Lola: on romanticizing abuse and glorifying poverty

Reviewing Lola (Peltz, 2024) & everything wrong with it.

I came across the poster for this film on Letterboxd last Friday and was suddenly reminded this was on my Netflix list. I figured there was no reason to further research this film as I was already intrigued by it. I went into blindly and I don’t have many nice things to say about it.

So I’ll start off with the nicest compliment this film deserves. The cinematography was actually very nice, it carried that old photograph ambience. In its nature it felt almost Sofia Coppola, or at least it was attempting to be.

The story itself could’ve been a great concept if the person who wrote it actually had something to say about said situation.

We are following Lola who is essentially “white trash” and just endures trauma throughout the whole film without any connection to her character. We see no development in anyone in this entire film, making it bland and leaving a bad taste in your mouth. How could someone be so eager to tell a story that is not theirs?

With the rise of Sofia Coppola sad girls, Sylvia Plath readers and Lana Del Rey listeners, this film wanted to appeal to that audience except it failed to connect deeper with the type of people who could actually relate. This film is nothing but a portrait; a beautiful image to be looked at, simply.

Spoilers ahead:

tone-deaf rich playing poor

All the events played out in Lola are just a concept of what the rich people’s vision of what living in poverty is. A series of tragic events continuously after the other, with no deeper portrayal, connection or even meaning. Solely harmful stereotypes.

Here are some of our main key points:

• Lola works in a strip club

• She has an abusive religious mother

• Said mother is dating a shitty man

• Lola gets raped by said shitty man

• Lola has a younger brother who is battling with sexuality and identity in a religious household

• Said brother then dies

• Lola’s boyfriend cheated on her so she fears intimacy

• Said boyfriend is a drug dealer

• Lola has a coke addiction

• Lola has a pregnancy at 19

This is a short film at only 83 minutes, you could imagine how packed that could’ve felt with the events playing out. I couldn’t help to be more disconnected from everything going on.

That’s when I decided to do my research, who is this director or screenwriter? Who wrote this story about nothing? Nicola Peltz, the daughter of a billionaire, wrote, directed and acted in this film about poverty tragedy. Of course it would be simplistic and tone-deaf. She never once had to put herself in a position in which these events would affect from a standpoint of poverty. Why tell the story then?

sad girls are hot

I don’t think in any world, Peltz could have properly told this story. So we will talk about what essentially it truly is, trauma porn. A nepo baby took an opportunity to portray herself as sad, hot and traumatized without actually having to fulfill the role of any of those things. During all the events, she failed to look ugly at least once. Now you may say, well maybe she’s just hot. Well you know who’s also hot? Fiona in Shameless and that girl ugly cries like it’s no one’s business. Peltz wanted to endure beautifully, because that is artistic.

This scene is a portrait of Lola after all those series events before the pregnancy occurred and she still managed to have a full face of makeup, not a tear on that face and a crippling cocaine addiction. Yet, she looks so effortless stunning, sitting cross legged in her platform sandals and a cute outfit. Who has the energy for all that after that unfortunate series of tragic events? Please girl. So Lana Del Rey vinyl.

This film was about being pretty, that’s the real tragedy.

• girl getting prettily raped

• girl prettily throwing up

• girl prettily stripping while also exuding innocence and fear of intimacy

• girl prettily being kind and rebellious

• girl prettily doing drugs

Lola is essentially the dream girl, innocent and wild. Sad and unbothered, not real. A moving image of a Coppola Pinterest board lacking dimension.

There is so much harm in a film like this, pushing a narrative on impressionable minds how to act and behave in a world that doesn’t favor them while simultaneously telling a story not true to yourself. This film would’ve been a great photoshoot you post on your Instagram, that should’ve been all it was.