Blink Twice (2024)
Actress Zoë Kravitz makes her
screenwriting and directorial debut with Blink Twice, a thriller that
has a few interesting ideas but devolves into silliness.
Waitresses Frida (Naomi Ackie) and Jess
(Alia Shawkat) work a charity event hosted by tech billionaire Slater King
(Channing Tatum). King impulsively invites the two of them to his private
island with some of his friends and a few other women. King has also recently
finished doing an apology tour after accusations of sexual misconduct.
Even though the island is beautiful,
great food is being served, and fun seems to be being had by all, a few
unsettling things happen. Some of the guests have mysterious injuries in the
morning and there's a preponderance of venomous snakes nearby.
One of the problems with Blink Twice
is its pacing. The first half is meandering scenes of the cast partying and
getting high. Once Frida and another one of the women on the island (Hit Man's
Adria Arjona) realize what's really going on, any surprise is undercut by a
trigger warning that precedes the start of the film, which tips the
screenplay's hand.
Even though the trigger warning
essentially spoils what is to come, I will avoid spoiling things further here.
However, the preposterousness of what happens in the film's second half as it
attempts to pile twist upon twist clashes badly with the ugliness of what's
happening to the women.
The script also fails to capitalize
some potentially interesting points. The emptiness of public apology tours
could have been explored further. Arjona plays someone who won a Survivor-style
reality show, and while the film shows she's willing to fight for herself and
others, it might have been cool to see her put her outdoor survivalist skills
to use in the film's second half.
