‘Something horrible is about to happen…’
There have been a lot of Eat the Rich movies recently (Triangle of Sadness, The Menu, Saltburn etc etc) and there has also been plenty of films that reckon with the changing face of gender politics following the #MeToo movement (The Assistant, She Said, Don’t Worry Darling etc etc). It makes sense then that someone (Zoe Kravitz in this case) would combine those two things. Apparently, Kravitz has been working on this script since 2017 and yet it feels worryingly prescient in 2024…
Blink Twice sees a group of hot, young women transported to a mysterious island by disgraced millionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) where they are intoxicated by fine dining, alcohol and good times. After a while, however, Frida (Naomi Ackie), one of the girls starts to realise that something isn’t quite right. The starry supporting cast includes Christian Slater, Alia Shawkat, Simon Rex and Haley Joel Osment.
The issue here is not that you can’t have a film in which every male character is evil. Woman of the Year pulled this off in the same year that Blink Twice was released, but crucially, that movie never felt preachy, while in its more indulgent moments, this film kinda does. The cast are so good and the set pieces so vivid that it barely matters, but Blink Twice would have benefitted from a little more subtlety. That being said, if you can sidestep the simplicity and crudeness of the message for a moment and just enjoy Kravitz’s debut feature as a straight-up thriller, there is no denying that this is a captivating movie. The third act feels like late-era Tarantino (with all the benefits and pitfalls that come with that) and while I can’t see myself ever revisiting Think Twice, I was gripped while watching it. Ackie makes us care about Naomi – and Tatum, an actor I’ve never really rated, puts in a solid performance playing against type.
Blink Twice feels a little too similar to several other better movies that cover the same subject matter in recent years but taken on its own terms there is a lot here to enjoy.
