Actor Zoe Kravitz steps behind the camera for her directorial debut in Blink Twice. A feminist revenge thriller that’s packed to the brim with great performances from its outstanding cast combined with an impressive directorial style. It features a career-defining performance by Naomi Ackie, with Channing Tatum and Adria Arjona rounding out the lead actors.
Waitress and nail artist Frida (Naomi Ackie) and her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) make a surprising connection at a party where they are working with tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum). Slater is amid a scandal, so he does what every rich person does and buys a private island after taking a leave of absence from his company. After a night of drinking and dancing, Slater invites Frida and Jess to visit the island for a holiday. Upon their arrival, they are introduced to the other guests Cody (Simon Rex), Vic (Christian Slater), Tom (Hayley Joel Osment) all part of Slater’s coterie and women who have been invited including Sarah (Adria Arjona). All guests must hand their phones over to Slater’s assistant Stacy (Geena Davis) and they begin to enjoy the tropical island and all it has to offer.
All the women are provided dresses each day and delivered to their rooms. Their mornings consist of breakfast, smoking fat blunts and swimming in the pool. Night times are reserved for five-star meals cooked by Cody and lavish parties. Every day on the surface appears to be perfect, that is until the girls start realising, it may not be the paradise it is made out to be.
The film is led brilliantly by Ackie, whose eternal positivity that things are amazing and she is getting the holiday she deserves. She can flip all of this around when the reality of the horrific situation they are in reveals itself and her desperation to survive is compelling. Tatum delivers his best work to date as the unhinged billionaire desperate to be on a redemption arc. He flips between charming and terrifying and delivers the best “I’m sorry” from any toxic male seen on screen. Arjona’s sarcastic and dark humour play off well against Ackie’s positivity. The two are able to deliver a ying and yang friendship that comes to a boil as the two walk in slow motion with weapons towards the screen while Beyonce’s I’m That Girl thumps away with its opening lines “These motherfu$as ain’t stopping me” It’s one of the highlights of the film and the perfect way for Arjona and Ackie to be unstoppable forces on an island of some of the worst men seen on screen.
Kravitz is a gifted director with a firm grasp of kinetic storytelling. Her choice to utilise close-ups and short snaps on objects to tell the story is carving out a definitive style. This combined with fast cuts and snaps to loud sounds and visuals does help add to the tension and will leave you on the edge of your seat. As the mystery of what is happening unravels, the cleverly written script that is co-written by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum allows the tension to build and some truly graphic and horrifying scenes are enough to not feel exploitative.
The film’s story serves as a feminist symbolisation of all of the things that women have had to forget over the years. It is all told in a lavish location with some truly beautiful cinematography, Blink Twice is the perfect entry point for Kravitz as a director, with a bold and unique way of telling a story, and we cannot wait to see what she does next.
