Lola (Nicola Peltz Beckham) works her days working in a convenience store and her nights dancing at a strip club.  It’s not enjoyable work but she’s trying to raise money so that she can enroll her little brother, Arlo (Luke David Blumm) in a special arts school in Dallas.  At present, Arlo is being homeschooled by their religious fanatic mother, Mona (Virginia Madsen).  Heavy-drinking Mona throws a fit whenever she sees Arlo putting on makeup or wearing a dress but she doesn’t do a thing about the way her boyfriend (Trevor Long) leers at Lola.  She’s the type who gives people doughnuts with “God” written in icing.

Lola thinks that it is a film about poor people but actually, it isn’t.  Written by, directed by, and starring the daughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz, Lola is less a film about poor people and more a film about what rich people think being poor is like.  As such, everyone smokes and everyone lives in either a trailer or a one-story house but the inside of those houses are perfectly lit and not the least bit cluttered.  Lola may have to work two jobs and she may be hooked on cocaine but her hair and her makeup are always perfect.  Lola’s homelife may not be perfect but, as all poor white girls do in movies like this, she has a super-loyal Black friend (Raven Goodwin) who doesn’t appear to have a life outside of obsessing on Lola’s problems.  Lola also has a dumbass boyfriend (played by Richie Merritt, the star of White Boy Rick) who keeps her supplied with cocaine but who also gets upset when Lola says she’s not ready to lose her virginity to him.

The film follows Lola from one trauma to another.  We’re supposed to sympathize with her because her life is so bad but the film itself doesn’t seem to realize that Lola is often her own worst enemy.  For instance, knowing that she cannot afford to lose her job at the convenience store, she still tries to steal from the store in the most obvious way possible.  When she gets caught, her boss fires her.  Even when she offers to get the stolen stuff out of her locker (seriously, she put it in her locker?), her boss tells her that she’s fired.  The film sets this up as if the boss is somehow being unfair but actually, he’s doing what any boss would do to an employee stealing products from his shelf.  He has every right to fire her and if he didn’t, he would basically be inviting everyone else who works for him to steal from him as well.  Losing the job sends Lola into a spiral of depression and desperation but again, it was her own fault so how sorry am I supposed to feel for her?

Eventually, there is a tragedy.  It’s not great shock when it happens but it does lead to scene of Lola sobbing while portentous string music playing on the soundtrack.  Much like everything else in the film, the music choice is so obvious and heavy-handed that it’s more like to inspire a chuckle than a tear.  The right to portentous string music is something that a movie has to earn.  Requiem For A Dream earned Lux Aeterna.  Lola is no Requiem For A Dream.

Instead, Lola has more in common with Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut, Lost River.  Both Lola and Lost River are films about poverty that try way too hard to be profound.  The difference is that Lola lacks the spark of madness that made Lost River interesting, albeit incoherent.  That said, I do think that Nicole Peltz Beckham does have some talent as a director.  There are a few impressive shots to be found in Lola, even if Beckham doesn’t really seem to yet understand how to use them to tell a compelling story.  But with some experience and a script written by someone other than herself, Nicole Peltz Beckham seems like she has the potential to be a worthwhile director.