. “You motherfuckers…” is an actual quote from when I turned off the film.

Help! My boyfriend is calling himself a cinephile- How can I cope?

Honey is a more straightforward tale. It felt bound by the three acts. The protagonist was active and involved and shaped her own destiny. The story delves into sex work, but remains focused on the same goal as Zola, money.

That’s what it is, isn’t it? Money? Moolah. Wild Things was entirely motivated by various forms and currencies of money. Both Zola and Honey discuss the pursuit of financial success. Post-apocalyptic films like Voyagers and Pandorum are based on the fact that financial success was no longer possible on a dying planet. Movies like Riddick and Jaat have antagonists motivated by financial and sexual gain. What really is the difference between the men of the world? The films of the world? The cultures of the world?

What is Americana?

Americana, to answer my own question, using the dozens of films I’ve seen in the past 30 days, is the pursuit of money, as a means to happiness. It’s the desire. The lust. The greed. The gritting and the clawing as we tuck dollar after dollar, woman after woman, into our waistbands in the name of the abstract greatness of man. Of the American. Of the conqueror. Of the macho.

That’s what it is. That’s what Americana is defined as, because that’s what we see in our films, and the films that were influenced by our films. It’s not just the tits, it’s not just the money. It’s the gain. The acquisition and procurement. Zola and Honey both focus on what people do, when they are within or border poverty, to gain something- anything. Swallowing worms, appeasing men, baring breasts, appeasing men, or even appeasing men. It’s all there is to it. That’s Americana.

This isn’t a politically-frustrated rant. I’m not gooning over Trump’s slashing of DEI leading to my unemployment via a film review blog with five readers. It’s what I see in the culture. The art that is formed due to the culture. The experiences that inform the art that is due to the culture. The zeitgeist that is made experiences that inform the art that is due to the culture.

Zola and Honey and Riddick and Jaat and Pandorum and Anyone but You and Equals are all Americana because of what occurs in America. The forethought, the afterthought, the experiences. This is who we are, and what we are, as Americans, and consumers of American culture.

Greed.

Desire.

Lust.

Entrepreneurs.

Is this still a movie review blog? What the fuck is going on?

Yeah so… what? Movies? Politics? Huh? Are they intertwined?

You’re a fucking moron if you think they aren’t.

But let’s appease the stupid idiots. 

These recent boobie movies, arguably beginning with the Wild Things films set, and now culminating with the Zola and American Honey set, paint a portrait of American culture, the values held by the layman, the protagonists we wish we were, and the true goals we desire.

Sex. Money. Power. That’s what it is. We can define it via the non-linear storytelling of Zola, or we can see it in the more traditional film American Honey or we can see it in slop like Van Wilder, or we can see it in the antagonists of Pandorum, or even the nastiness of Megan is Missing (which, by the way, deserves a scathing review, but the film is abhorrent enough that if you googled it, any summary would give you a good reason for why you should skip the movie). Americana is sex. It’s power. It’s desire. It’s power exploiting those without.

Conclusion

Ok, so am I doing conclusions on my movie review blog? No fuck no that requires introspection and proofreading my writing. Fuck that. I’m going to  summarize- really lazily.

Look. Zola and American Honey are the same flavor of film. They were similar enough to form a ‘set’ for me. They were intelligent and clever and thoughtful enough that I finally got off my ass and decided to write- and now we’re five google doc pages in, I can assure you that Zola is worth the watch. If you want more, then American Honey is a good follow-up. And if you’re horny, go binge the Wild Things films. And if you want some visual stimulation white laughing at the pretentiousness, Miller’s Girl is totally worth it. And if you want romance and want to laugh with the film rather than at it, Anyone but You. And if you want a male savior film with sexual violence, Jaat. If you want a female savior film with sexual violence, Violated is kinda worth the time. 

Wondering how my rating system works? Let me explain!