The Cut - Nicholas Braun Is No One's Fool

There is a scene that didn’t make it into Zola, Janicza Bravo’s film based on the tweet thread widely known as the “greatest stripper saga ever told.” It went something like this: A sallow young man, maybe in a stained polo and a backward baseball cap, is playing a computer game at home. Nearby, his girlfriend plays with her baby. The child isn’t his, but that detail doesn’t matter much; here, they’re just a couple living together and raising a kid.

The young man is Derrek, played by Nicholas Braun, and the woman is Stefani (Riley Keough), the conniving dancer and sex worker at the film’s center. It is she who lures the unwitting Zola (Taylour Paige) to a dusty Florida strip club, promising her thousands in tips. Instead, Zola is dragged into a feverish two-day odyssey that involves a number of firearms, many penises, and a kidnapping.

The Department of the Interior is launching an initiative to investigate the Native American boarding schools that forced assimilation in the 19th and 20th centuries. We’ve gotta give it up for the New York Times Science editors — they know how to write a great headline. If it’s not tuna in Subway tuna sandwiches … what is it?! Salma Hayek recounted several racist incidents she experienced early on in her career, including being told, “No matter how good of an actress you are, the minute you open your mouth, the audience are just going to be reminded of their maids.” Google’s most-searched question about the mayoral race from this past week has nothing to do with voting guides or candidates’ policy stances.

It happened this week — let’s talk about it. Sign up for My Week in New York: a new newsletter from the editors.