MOVIE REVIEW: The dark, twisted fairytale ‘Blink Twice’ is an explosive debut for director Zoe Kravitz

I absolutely loved the first half of Zoë Kravitz’ directorial debut film ‘Blink Twice.’ The movie plays off like a sordid, dark fairy tale when a catering server, Frida (Naomi Ackie), who is struggling to make ends meet, serves at a function funded by the charity run by her current obsession, the billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum). With razor-sharp precision, Kravitz manages to telegraph Frida’s mental state when anything Slater King enters her mind from how she consumes media to how she acts when she finds herself near him. She’s so obsessed, she finds a way to sneak herself and her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) into the party and, just like a fairytale, she manages to capture the attention of Slater King, and he invites her for a weekend to his island with a few of his friends.

There’s a fabulous interplay here of imagery and circumstances that manages to amplify Tatum’s charm as he plays the humbled billionaire (the film opens with his character make a public apology for a vague wrongdoing) with such ease but it also manages to show how all of this – the island, the great food, the unlimited supply of alcohol, and the lack of worries – can seem so hypnotic and entrancing for Frida. It doesn’t help that Slater seems interested in her, even when the gorgeous Sarah (Adria Arjona) is also throwing herself at the billionaire. 

But while this unexpected, indulgent fairy tale of excess unfolds, there’s just something amiss, something just offscreen that feels wrong. We know it. Zoe Kravitz hints at it every chance she gets from the Mexican woman who is working in the island trying to catch the venomous snakes that Slater calls “pests” to the unending passage of time. How much fun can one person have before it starts to become redundant and boring?

The film takes a very slow pace before anything starts to reveal itself – a full hour, in fact – of non-stop partying with Kravitz slowly amping up the strangeness and the weirdness. When Jess suddenly goes missing, and no one seems to know who she is, Frida begins to suspect something is very wrong and that’s when the film shifts to his second half.

After the revelation, all of the dark fairy tale trappings is switched into the literal and the prosaic. Frida and one unlikely ally begin to talk openly about the film’s themes – though important, and very timely – but completely demystifies the film’s elegance that it had so easily built in the first half of the movie.

What began as an excessive and overly indulgent dark and strange fairytale has now become a straight up psychological thriller with a lot of violence that speaks directly to the film’s themes.

I must admit, the second half is a fun albeit brutal and such a sharp contrast from how it started. It takes a more commercial tone at this point and plays for the full-on fantasy of the film’s theme, which finds itself in orbit with such concepts as retribution and accountability. It’s a twist that doesn’t feel too clever but fits so well in the narrative that the film has managed to weave.

For her directorial debut, Kravitz has managed to show great range, and I must admit that I love her choices. Everything I needed to see, the camera went there, and it even managed to defamiliarize some of the most mundane of scenes that it is frightening and funny at the same time.

The performance from his magnificent cast is astounding with heavy hitters like Geena Davis and Christian Slater showing off why they are legends. But it is Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum that really grounds this movie and anchors it into something real. Ackie manages Frida’s obsession over the billionaire with such authenticity that it is a scary mirror of how we tend to idolize these people we see on social media for whatever reason and Tatum manages to bring it to life. I feel that he is a heavily underrated actor and that when the film plays to his strengths, he always manages to make it work.

There’s a lot to love in ‘Blink Twice.’ Another fun and whimsical film that questions the existence of the ultra-rich and their proclivities. It’s something that we are seeing often now on social media and I’m glad it’s coming to our cinemas.

My Rating:

Blink Twice is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.