Men are scumbags and tech bro’s the scumbaggiest of them all. Blink Twice isn’t exactly making the most out-there statement for 2024, but in her directorial debut (she also co-wrote) Zoë Kravitz shows she knows her way around a horror movie, can build mood and tension and get performances out of her stars which are genre-familiar and yet fresh.
Kravitz’s current partner, Channing Tatum, is particularly excellent as Slater King, a performative billionaire – think Musk rather than Bezos – who, as the film opens, is apologising with all his heart in an address to the world. He’s sorry for something. Penitent, pleading, he insists he’s learned from whatever he’s done, is now seeking the help he should have had all along and is moving forwards. He’d like the rest of the world to do that too, is what’s implied rather than said.
Mea culpas delivered, King has a big party for his crew, before heading off to his private island, inviting along for the night/weekend/unspecified a waitress who happened to be catering the party, Frida (Naomi Ackie), and her bestie, Jess (Alia Shawkat).
There, bad stuff happens, but only after Kravitz has painted a picture of life among the very wealthy, where mimosas are sipped, pools are lounged around and in the evening, after a dinner that’s been crafted from the finest ingredients known to humanity, fine drugs are consumed. Everyone is super-stoked to be at this long continuous party, but in Kravitz’s portrayal of it – and being a music/movie biz nepo-baby she probably knows – it is exquisitely, grimly dull.
No one seems that interested in Frida (Jess is an afterthought), almost as if they know her already. Nor, as day follows day, is there any sexual stuff going on. Not a move. Not a look. This seems odd.
What Frida and Jess don’t know, until they do, is that they are waking up every morning with their memories cleaned, and this, muttering as I go, is the journey of Frida (the plot jettisons Jess), towards the realisation that something dark is going on.
The fellow invitees, who all know each other, are a weird crowd. Sarah (Adria Arjona), the superhot rival for Slater’s affections, Vic (Christian Slater), Cody (Simon Rex), Tom (Haley Joel Osment) and Lucas (Levon Hawke), all yes-men repellent in different ways, Rich (Kyle MacLachlan), a grinning therapist, plus Camilla (Liz Caribel) and Heather (Trew Mullen), who seem to be along to make up the numbers.
To one side, and indicating which way things will be heading, a weird maid (María Elena Olivares) who cackles “red rabbit” whenever Frida encounters her, a heavy (Cris Costa) called Stan who is clearly ex-special forces, and Stacy, a general factotum, played by Geena Davis.
For the shit that goes down – dark, depraved, sexual stuff – Kravitz clearly blames the guys, and the superficially unctuous Slater King in particular, but has also reserved a place in hell for the enablers like Stacy, Rich and Stan.
As said, Tatum is particularly good, the genial-dude persona of so many performances swapped out for something nastier and more unsettling, in keeping with the boys=bad, girls=clueless way things are going. I also really like Haley Joel Osment’s Tom, a grinning nonentity with a bad aura half-playing the ukulele the entire time.
There’s a Midsommar vibe – beautiful people, beautiful location, nasty stuff coming down the pipe – but Kravitz clearly also wants this to be a story about female solidarity and how easily it’s bypassed (or bought off). She shoots everything in a superbright, superclean, Ex Machina-adjacent way, but uses shifts of focus and an unstable camera in ways to add a The Shining vibe here and there. She’s done her homework but she also has talent. This is a great debut.
Blink Twice – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2024
