Blink Twice (2024)
A group of random strangers are invited to the private island of a rich benefactor for a time of unabashed debauchery. The champagne flows, there are plenty of capers, and no one seems to have a care in the world. What happens on the island stays on the island.
Underneath the surface, though, things aren’t so perfect. In fact, they’re downright sinister and deadly. What happens on the island might stay on the island, but so will some of its ill-fated revelers.
This might sound like the setup for a movie like Glass Onion, Don’t Worry Darling, House On Haunted Hill, Midsomar or And Then There Were None, but of course we’re talking about Blink Twice, directed by Zoe Kravitz and starring Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Christian Slater, and Adria Arjona. The movie is apparently also supposed to be a metaphor for how women are treated in Hollywood. More on that in a bit.
Blink Twice is highly stylized from the beginning. Protagonist Frida and her friend, Jess, are servers at a super-swanky banquet in this blindingly white room with red and gold chairs and tables and an emcee in long black robes. It looks like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is a little freaky for an event venue.
The island itself is highly stylized. Jess and Frida get invited there by Slater King, who thinks they’re a couple of rich guests at the party, and partying is all about being Instagram-worthy at all times. Well, except for the fact that Slater’s assistant, Stacy, collects everyone’s phones on arrival, a useless gesture seeing as the place has no cell service. Instead, everyone mugs for Polaroids, taken by this goofball of a guy named Vic. Everyone’s in white, the women’s swimsuits all look alike, and the characters joke at first about their “cult suits.”
It’s all in good fun for a while, but then Frida and Jess start getting anxious. What day is it? When can they go home? Frida finds dirt under her fingernails and she can’t remember how it got there. Spoiler alert: Jess disappears one night, and Frida commiserates with Sarah, an eight-year veteran of Survivor Babes who’s wondering how she got the mysterious bruise on her arm. The two of them hatch a plan for getting out, but it’s going to be complicated and messy.
As a thriller, Blink Twice very much brings it despite its time-worn formula. Zoe Kravitz is a confident filmmaker who knows when and where to stick emotional hits without seeming contrived and she’s not too heavy-handed with the jumpscares. Everything this movie sets up gets paid off, and it earns every bit of it.
As a metaphor for #MeToo, Blink Twice is exceedingly clumsy and tone deaf in light of the fact that the #MeToo movement has been largely discredited and with good reason. There’s nothing in the movie that specifically calls Hollywood to mind; these are just rich people going off to party at a locale that has more in common with Epstein’s island than a Hollywood casting couch.
The ending, which I won’t spoil, completely levels any moral high ground the #MeToo crowd tries to claim, unless Kravitz was going for a Johnny Depp-Amber Heard scenario, and even then that’s not a great own because it shows how hypocritical the proponents of the movement really were.
In point of fact, there really was no reason for the metaphor at all. Blink Twice is a mostly entertaining movie, albeit pretty violent, Channing Tatum (spoiler alert) makes a terrific psycho, and the cast is absolutely stellar. Why not just leave it at that?
Blink Twice is currently in theaters. Rated R.
My grade: A-
Principal Cast: Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Alia Shawkat, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Hayley Joel Osment, Liz Caribel, Levon Hawke, Trew Mullen, Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan, Cris Costa, Maria Elena Olivares, Saul Williams, Tiffany Persons, Aaron Himelstein, Ben Jacobsen
Directed by Zoe Kravitz.
Written by Zoe Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum.