Film Review – Blink Twice (2024)

Some directors allow you a few minutes’ grace to get into their film. Not Zoe Kravitz. In Blink Twice, her debut behind the camera, she demands that you’re wide awake from the start. Not that anything bursts off the screen, but dropped into those opening moments are a couple of sly, blink-and-you’ll-miss-them hints of what is to come. If you spot them, it earns you an early start at trying to piece together the film’s inherent puzzle.

Waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) is serving drinks at a glamorous fundraiser when she catches the eye of tech billionaire Slater (Channing Tatum), so much so that she and her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) are invited to his tropical island for a holiday. It’s paradise – nocturnal wild parties, days lazing by the pool in the never-ending sun – but Frida starts to suspect that the set-up is not as idyllic as it seems. And, as her curiosity gets the better of her and she starts to uncover the island’s secrets, a deep and life-threatening darkness starts to emerge.

The dream becomes a nightmare in ways that hark back to the likes of Get Out, but the corporate element that goes with Slater and his buddies is more disturbing. It reeks of more recent, high-profile scandals and Tatum’s performance is calibrated to reinforce that, echoing one well connected financier in particular. And Kravitz displays a ballsy confidence in the way he’s photographed: intense close-ups fill the screen, memorably shot at oblique angles to create unease and tension and, essentially, telling us everything we need to know about what lies beneath his charming exterior. They’re the largest pieces in a cinematic jigsaw that invites you to see how far you can get in fitting it all together and even the slightest progress brings satisfaction. But question marks are still left hanging in the air, and only some of them are truly resolved.

While Kravitz will get the lion’s share of attention for the film – and so she should – her DP, Adam Newport-Barra, is its unsung hero. The cinematographer that gave Foxcatcher was no flash in the pan and that, in the right hands, he’s more than just a pretty face. Naomi Ackie is on fine form too, as is Geena Davis as Tatum’s adoring but scatty PA, but Alia Shawkat deserves more screen time for her energetic turn as Ackie’s sidekick. And Tatum has an enjoyably motley crew – almost a classical chorus – of buddies Simon Rex, Christian Slater and Haley Joel Osmont, all having the “good time” that becomes the film’s catch phrase. And all of them have more than a touch of sleaze.

It’s a phrase loaded with irony, so whether audiences will literally have a “good time” with Blink Twice is open to question, but they will be fascinated, captivated and more than a little unsettled. More importantly, they’ll be watching a debut with a strong visual style and the promise of a distinctive new voice – exactly what we need in this landscape of sequels, prequels and re-boots.

★★★1/2

In UK cinemas from 23 August / Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, Alia Shawkat / Dir: Zoe Kravitz / Warner Brothers / 15