New voices emerge in cinema every year, and sometimes, these voices aren’t entirely unfamiliar. It’s becoming increasingly common for actors to turn into filmmakers and try their luck behind the camera. Zoë Kravitz (The Batman) is the latest courageous artist with a desire to bring her ideas to the screen for the first time in Blink Twice, also contributing to the screenplay alongside E.T. Feigenbaum (High Fidelity). With an interesting cast led by Naomi Ackie (Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody) and Channing Tatum (Magic Mike XXL), alongside well-known names like Christian Slater (Mr. Robot) and Adria Arjona (Hit Man), Blink Twice has a wealth of talent at its disposal.
The story centers on billionaire Slater King (Tatum) and his spontaneous encounter with Frida (Ackie), a waitress at his fundraising gala. After a night filled with chemistry between the protagonists, King invites Frida to join him and his friends on a dream vacation to his private island. It’s paradise: wild nights blend with sunny days, and everyone is having a wonderful time. No one wants the trip to end, but as certain strange developments begin to occur, Frida starts questioning her reality…
Blink Twice Review
The influences of other social satires and even recent movies like Get Out are evident throughout Blink Twice. The thematic approach to the billionaire class, as well as their desire to control the rest of society and the lack of consequences for their criminal acts, is one of the many topics brought to the table by Kravitz and Feigenbaum. Frida goes through a journey of self-discovery that culminates in a vengeful mission to reclaim what she lost, with one of Blink Twice‘s essential messages revolving around the connection between trauma, forgiveness, and forgetting.
“Forgetting is a gift” is a phrase repeated multiple times throughout Blink Twice in an attempt to avoid past traumas instead of confronting them head-on. Seeking forgiveness is much more emotionally complex and requires far more from us as human beings than simply pretending nothing happened and sweeping problems under the rug that, sooner or later, come back to haunt us. Forgetting is also often used as an excuse not to take responsibility for mistakes, as the genuine ability to apologize is equally difficult to come by.
Kravitz doesn’t always manage the mix of tones effectively – Blink Twice is a psychological thriller at its core, but it has more lighthearted moments that don’t always fit perfectly into the story – but the unsettling atmosphere is exceptionally generated through immersive sound design, discomforting editing, and provocative framing. Every camera movement – whether rapid or prolonged – and every abrupt cut serves the clear purpose of offering information to the audience without falling into the trap of cheap exposition.
Now a filmmaker, Kravitz is a fan of the cinematic motto “show, don’t tell,” using every extra second of screen time to drop another “clue” to the secrets of her narrative and the mysterious characters that populate it. Blink Twice contains numerous moments of visual and narrative shock, but nearly all are inherently connected to the revelations and twists of the truly insane third act, so I’ll avoid dwelling on them too much to prevent spoilers. Despite becoming somewhat repetitive midway through its runtime and taking a while to make the next move, Kravitz builds the perfect ramp for the frenetic final minutes that reward the audience’s patience.
Kravitz’s vision is certainly thought-provoking, and the cast makes it even more captivating through phenomenal performances, some perhaps even the best of their respective careers, as is the case with Tatum and Ackie. The exchange of glances between the two is a mix of intense tension and attraction that plays with the audience’s expectations in a very interesting way. Slater – the actor – also stands out with that smile of his that always seems to be hiding something, and in what appears to be his best year yet, Arjona delivers yet another incredibly mesmerizing performance, stealing the spotlight whenever she’s on screen.
There are other themes associated with sensitive topics in our society, namely the overwhelming male power over vulnerable women and the use of substances to promote certain types of interactions, but I would be spoiling the experience of watching Blink Twice without any prior knowledge of it for cinephiles like myself. I conclude this piece by congratulating Kravitz not only for making a film – something that isn’t supposed to be considered an easy task – but for bringing her ideas and personal style to the big screen, which I can’t wait to experience again. Her talent is clearly not limited by the position she holds in relation to the camera.
Is Blink Twice worth watching?
Blink Twice marks a promising debut for Zoë Kravitz as a filmmaker, demonstrating that her personal creativity and vision aren’t confined to the side of the camera she works on. Despite some shortcomings in tone management, the compelling narrative, supported by memorable performances from Ackie, Tatum, and Arjona, and an immersive, unsettling atmosphere, make this psychological thriller an engaging, cathartic experience. Kravitz tackles relevant, complex contemporary themes, offering a thought-provoking reflection on power, trauma, forgiveness, and forgetting. Above all, this debut will leave many viewers eager to see what Kravitz brings to the world of cinema in the near future.
Blink Twice releases in theaters on August 23rd.
7/10
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