Zoe Kravitz’s feature debut is a bold, confident, and quietly discomfiting story of abuse, terror, and bloody revenge that takes its cues, unconsciously or not, from the likes of Get Out, The Menu, Promising Young Woman, and even Knives Out: Glass Onion. It’s also quite clearly a #metoo-influenced look at toxic masculinity taken to extremes, the corrupting nature of power, influence, and wealth, and especially how people – women in particular – are often expected to sideline or even forget traumatic events in their lives. It may be a late entry into this particular thriller subgenre – it might even come across as a little dated in some regards – but it’s a gripping, coruscating work that probably deserves the ‘trigger warnings’ prefacing many cinema screenings.
Cocktail waitress Frida (the striking and expressive Naomi Ackie) meets charismatic tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum at his most laidback) at a fundraising gala. The attraction between them is instant, and he invites her and her friend Jess (Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat) to join him and a group of friends on a dream vacation on his private island. At the island, they’re showered with lavish gifts, wined and dined and tempted to imbibe potent hallucinogenic drugs. The vacation turns into a Bacchanalian whirlwind of parties that spiral out of control to the extent that Frida and Jess can’t remember everything that’s happened and start to suspect that all is not as it seems in Slater King’s too-good-to-be-true paradise. Then Jess disappears… and none of the other girls on the island seem to be able to remember that she was ever there.
Blink Twice is in places a brutal and disquieting experience and Kravitz deftly builds up a sense of dread and unease as the paradise island vacation is slowly revealed as something else entirely. Kravitz seems to focus on close-ups and medium shots deliberately – there are precious few long shots here – that increase the sense of intimacy between audience and character so that we are as disorientated and disenfranchised as they are, their immediate surroundings out of shot almost as if the fact of where they are is less important than the situation they’re in and the things they’re experiencing and, very often, quickly forgetting. This is very much an actor’s film and the performances are stunning, from Ackie as the innocent caught up in a nightmare and realising that something very odd is going on in King’s world to Channing Tatum, who overplays King’s oily charm until the final act where the tables are turned and the payback begins. Fine supporting performances too from Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osment, Kyle MacLachlan, and, particularly, Geena Davis as Slater’s away-with-the-fairies assistant Stacy.
Blink Twice is a tough and demanding viewing experience. Its morality is generally pretty grey, but ultimately, this is a film about manipulation, memory and the monstrous ways human beings can treat one another. Whatever you take from it, you’re sure to agree it’s a striking and impressive debut from Zoe Kravitz.
BLINK TWICE is on general release now.
