‘Blink Twice’ – Review
Zoë Kravitz is a performer who has forged a solid career with dynamic performances that cross boundaries and genres, and now with her directorial debut, Blink Twice, she shapes herself as an artist of immense skill with a psychological thriller that will shock you to your core.
When tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) meets cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) at his fundraising gala, sparks fly. He invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. It’s paradise. Wild nights blend into sun-soaked days and everyone’s having a great time. No one wants this trip to end, but as strange things start to happen, Frida begins to question her reality. There is something wrong with this place. She’ll have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out of this party alive.
Zoë Kravitz is a noted performer of boundless energy whose career has been shaped by a desire to challenge herself with projects that have traversed both the studio system and independent cinema; she seeks to challenge herself further as she steps behind the camera for her directorial debut, Blink Twice. And Kravitz doesn’t hold back with her first movie, and the result is a raw, creepy and at times skin-crawling psychological thriller watch that will have you off guard the whole way through and whose tropical paradise hides a terrible and unholy secret. Blink Twice is a full-on and immediate watch, and right from the start, Kravitz keeps her audiences off guard as Frida (Naomi Ackie) discovers perfect bliss until she then pulls the rug out from under her and audiences with a ghastly discovery, and the picture gets crazier from there.
Blink Twice is a picture that will keep you on edge from beginning to end, and as Kravitz reveals the horrors of the billionaire island of Slater King (Channing Tatum), you’ll be freaking out. Kravitz keeps the pace fast, and she builds up a real sense of illusion and deception that something is not right. Right from the start, you feel as an audience member that something is slightly off with this perfect island, and as our lead character, Frida (Naomi Ackie) moves forward in the narrative, frayed memories and terrible waking nightmares begin to plague her, and the harsh reality dawns over the story that will freak you the hell out. Kravitz, alongside cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra, builds out a sense of deep claustrophobia and mounting fear, and as truths come to light and the gore factor rises in the third act, you’ll be hyperventilating with the intensity of this immediate rush of a cinema experience.
As a director, Zoë Kravitz really makes Blink Twice a story where it completely flips the script, and this is exactly what we get with the performance from Channing Tatum as tech billionaire Slater King. And he’s one very, very, VERY bad dude. For much of his career, Tatum has made a name for himself playing jocky goofballs, sly heartthrobs and breach-charging action heroes, but over recent years, he’s challenged himself with projects that really push him as an actor with intensely flawed characters. And that’s exactly what we get here with his portrayal of Slater King. Both obscenely handsome and rich, Slater King has it all, and Frida can’t resist jet-setting off to his private island. But while she falls for the endless vacation days, it soon becomes clear that Slater isn’t all he appears to be, and a sinister chameleon presence emerges from Tatum. There’s a real sense of seduction and charm in Tatum’s presence, and this is almost like his own mask in a performance that takes him to new places as an actor, and it’s thoroughly unsettling.
Blink Twice is a film that will keep you off-guard and frantic to know what happens next, and it’s definitely going to build out its own cult fandom and marks Zoë Kravitz as a filmmaker to watch. It’s a thrilling, scary watch that goes from 0 to 100 in rapid succession, and you’ll be holding on to dear life right until the very end.
Image: Warner Brothers Pictures
