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  • Blink Twice Review: The Cotton Candy Dissolution of Zoe Kravitz’s Dark Delusion

    Blink Twice Review: The Cotton Candy Dissolution of Zoe Kravitz’s Dark Delusion

    Zoë Kravitz, the ultimate Hollywood cool girl, just made her directorial debut with Blink Twice — the buzzy thriller starring her finance, Channing Tatum. Luckily for us, this isn’t a Don’t Worry Darling situation — a director and actor finding love while their production burns. And it definitely wasn’t an It Ends With Us situation — a director and actor publically waging war against each other.

    But beyond the drama, the main difference between the Blink Twice rollout (complete with a very cutesy press tour featuring Channing and Zoe) is that people are actually responding well to the it-girls directorial debut. A nepo baby with actual talent? More likely than you’d think.

    Zoe has been stretching herself as an actor in recent years, with an especially high-profile role as Catwoman in Robert Pattinson’s emo turn as The Batman. She even got props for her acting chops for her role in Big Little Lies — Season 3 when? — and Hulu’s take on High Fidelity. But Kravitz is new on the directing scene and trying to prove her mettle.

    Just from the trailer (which features the song “Iko Iko” by the Dixie Cups), you can tell Blink Twice is shot beautifully. From its vibrant color saturation to the interesting perspective choices, Zoe is as invested in the beauty of her film as her enviable beauty routine.

    To the point that some freeze frames in the film feel like Sofia Coppolla-esque tapestries that would be at home on Tumblr — except her subject isn’t girlhood, it’s fame and excess.

    And since that’s the world that Kravitz grew up in, she knows it well. Yes, some of the aesthetics start to make the movie feel like a collection sumptuous shots vying to mean something, to say something important.

    It’s clear from the beginning that Kravitz understands the evils of fame. But does her attempt to convey them to us translate or fall flat thanks to its own self-importance?

    While Blink Twice thinks it’s Get Out meets Saltburn, it’s more horrifying than most people will be able to stomach and less effective than Kravitz thinks.

    Watch the Blink Twice trailer here:

    Is Blink Twice a horror movie?

    Blink Twice is billed as a thriller, blending psychological elements with violence and gore. The reviews are coming in and they’re falling in the upper middle percentage range with a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes. Not bad for an ambitious debut. Kravitz, who is surprisingly tight with Taylor Swift, even got the stamp of approval from the megastar via Instagram.

    “This film is incredible. Thrilling, twisted, wickedly funny, and visually stunning. The performances are phenomenal. @zoeisabellakravitz conceptualized this, wrote it, obsessed over every detail, and directed it with such a clear and bold vision. I’m so blown away by what she’s accomplished here and I can’t wait to watch everyone discover this film and this brilliant filmmaker,” said Swift on her Stories.

    Sure enough, she’s faring better than Swift’s other bestie, Blake Lively, whose It Ends With Us press tour has made her Hollywood’s recent favorite villain. Other stars like Ayo Edebiri have been singing the director’s praises but we have to wonder … are they just being good friends? I’ve been known to support my besties even when they make questionable decisions. Or in this case, movies.

    But here at Popdust, we’re not going to applaud any movie just for deigning to have a female director and a moralistic stance on rape culture. Just look at Promising Young Woman by Emerald Fennell, who also directed Saltburn. The buzzy revenge fantasy starring Carey Mulligan got rave reviews from other critics, but we found it wanting any real message. In the same way, Blink Twice falls into the trap of style over substance. Or rather, so much style in the beginning that the director has to rush to hit us over the head with substance by the end.

    In a lot of ways, Blink Twice, which was originally called Pussy Island, feels familiar. We’ve seen the “rich dude bad, women fight back” narrative so many times that it feels a bit 2017. Though this time, the story has echoes of Jeffery Epstein (a sentence I shudder to type) and more contemporary references, some are wondering if Kravitz is just cashing in on a narrative that’s already been done to death.

    What’s the premise of Blink Twice?

    The movie starts with Naomi Ackie as Frida doomscrolling on her phone — relatable. Scrolling past TikTok after TikTok, she stops at a video of a man we later know is Slater King (Channing Tatum), a tech billionaire who is apologizing for something we don’t know about. Frida watches the video with rapt attention before looking him up as we watch, getting the full download of King and his fame. I’ll admit: it’s a compelling opening scene — even if it starts with its protagonist on the toilet. James Joyce did it in Ulysses, after all, and Kravitz is a fan of learning from the greats.

    So now that we’ve seen Frida’s life, an admittedly rushed rendering of a Struggling Person, we’re supposed to rationalize the pressing need for escape that leads her to abandon everything to follow a billionaire to a private island. That, as well as the fact that she has a crush on him before they even meet. As a cocktail waitress (and aspiring nail artist), she’s working King’s event while staring at him and sighing like a lovesick teenager. The two have a meet-cute that might make you think this is a romantic drama: she trips, and he offers his hand to help her hip. Cue the first of many sexually charged close-ups of Channing Tatum’s face. Zoë Girl, if I was making a movie that was 50% intimate shots of Channing Tatum, I’d have gotten engaged to him too.

    After just one night, Frida gets swept up into King’s world and agrees to go on a lavish island getaway that turns into a nightmare. It starts off idyllic, if not a little strange. Kravitz’s directorial eye really shines in sun-drenched snaps of this idyllic retreat where Frida spends a series of seemingly perfect days alongside a cast of characters that include a former reality TV star (Adria Arjona), a wine snob (Simon Rex), and Slater’s therapist/consultant (Christian Slater). As we learned from Jonah Hill, it’s always a red flag when a person’s therapist becomes their friend.

    Yet, all of King’s behaviors are explained away with a shrug — “this must be what rich people do,” Frida rationalizes with her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat). Until Jess goes missing, the dream vacation turns into a nightmare.

    Is Blink Twice a good movie?

    On paper, it sounds like it could be a sharp, timely thriller set poolside with sleek Spanish architecture. This is a familiar premise, popular in shows like The White Lotus and films like Knives Out. The costume design is on point too, with the women decked out in flowing white dresses that grow more and more sinister as the movie progresses. But style can only take you so far, and Blink Twice often feels like it’s trying too hard to be provocative and edgy.

    The pacing is a major issue. The film’s first half drags, with endless, repetitive scenes of partying and flirting. It’s like Kravitz is so enamored with the glamorous setup that she forgets to move the plot forward. Zoë, if you wanted to make a party movie, you should’ve done that instead of spending over an hour on an ad for a luxury resort before shoving a moralistic ending down our throats. And it’s not just the messaging that’s heavy-handed; it’s the sudden shift to visceral, stomach-turning images of sexual violence.

    When things finally do kick into high gear, the action feels chaotic and the plot unearned. Out of nowhere, we’re inundated with gratuitously graphic scenes that make me wonder: do we really need more female-gaze movies about sexual assault when they say nothing new, offer no fresh perspectives and trigger potential trauma?

    I felt like I was having a panic attack during the whole second half of the movie. It was an overwrought but ultimately unoriginal lecture set to horrifying scenes of violence against women. And wasting such incredible actors’ work on this tired narrative feels like a missed opportunity. Where there was potential for deftness and nuance, we got a sanctimonious sledgehammer that added nothing new to the conversation about rape culture.

    Blink Twice is clearly trying to say something about power dynamics, consent, and the way powerful men can manipulate and abuse women. The problem isn’t that these themes aren’t worth exploring — they absolutely are. But the movie’s approach often feels heavy-handed and simplistic. It’s giving: “I just discovered feminism and now I’m going to make a movie about it.”

    There are moments where the movie hits its stride — the sequence where Frida starts piecing together what’s really happening on the island is achingly tense and well-executed. Ackie’s back and forth with Arjona in this sequence is one of the most satisfying parts of the film — but also where it starts to go south.

    Blink Twice cast

    Yet, despite the circumstances, the actors managed to put on career-defining performances. Naomi Ackie’s turn as Frida is almost good enough to make us forget that the character’s actions — namely, going on a trip with a famously problematic billionaire she met that night — are contrived and unjustified. She shines in the romantic moments and the comedic breaks and is hauntingly convincing in the more violent portions of the film.

    Ackie especially shines alongside Adria Arjona, who is having a great summer starring in both this and Hit Man. The two make me wish this movie was more like Bodies Bodies Bodies, comedic and gory without the forced attempt at wokeness. Her character starts as a typical jealous mean girl who embodies the “cool girl” trope as a former contestant of a Survivor-type show starring girls in bikinis and evolves into one of the film’s standout roles.

    Channing Tatum is a pleasant (or unpleasant) surprise. Known for his comedic roles, his raunchy dance moves, and, let’s be honest, his abs, Tatum shows he can do more than just flash that million-dollar smile. His Slater King is charming on the surface but has an underlying current of menace that grows more pronounced as the movie progresses. Those close-ups of his eyes go from seductive to sinister. But as the movie reaches its climax, Tatum hits the end of his range and, like the movie, falls flat. I just kept thinking I’d like to see him use this intensity for an actual romance — something like The Vow but with more substance.

    Ultimately, the cast is the main reason to watch this film. And the curiosity about what goes on in Zoë Kravtiz’s mind. If it looks like Blink Twice up there, it seems it’s a beautiful but dark place. Despite the nepo baby allegations, there’s definitely potential here. She clearly has a good eye and knows how to create an atmosphere. With less of a need to prove something and a tighter script, she could definitely make something truly impressive in the future. The trouble with being a nepo baby is that you always have to prove you’re not just talented but “deep.” That there’s something within you that justifies your fame. Kravitz was trying to prove that here and ended up doing too much that it basically amounts to nothing.

    Blink Twice controversy

    What’s surprising is how little the film’s darkness — so overdone in the film — was revealed in the press tour. Clearly, Zoë has trouble with balance and tends to err toward extremes. While Blake Lively is getting flack for not emphasizing the themes of It Ends With Us enough during the press tour, the same criticism can be leveled at Kravitz. Her press rollout seems more like an ad for her relationship with Tatum than a movie about violence against women.

    Kravitz has also come under fire for wading into the cancel culture debate — especially when her film is about the hollowness of celebrity apologies. She admitted to loving Roman Polanski in an Esquire interview, where she said she knew it was “controversial.” “It’s okay that somebody bad was involved in something good … What are we supposed to do, get rid of America?” But as someone making a movie about men who abuse their power over women, it’s disappointing to hear such a flippant response on such a nuanced topic.

    Kravitz is not the only one whose hypocrisy is a blot on the film’s pietistic aspirations. Alia Shawkat is famously friends with Brad Pitt, who is the ultimate symbol of the status quo — despite his own allegations of violence against women and his seemingly duplicitous public persona. Yes, he’s far less sinister than Slater King, but where do we draw the line? Is badness about degrees? Or have we lost all nuance as viewers that we only recognize bad character when they murder and rape. Is that the unintentional message of Zoë Kravitz’s dark delusion?

    In the end, Blink Twice is a bag of cotton candy. Rich, but hollow. It’s stylish but shallow, provocative but predictable. It’s the kind of film that will spark some interesting conversations, even if those conversations are more about what the movie was trying to do rather than what it actually achieved.

    LKC

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  • Zoë Kravitz Aims to Open Eyes With Blink Twice

    Zoë Kravitz Aims to Open Eyes With Blink Twice

    As a film whose working title was Pussy Island, it’s to be expected that the subject matter of Blink Twice is “controversial.” That is, if one is “off-put” by the notion that women are still “bitter” about men’s behavior—even after all the supposed progress that’s occurred in the wake of #MeToo. And yes, it’s no coincidence that Zoë Kravitz first started writing the screenplay (with E.T. Feigenbaum, who also wrote an episode of the Kravitz-starring High Fidelity) the same year that the “male backlash” began. Or rather, the appropriate and long overdue response to an abuse of power so entrenched in “the system,” it took ousting many men at the top for anything to start making a difference.

    Some of those men at the top were known for going to Little Saint James Island a.k.a. “Epstein Island.” Like Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and Donald Trump. None of these men ever got quite the smackdown that Harvey Weinstein did, but there was no denying that further ignominy befell their already less than upstanding reputations when it came to being pervy sexual abusers. Something that happens to Blink Twice’s own “Jeffrey Epstein,” Slater King (Channing Tatum). A tech billionaire that someone like Frida (Naomi Ackie) can’t help but lust after and idolize—something we see as she scrolls through her phone and adoringly watches an interview he gives about how he’s a “changed man” now that he’s “taken some time” to “reassess” himself and his priorities on the remote island he currently lives on (and, needless to say, owns). It’s all very familiar-sounding, with no shortage of potential inspirations for Kravitz when it comes to similar rich douchebags from which to mine material.

    As Frida watches the interview on the toilet, transfixed, her drooling is interrupted by her best friend and roommate, Jess (Alia Shawkat). When Frida admits she doesn’t have her portion of the money for the super because she’s invested it in something else for the two of them, Jess is surprisingly chill about it. Almost as if there’s nothing Frida could do that would ever make Jess turn her back. Such is the nature of a truly strong female friendship bond. By the same token, that doesn’t mean that women don’t get in their fair share of contentious spats, one of which arises between Jess and Frida when, while the two are at work (serving as cater waiters—or, for the more misogynistically-inclined, “cocktail waitresses”), Frida accuses Jess of having no self-respect because she keeps going back to the same toxic asshole every time they break up. This, of course, will turn out to be extremely ironic later on, when the biggest twist of Blink Twice comes to light, and viewers see that Frida has been doing exactly the same thing.

    In any case, Frida immediately realizes how harsh she sounds and apologizes right away to Jess as they continue to prep for serving drinks at Slater’s big, fancy event (with their male boss annoyingly telling them, “Don’t forget to smile!”)—presumably something “benefit”-oriented. It doesn’t much matter to Frida, who is so unabashed in her eye-fucking of Slater from afar, that it comes as no surprise when she tells Jess that what she spent all her money on happened to be two gowns for each of them to wear so that they could infiltrate the event as guests rather than servers (though, to be honest, the gowns look more like they’re from Shein than, say, Chanel). Jess, ever the down-ass bitch, complies even though she is not even remotely affected by Slater’s looks or wealth. Eventually making a fool out of herself by tripping in the most visible way possible, Slater takes Frida under his wing at the event and, by the end, the two have such a “connection” that he decides to invite her and Jess back to his island with the entourage he’s been parading.

    If it all sounds somewhat implausible, Kravitz is well-aware of that, stating during an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, “I like playful filmmaking.” This is made apparent by her use of stark, all-white backdrops (think: Blur’s “The Universal” video, itself an homage to A Clockwork Orange) whenever the audience is in Slater’s world outside of the island, as though to emphasize that, to him, there are no gray areas. Kravitz also added, “I like when the audience has a sense of, ‘It’s a movie,’ you know what I mean? And we’re all in it together and it’s not reality.” But it is, indeed, very true to the reality of how power is so grossly abused by white men with billions (or even just millions) of dollars, finding loopholes for being as disgusting and depraved as they want to be no matter how much cancel culture continues to thrive post-#MeToo. In this case, that loophole is found through the manipulation of the five women on the island’s memory. In addition to Frida and Jess, there’s also Sarah (Adria Arjona), Camilla (Liz Caribel) and Heather (Trew Mullen), all of whom keep spraying themselves with a perfume called Desideria that’s strategically placed in their rooms, just begging them to use it. As Slater says, it’s made from a special “extract” of a flower that can only be found on the island. How convenient for him and his fellow rich white men that it also acts as a kind of super-charged Rohypnol.

    It is the memory loss element of Blink Twice that most closely aligns it with Jordan Peele’s own seminal psychological thriller, Get Out. For the loss of each woman’s memories of the particularly traumatic events that happen to them during the night are what make them trapped inside a kind of “sunken place” during the day. Thus, prone to chirpily answering, almost Stepford wife-style, “I’m having a great time!” whenever Slater asks, “Are you having a good time?” Their muddled memory—almost tantamount to being lobotomized—makes it retroactively all the more cruel when they first arrive and a Polaroid is taken of the group as Vic (Christian Slater), Slater’s “right- and left-hand man,” shouts, “Everybody say, ‘Makin’ memories!’” The irony being, of course, that the women on the island will have no ability to recall what’s going on. What horrors are being wrought upon their bodies when night falls.

    At one point, Slater promises a fellow rich man named, what else, Rich (Kyle MacLachlan) that he can do whatever he wants because: it’s like the more traumatic the event, the more readily they forget. And it is true—women’s minds are extremely adept at that form of self-protection, mainly because dealings with men in any sphere tend to be violating in some way or another, so “blotting out” becomes a kind of automatic coping mechanism. And in the world of rich men, violation is merely the rule, not the exception.

    Of course, in these “polite” times, men like Slater feign going along with the “new world order.” For example, when the group arrives on the island and Stacy (Geena Davis, in a kind of Ghislaine Maxwell role) starts collecting everyone’s phone into a bag, Slater assures, “You don’t have to do anything that you don’t wanna do.” But, of course, the pressure to oblige him—one that is perennially ingrained within women—gets the better even of Jess. Even though it is she who is the one to be hit much more quickly with the revelation, “Did we just jet off to a billionaire’s island with a bunch of strangers?” For the number one rule learned by every millennial as a child was: don’t talk to or go anywhere with strangers. Frida insists, “He’s not a stranger. He’s Slater King.” Such is the danger of 1) parasocial relationships being intensely nurtured in a social media age and 2) the automatic carte blanche that powerful people—nay, powerful men—are given when it comes to trust. Despite all long-running evidence that suggests only inherent distrust ought to be placed in them.

    It doesn’t take long for Frida and Jess to fall into the “routine” of the island. Which goes something like: wake up, get high, swim, start drinking, eat a dinner prepared by Cody (Simon Rex), another alpha male (though there are also beta males like Tom [Haley Joel Osment] and Lucas [Levon Hawke, a fellow nepo baby like Kravitz), get so trashed you “black out,” repeat. Soon enough, the days and nights all meld into one, with Frida and the others long ago losing track of what day it is or even how long they’ve been on the island. At one point, Frida asks Slater, “When are we leaving?” He shrugs, “Whenever you want.” Naturally, that’s not true, nor is it really an answer. Besides, he knows Frida will soon forget, informing her during one of their “intimate walks,” “Forgetting is a gift.”

    Indeed, one would think that the female gender does have collective amnesia sometimes when considering how willing they are to “forgive” men for all their transgressions. And this, too, is another key theme of Blink Twice, which essentially posits the Carrie Bradshaw-penned question: “Can you ever really forgive, if you can’t forget?” As Slater will tell Frida during their final showdown, the answer is definitely no, resulting in an Oscar clip-type performance as he angrily repeats, “I’m sorry” to her and then demands if she forgives him yet. “No?,” he says when she doesn’t reply. Of course not.

    Nor does she seem likely to ever forgive a woman like Stacy, who is not only complicit in what’s happening on the island, but also prefers the “ignorance is bliss” philosophy that Slater keeps promoting through Desideria. That Davis is involved in the film is also especially significant considering she runs the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which “advocates for equal representation of women and men.” Blink Twice certainly has plenty of that. Though perhaps the most memorable character out of anyone is the woman billed as “Badass Maid” (María Elena Olivares). Tasked primarily with catching the snakes on the island that, according to Slater, have become a blight, it is she who will become the savior of the oppressed in this fucked-up situation.

    As for Frida’s past history with Slater (which she, of course, forgot), it begs the question: are people—particularly women—doomed to repeatedly gravitate toward the same toxic situation so long as it “feels good” enough of the time to forget, so to speak, about how bad it is overall? The conclusion of the film would like to make viewers believe otherwise, ending on a “hopeful” even if “sweet revenge” note.

    As for changing the name from Pussy Island to Blink Twice, it wasn’t just because marketing the film was going to be nothing short of an ordeal with the MPA’s censorship limitations, but also because, as Kravitz found, “Interestingly enough, after researching it, women were offended by the word, and women seeing the title were saying, ‘I don’t want to see that movie,’ which is part of the reason I wanted to try and use the word, which is trying to reclaim the word, and not make it something that we’re so uncomfortable using. But we’re not there yet. And I think that’s something I have the responsibility as a filmmaker to listen to.”

    Perhaps if women had taken the word in the spirit intended when it refers to callow men, there might have been more acceptance. However, regardless of the title change, Blink Twice will undoubtedly still come across as “hardcore” to plenty of filmgoers. Mainly the ones who don’t like to see a mirror held up to a society run by soulless, amoral, bacchanalian knaves. Post-#MeToo or not.

    Genna Rivieccio

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