Review: Blink Twice
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released film Blink Twice. Keep in mind this is but one of the many movies I watch every year, and that whatever initial grade I come up for this film could change for better or worse with time. To better keep up to date with both my thoughts on other movies and if my feelings on this film changed, follow me on Letterboxd.
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THE PLOT
Via Letterboxd: When tech billionaire Slater King meets cocktail waitress Frida at his fundraising gala, he invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. As strange things start to happen, Frida questions her reality.
QUICK REVIEW
Earlier this year we got one of the more exciting directorial debuts from an actor-turned-director with Dev Patel’s Monkey Man. A movie I enjoyed so much that I gave it an A-tier review, something that has, so far, for me, been a rarity in 2024 for original films. Now we get a new directorial debut from an actress-turned-director with Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice. Whereas Monkey Man was an action flick with some messaging about corrupt power in politics and religion, Blink Twice is very much in the same vein of a Get Out or a Promising Young Woman in using thriller and/or horror aspects to make commentary on a victimized group of people. Unfortunately the final product is one of the most frustrating movies I’ve ever had to interact with.
Blink Twice can be divided into two halves.
The first half is where the movie shined. In fact it delivered on so much that I responded very well to, that half-way through the movie this was fighting for a potential A-tier grade from me. The story is more of a slow-burn thriller in the first half, tantalizing the audience with questions of where this is going and what great mystery alludes us voyeurs into this lifestyle of the rich and famous. We meet our characters and get to know them on a surface level, but the movie teases us with more to learn from each one of them. A collection of characters that are played by an ensemble of great actors and actresses. It’s a joy to see Channing Tatum playing against type, to see Geena Davis and Haley Joel Osment working together, to watch Christian Slater back on the big screen, or to watch Naomi Ackie continue to grow as an actress.
The first half of the movie also offers us Kravitz at her best. To my eye, the direction showed promise. The aesthetics from the score, the costumes, the production design, the incredible soundtrack, and everything in between is the signature of a potential burgeoning auteur. On a technical level the movie reveals itself to be pure movie candy for any cinplehile who craves something more original in this era of template movie-making. The entire first half of this film is like driving to an Ice Cream shop with anticipation of what great treats and novelties await when you get your eyeballs on its menu.
Unfortunately Blink Twice falls apart in the second half.
The weakness of the script and the rookie nature of Kravitz’s storytelling really start to show the cracks in the film as we shift towards the second half. The bad and hurried pacing alongside the thin character writing starts to really be noticable and thus moments start to seem less earned. The subtlety of the messaging starts to go haywire, and before you know it you feel like you’re being hit against the head with your intelligence insulted. The direction and aesthetics start to falter under the weak story. The cast starts to flail as it tries to elevate itself past the weaknesses of the film. The plot holes start to sink the ship. The movie goes from a delightful mystery to one that starts to, in the words of Family Guy, “insist upon itself.”
There’s a much better movie in here. There’s the kind of triumph that we saw from a Get Out or a Monkey Man. But unfortunately whether it be because the screenplay didn’t get a better clean-up, more drafts to really hone its strengths over its weaknesses, or whatever else, it becomes a missed opportunity.
And yet I struggle to give it anything less than a B-. In many ways it reminds me of another movie from earlier in the year in Civil War. A movie that had so much going for it on a technical level, but which had glaring weaknesses as well in its story. I initially reviewed that as a C+ movie, but in time I couldn’t deny that it was still a technically well-made movie and bumped it up to a B- over on my letterboxd. And that’s where I land on Blink Twice. This is a well-presented movie, but it’s got glaring story weaknesses that make it collapse upon its own faults as the film takes the final turn towards its finale.
Blink Twice gets a B- from me. It’s a mid-movie that could’ve, would’ve, and should’ve been something much better - perhaps even special. I hope if Kravitz directs again, she learns from the mistakes of this one’s weaknesses and amplifies its strengths.
INITIAL GRADING
