Zoë Kravitz makes her directorial debut with a shocking thriller starring Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum. Here’s our Blink Twice review.
About 40 minutes into Blink Twice, Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, I was thinking I was watching a three star film. It was perfectly fine, good performances, but I kept thinking something was missing. Then, without warning, the film took a complete turn and I was hooked. I can’t remember another film that gave me that level of cinematic whiplash.
Let’s back up a little. Blink Twice stars Naomi Ackie as Frida, a cocktail waitress bored of her unremarkable life. Frida and her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) work at an event for tech mogul Slater King (Channing Tatum) and Frida makes friends with Slater, with whom she’s smitten. Slater invites the two women to his private island for sun-soaked days and drug-filled party nights.
It seems too good to be true, and from the beginning, there’s a strong sense that it is. Jess begins to think something is wrong and suddenly goes missing. No one but Frida remembers she even exists. What’s going on?
Kravitz proves herself to be a clever, confident director. Blink Twice is expertly handled by the first-time filmmaker who somehow manages to sell the often jarring tonal shifts. You’re most likely having so much fun you’ll forget to question the film’s logic. If you start to question some of the film’s narrative choices, it threatens to fall apart, but it’s impossible to not be won over by Kravitz’s sheer talent behind the camera.
Without spoiling the details, Blink Twice morphs from an intriguing, unnerving thriller to a full-blown horror film. This is bold and risky filmmaking from Kravitz, and it’s slightly surprising the film is backed and distributed by a major studio. The boldness doesn’t just come from the script – which Kravitz co-wrote with ET Feigenbaum – but from how fiercely Kravitz commits to film the pretty horrific events that unfold in front of us. Every frame has meaning and Blink Twice is a dynamic film in every way imaginable.
Naomi Ackie already impressed us in the Whitney Houston biopic, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, that otherwise failed to leave a lasting impression. She’s a compelling main character here, and we experience the narrative closely through her eyes. The most impressive part of Ackie’s performance is her smile. It starts off as genuine but as she discovers the dark secrets of the island, her smile turns from unfeigned to strained and fearful. Hit Man’s Adria Arjona also provides great support, but most of the surrounding characters feel thinly written and are in danger of becoming caricatures.
The film’s biggest surprise is Channing Tatum. Tatum has mostly played heroic yet troubled characters in his career, but Blink Twice sees the actor use his usual charm for a much darker purpose. Tatum’s performance feels revelatory; we’ve never seen him this committed or this compelling. There are surprising layers to his character and Tatum finds a surprising vulnerability to him without ever toning down Slater’s moral compass.
There are a few, rare missteps on Kravitz’s part. Some of the details of the story towards the end seem a little unnecessary and the final scene will likely prove controversial. Still, this is masterful work from Kravitz. Just as you’re ready to write the whole film off, Kravitz pulls the rug from underneath you and suddenly, everything that came before makes sense. It’s exciting, it’s fresh and I can’t wait to see what Kravitz does next. Bravo.
Blink Twice is in cinemas 23rd August.
