New Colman Domingo film Zola shines at Sundance

Fear the Walking Dead star and style icon Colman Domingo celebrated his new film Zola at his 18th trip to the Sundance Film Festival.

Now that the Sundance Film Festival has wrapped up its 2020 season, it’s time to turn our attention to the films that generated the most buzz. The movie that had people talking this year was Zola, a raucous tale inspired by a viral Twitter thread that features an over the top performance by Fear the Walking Dead’s Colman Domingo.

Zola is the story of a stripper and waitress named Aziah “Zola” King (Taylour Paige) who crosses paths with another stripper named Stefani (Riley Keough), and soon they’re off to Florida with Stefani’s boyfriend Derrek and their roommate, X (Domingo). X isn’t their roommate at all, rather he’s actually Stefani’s pimp and he has his own plans.

What follows is an entertaining but sobering trip down a rabbit hole of sex workers and human trafficking. X’s intentions with the women are clear when he starts posting their profiles on escort sites. The movie as a whole offers a fresh perspective on the tribulations of sex workers using the viral Twitter thread as its guide. Director Janicza Bravo weaves the original source material into a clever and engaging tale that is wholly original and absolutely unforgettable.

Domingo’s performance garnered rave reviews; his use of different accents throughout the movie are one of the many highlights. By now it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Colman Domingo is a man of many talents. He’s a writer, bar owner, world traveler, producer, actor and director and somehow he manages to fit it all into his busy schedule.

Domingo celebrated his 50th birthday in November 2019 and from the look of things he is only getting started. He just wrapped up work on his third turn behind the camera on a season 6 episode of Fear the Walking Dead and his dance card is as full as ever as he splits his time between the show and his many other projects.

Zola is scheduled to premiere in the US this summer with an international release in the works after the movie was picked up by Sony’s worldwide distribution arm. Fear the Walking Dead returns for season 6 later this year.