Zoë Kravitz’s passion for filmmaking is written all over it Blink twiceAmazon MGM’s new psychological thriller starring Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum. You can see it in the feature’s carefully crafted visuals and hear it in every carefully placed needle drop. Blink twice is a promising directorial debut from Kravitz – especially when the film is focused on enchanting you with its glamorous portrayal of celebrities. But an impressive eye for the aesthetic can only do so much to carry a story as thorny and difficult as Blink twice‘s. And while many of the film’s core ideas about sex and power are potent, Blink twice struggling to explore them in a way that feels substantive or original.
Apart from the fact that she has an unusually good memory for faces, there doesn’t seem to be much out of the ordinary about the catering server Frida (Naomi Ackie) as Blink twice opens the night before she and her roommate Jess (Alia Shawkawt) have to work at a big gala. In any other circumstances, spending an evening waiting hand and foot on boozed-up, uber-rich elites might sound like a nightmare for Frida, who dreams of being able to quit and pursue her passion for nail art. But since the big party is a celebration for embattled billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), Frida – one of many people smitten by the famous tech bro – can’t help but get excited about the opportunity to see him And when their paths eventually cross, it’s not long before he invites both women to his private island for a vacation.
Although there is a frantic, rushed quality to it Blink twices opening act, Kravitz and cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra cleverly use that energy to establish the film as one that attempts to channel the disorienting experience of being drawn into a superstar’s orbit. Everything about the champagne-soaked world of excess in which King and his elite friends/associates (Simon Rex, Geena Davis, Haley Joel Osment, Christian Slater, Levon Hawke) exist is strange to Frida and Jess. But the undeniable beauty of it all – the private jet, the island, the elaborate multi-course dinners chased with premium fabrics – is enough to convince Don’t blinks heroines that King has welcomed them to a wonderland.
Kravitz who cowrote Don’t blinks script with High Fidelity‘s ET Feigenbaum, wants you to feel the fantasy, too, as Frida’s days on the island begin to coalesce into a dreamlike blur of lazy afternoons by the pool and drunken nights running under the stars. Because Don’t blink takes as many cues from recent horrors as The menu and Ready or nothowever, it’s hard not to see the film’s dark twists coming from a distance.
Part of the problem is getting off Don’t blink‘s characters have so much texture, except for Tatum’s King and Sarah (Adria Arjona), a former contestant on a Survivor-like show that also shows up on the island to party. Aside from one key monologue that falls pretty flat, Tatum does a serviceable job of embodying King as an eccentric but charming recluse who lies low to rehabilitate his image after a very public scandal. And Arjona’s Sarah—a professional celebrity famous for her ability to survive in stressful situations—is a surprising delight, whose performance brings some much-needed levity to the film as things begin to turn sinister.
But there’s so little substance to Frida’s personality outside of her crush on King that the character often feels two-dimensional except for a handful of moments when the film suddenly shifts gears just long enough for her to point out (more for the audience’s benefit) how strange it feels like being on the island. These fleeting scenes give Ackie a chance to show off her range, and you can almost feel how much more nervous Don’t blink could be if the film showed us more of its heroine’s complexity before she loses it to the strange magic of the island. But for narrative reasons, Kravitz hides Frida’s insides Don’t blink‘s dizzying final act as the full picture of its mysterious puzzle comes into focus.
To the film’s credit, it’s an exercise in horror storytelling that actually tries to articulate more very specific things about gender and sexual violence rather than just running on unsettling vibes. Seam Don’t blink peeling back the layers of its central mystery, it becomes abundantly clear that Kravitz believes it must strike many of the same nerves as Emerald Fennell’s Promising young woman and Jordan Peele Come out. But whereas these films’ messages of power and trauma were more carefully woven into their narratives on a technical level, Blink twice desperately spitting out his ideas with a bravado that is not entirely deserved.
With a little more polish and time spent making his players feel like real people, Blink twice‘s trying to shock you with a heavily telegraphed pivot to metaphorical horror can work much more effectively. Instead, the film lands somewhere closer to Olivia Wilde’s Don’t worry honeywhich is to say stylish, but something lacking in its ability to unpack its central themes.
Blink twice works pretty well on the surface as a glitzy popcorn thriller that makes your skin crawl. But Kravitz is also clearly striving for more here – and the film never quite hits the deeper level of meaning that would make it something truly special.
Blink twice also starring Liz Caribel, Trew Mullen, Kyle MacLachlan, Cris Costa and María Elena Olivares. The movie is in theaters now.