Movie Review: 'Blink Twice'

Channing Tatum stars as Slater King in director Joe Kravitz's Blink Twice, an Amazon MGM Studios film.

Opening in theaters August 23rd is ‘Blink Twice’ directed by Zoe Kravitz and starring Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Adria Arjona, Alia Shawkat, Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osment, Simon Rex, Kyle MacLachlan, and Geena Davis.

Initial thoughts

(L to R) Naomie Aki plays Frida in director Zoe Kravitz's 'Blink Twice,' an Amazon MGM Studios film.

Actors sometimes have trouble transitioning to positions behind the camera, but Zoë Kravitz seems to be making the transition effectively. ‘Blink Twice’ is a confident director’s showcase for the ‘Big Little Lies’ and ‘The Batman’ stars: He may hit some narrative and tonal bumps, but he stays focused on the story he wants to tell and makes the most of it. Time is a great cast.

‘Blink Twice’ begins as a satire, not to mention a riff on the kind of setup we’ve seen before in movies like ‘The Menu’ and ‘Get Out’, where the protagonist finds himself in a distant, seemingly friendly (and luxurious) house. Position before derailment. ‘Blink Twice’ tests the viewer’s endurance for a portion of its 100 minutes, but if you’re patient enough, the ending should be rewarding in many ways.

Story and direction

(L to R) Actor Channing Tatum and director Joe Kravitz on the set of their film 'Blink Two',

(L to R) Actor Channing Tatum and director Zoe Kravitz on the set of their film ‘Blink Twice,’ an Amazon MGM Studios photo. Photo credit: Carlos Somante. © 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC. All rights reserved.

Frida (Naomi Aki) sits in her cramped apartment obsessing over tech-bro gazillionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), who is re-entering public life with an apology tour after an unnamed indiscretion (or series of them) that got him fired. Frida and her roommate/bestie Jess (Alia Shawkat) are waitresses who manage to get work at a reception thrown for the king, where they end up in the VIP area and Frida gets a chance to meet the man herself.

Charming Slater and Frida flirt with each other fiercely, until he invites her and Jess to travel with him and his entourage to his private island. Neither woman packs a bag, but it doesn’t matter: Once they arrive at Slater’s luxurious, decadent private resort, they are lavishly made up with bathing suits and white linen dresses to wear, even perfume to wear, and drinks and potions. The food, prepared by star chef Cody (Simon Rex), uses all locally grown produce.

It’s the middle stretch of ‘Blink Twice’ that is clearly the most problematic for Kravitz and his screenwriting partner, ET Feigenbaum: the second act turns into a repetitive series of hedonistic montages punctuated like clockwork, as Frida and another guest, reality show veteran Sarah (Adria Arjona), compete for Slater’s attention, and the rest—including Slater’s right-hand man Vic (Christian Slater), scuzzy hanger-on Tom (Haley Joel Osment), a couple of other party-hardy girls, and Slater’s perpetually flaky personal assistant Stacy ( Geena Davis) – Night after night indulges in booze, drugs and poolside debauchery until the days blend into one another.

(L to R) Naomie Aki plays Frida and Adria Arjona plays Sarah in director Joe Kravitz’s ‘Blink Twice,’ an Amazon MGM Studios film. Photo credit: Carlos Somante. © 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC. All rights reserved.

We know this won’t end well, but Kravitz makes us wait a little longer than we need. Perhaps the way he extends that wait makes the movie’s pivot all the more shocking even when you know it’s finally coming. When things take a turn, it’s fast: Frida discovers that Jess has disappeared, and not only can no one remember that she was there in the first place, but Frida herself begins to realize that her memories of the past few days are blurry. The best and the worst are barely there. With the help of a reluctant but increasingly trusting Sara, Frida learns the terrifying, toxic truth.

We’ll let you discover that fact for yourself, but this is where ‘Blink Twice’ takes its full turn from satire to horror-to-revenge thriller, with a final act that’s maddening in its sheer energy and bold in its aggressive sense. Intended It’s a tribute to Kravitz and his cast that the shift, while jarring at first, leads to a violently satisfying climax that makes the more morally ambiguous coda easier to swallow.

Regardless of Kravitz putting his twisted narrative through its paces, he doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the technical aspects of directing. Under his direction, the sound design is excellent, the soundtrack is popping (no wonder), and Adam Newport-Berra’s cinematography captures the rich richness of Slater King’s lifestyle, making what at first seems endless. Nights and days of partying, and the dark, bloody reality underneath. It will be interesting to see what Kravitz does next.

the cast

Starring (L to R) Levon Hawke as Lucas, Simon Rex as Cody, Liz Caribel as Camilla, Channing Tatum as Slater King, Haley Joel Osment as Tom, True Mullen as Heather, Naomie Aki as Frida, Adria Arjona as Sara and Alia Shawkat did Director Zoe Kravitz stars as Jess in ‘Blink Twice,’ an Amazon MGM Studios film. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios © 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC. All rights reserved.

We only saw Naomie Aki in a largely underused role in ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’, but she won praise for the 2022 Whitney Houston biopic ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’. This is the first time we are seeing her in the lead role and Aki pulls it off with ease. Her performance as Frida is initially vulnerable and open-minded, even if her obsession with Slater seems questionable. But he never quite trades on his self-respect, which makes his transformation from victim to revenge warrior all the more believable.

She also makes a great pair with Arjona, who starts off as competitive and distrustful—especially with Frida—before remembering and embracing the time-honored (and forever true) maxim that in the end women just have to look out for each other. As a femme fatale in ‘Hit Man’, Arzona’s arc is better developed here than in her last major role and she runs with it for all it’s worth, delivering a great performance that marks her as a star in the making.

Channing Tatum initially exudes charm and faux vulnerability as Slater, a man who’s doing his best to appear humble but never seems to be genuine – underneath, he’s angry that he has to take responsibility for his actions. He says all the right things about therapy and rehab and spirituality, but Tatum’s essential smoothness works for him in this instance, hinting at the emptiness lurking inside Slater. Even his apparent interest in Frida Cardel a little later, long before things really go south, and his air of entitlement during the film’s third act is as creepy as anything else.

final thought

(L to R) Naomie Aki stars as Frida in director Zoe Kravitz's 'Blink Twice,' an Amazon MGM Studios film.

‘Blink Twice’ initially begins, somewhat oddly, as one of those poking-fun-at-the-super-rich send-ups that could easily become boring because the fruit is so low-hanging. But there’s enough of a sense from the start that something is amiss – even with Kravitz dropping clues throughout – to instill a sense of dread in the proceedings. It still doesn’t prepare you for what the director has in store, and it’s refreshing that he’s not inclined to slip back into a satirical comfort zone once the mayhem begins.

No doubt some will label ‘Blink Twice’ as “divisive”, but they’ll really miss the point of systemic failure that inexplicably walks away from someone with a certain level of wealth and fame just because he says he’s better off. ‘Blink Twice’ is also a cautionary tale about when too much power and opportunity is left in the hands of truly unstable figures, and a rallying cry for people – especially women – to care for each other.

Kravitz certainly came from wealth and fame, but he almost certainly came up against that toxic type despite his privilege. ‘Blink Twice’ is a cry of rage on behalf of those who don’t have the resources to defend themselves, and while it gets messy and scattered at times, it reveals a primal energy that we want to see Kravitz continue channeling.

‘Blink Twice’ received 7 out of 10 stars.

“Are you having a good time?”

68

And1 hour 43 minutes23rd August, 2024

Showtimes and tickets

When tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) meets cocktail waitress Frieda (Naomi Aki) at his fundraising event, sparks fly. He invites her to join him and… read the plot

What is the plot of ‘Blink Twice’?

A starstruck waitress and her friend are invited to the private island of a billionaire tech mogul, where endless days and nights of debauchery and partying soon give way to the realization that something is very wrong.

Who is in the cast of ‘Blink Tuas’?

Naomi Aki as Frida

Channing Tatum as Slater King

Christian Slater as Vic

Alia Shaukat as Jess

Adria Arjona as Sara

Simon Rex as Cody

Kyle McLachlan as Rich

Haley Joel Osment as Tom

Geena Davis as Stacey

(L to R) Liz Caribel as Camilla and True Mullen as Heather in director Zoe Kravitz’s ‘Blink Twice,’ an Amazon MGM Studios film. Photo credit: Carlos Somante. © 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC. All rights reserved.

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