A One Mann’s Movies review of “Blink Twice” (2024).
When I saw the trailer of Zoë Kravitz’s “Blink Twice” I was immediately reminded of Mark Mylod’s 2022 comedy/horror “The Menu“. In that film, Ralph Fiennes plays Chef Slowik: a rich and pretentious chef who invites rich twats to his exclusive island to enjoy fine dining with a twist. I wasn’t wrong about that. But there is also a good dose of Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” mixed into this one as well. And that’s all a really good thing!
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Frida (Naomi Ackie) and her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) live a frugal life as cocktail waitresses for a major hotel. Frida has a major crush on multi-billionaire business owner Slater King (Channing Tatum), a man with a chequered reputation with women but who is now ‘reformed’. The company’s annual lunch at the hotel gives her a chance to glam up and try to engage with him. Engage she does, and Frida and Jess can’t believe their luck when he whisks them away to his own private island. But it turns out, there are dark and disturbing strings attached.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Sexual violence, strong bloody violence, threat, language, drug misuse”. Unusually, MGM Amazon have an upfront warning on before the film about the sexual violence being possibly being triggering… not something I have ever seen before.)
Talent:
Starring: Naomi Ackie, Alia Shawkat, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Adria Arjona, Simon Rex, Haley Joel Osment, Liz Caribel, Levon Hawke, Trew Mullen, Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan, Cris Costa.
Directed by: Zoë Kravitz.
Written by: Zoë Kravitz & E.T. Feigenbaum.
Running Time: 1h 42m.
“Blink Twice” Summary:
Positives:
- Zoë Kravitz directs with huge verve and panache.
- The script (co written by Kravitz) is clever, creepy, twisty and quite brutal when it needs to be.
- Naomi Ackie is simply wonderful, Adria Arjona confirms she is a rising star and Channing Tatum is his best in years.
- The quirky cast includes Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan, Christian Slater and Joel Haley Osment.
Negatives:
- The finale (the very end) didn’t work for me.
Review of “Blink Twice”:
Real style
This is the directorial debut of actress Zoë Kravitz and she hits is out of the park. The movie brims with style with clever shots, neat edits and a gloss that suitably reflects the story of privileged arseholes with way too much money partying to excess. The script (co-written by Kravitz with E.T. Feigenbaum… also his feature debut) is fresh and pulls no punches with some surprising and, in places, quite brutal twists. A “red rabbit” twist near the end of the film I did not see coming at all. (This is not a spoiler!). With a story like this, the journey into the depths of the mystery is often far easier that the journey needed to crawl out from those depths to a satisfactory conclusion. But here, the “McGuffin” that is used as the ‘way back’ is both believable and satisfying.
Above all, the script is very well tuned to the “Me Too” agenda. Slater King is actually far too similar to Jeffrey Epstein to be comfortable: he invites a host of naive young girls to a private island with one goal in mind. The sexual abuse scenes, as pre-warned in that pre-film statement, are sickening (albeit, for me, not entirely plausible – see the “Spoiler section” below the trailer).
Some stellar leading performances….
The leads here are delivering some of their best material:
Naomi Ackie: If you were like me, you will be saying “Naomi Ackie, Naomi Ackie…. what HAS she been in”? She, of course, delivered a knock-out performance as Whitney Houston in last year’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody“. Here she proves that wasn’t just a one off. She covers the range from doe-eyed cocktail waitress to terrified abused woman to fearless avenger. It’s a really great performance and worthy of some awards consideration imho.
Adria Arjona: Arjona seems to have just another bit-part in this until later in the story when she really comes to the fore. She has a simply wonderful delivery of that great line of dialogue (also in the trailer): “I’m having a great time here. But I also have the feeling that I’m, like, … not”. It’s so good it gave me goosebumps. Arjona also has the athleticism to pull off the role of the ‘famous survival game show contestant’. She also really looks the part in the action-packed, and very violent, finale. I know Barbara Broccoli has said that there is not going to be a female James Bond. But it crossed my mind in this that she would be a great choice if she ever changed her mind! I’d certainly pay money to see Arjona do the famous “From Russia With Love” Bond-audition-scene wearing that towel!
Channing Tatum: I really dumped on Tatum – justifiably I think – in my review of “Fly Me To The Moon“. I commented that he had “the romantic chemistry of moondust”. But here he plays far more of an anti-hero than we are used to. Hee is just great, brimming with charisma and quiet menace. He has a mental outburst towards the end of the film, tears swelling in his eyes, which is a super bit of acting.
… and some really quirky supporting casting
In the supporting cast are some real ‘blasts from the past’ that don’t get enough screen time. These include Geena Davis (a bit over the top but intentionally so); Christian Slater; Kyle McLaughlin (quietly creepy) and Joel Haley Osment. (And yes, Osment does get to see dead people!) Hats off to the casting of this by Carmen Cuba. There is a casting BAFTA (since 2020) but unfortunately Cuba will have missed consideration for an Academy Award by a year.
I didn’t like the ending
When I say I didn’t like the ending, I’m not referring to the violent denouement: an eruption of female empowerment and fury. I enjoyed that very much. No. Immediately following that and before the end titles, there is an additional twist to the story that I neither really ‘got’ nor liked. There’s more on this in the “Spoiler section” (since it is very much a spoiler!).
Triggers
As I said earlier, there is a trigger warning at the start of the film about the sexual violence and abuse in the film. I can only imagine how anyone who has suffered this sort of attack (see the spoiler section for specifics) might react to some of the scenes in this film. If this is you, take a glimpse at the top of the Spoiler Section below and think carefully before going to see this one.
Summary Thoughts on “Blink Twice”
I really enjoyed this one. Zoë Kravitz should be justly proud of it. It’s a different sort of film (Lord be praised!). I think it can be likened to “The Menu“, to “Get Out” but also – perversely – a twisted version of “50 First Dates”! It’s probably the best debut directing performance by an actor – or indeed, at all – this year. A part of me is itching to go and give it a second watch. Recommended.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Blink Twice”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcmfonGWY4 .
Spoiler Section:
Don’t read past this point if you’ve not seen the movie.
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NO, SERIOUSLY!
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Triggers
There are obvious triggers relating to rape and sexual violence. But there’s a specific area which I think would be particularly triggering to some women. That’s anyone that had been subject to abuse following the application of a date-rape drug. (I would like to apologise on behalf of normal men everywhere for the tiny minority of men who think this criminal act is in any way acceptable.) The film is basically a cycle of repeated date rapes, with an overnight memory erasure in between. (A la “50 First Dates”). In fact, it’s worse than that. These victims are all very much awake throughout and fully concious of the atrocities being wrought on them.
Minor issues with the film
I had a couple of minor issues with the film, both spoilerish hence why they are in this section:
- I know that the women are made to forget what happened to them each night. I’m not a woman – shock horror – so this is a supposition. But if you’d been forcibly vaginally raped at night (and possibly much worse), surely you would be in enormous pain and discomfort in the morning? You would be “what the fuck just happened to me?”. You wouldn’t just go back to “having a great time” every morning? (I know Sarah questions the bruise on her arm. But this doesn’t seem to be enough.)
- I just don’t get the ending. Slater smokes his vape, which has presumably been laced with snake venom (or something else?) by Frida. And then it is all “Oh, what’s going on? Why is Vic beaten up? Why are Camilla and Lucas dead? etc. But Slater wasn’t under the influence of the perfume drug was he? He was fully aware of what he was doing and why. So why is he acting like this? I also don’t understand how Frida is able to exert all of that control over him. How does she become the new CEO? I just don’t get it. If you do, please explain in a comment!
- Edit: My daughter-in-law, the lovely Bronwyn, has pointed out that it was not snake venom in the vape but the flower essence. So Slater had forgotten all of the things he had done and was “reset”. That’s a “yeah, but” for me. This is a very selective drug isn’t it, which allows the erasure of short-term memories, the erasure of some long-term memories (the “red rabbit” trip for example), but not the erasure of mid-term memories like travelling to the island, what they did for a living, etc. Sorry, but I still don’t completely buy it!
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