Blink Twice: Familiar, But Good

This past Labor Day weekend, I sat in my room, scrolling through my phone trying to come up with something to do with my sister as we enjoyed our only day off until Thanksgiving (ugh). I then suddenly remembered a certain movie I expressed on twitter that I would be “sat” for……

“Blink Twice” directed by the nepotism legend herself, Zoe Kravitz.

You know, I have always adored both Zoe Kravitz and her mother Lisa Bonet. Angel Heart, which stars Ms. Bonet, is such a criminally underrated late-80s horror film which I think deserves a larger cult following. And her look in one of my favorite movies, 2003’s Biker Boyz, is the most beautiful a woman has ever looked on screen.

Like EVER.

As for Zoe, I consider myself a fan of hers more-so in real life rather than a fan of her performances on the big (and small) screen. But when I first saw the trailer for her new film, one that she would be directing, I was pretty interested.

I was immediately drawn into her casting a black actress as the leading role in what seemed to be a pretty suspenseful indie flick, which I don’t see very often.

And when I do, boy is it questionable!

I don’t have to get into how Hollywood only casts black women in certain stereotypical movie roles, it’s something that has been happening since the dawn of cinema. However, seeing this new era of black woman typecasting within the horror/thriller genre has really been bothering the hell out of me. Studios seem to only be interested in casting black women in these folk horror/psychological thrillers if the plot has some deep-rooted (but often very surface level) message about racism or overcoming oppression (Antebellum, Lovecraft Country, Bad Hair, Them, etc.). Hell, even the creepy animated films aren’t safe. Just peep how they wrote the young black lead in 2022’s Wendell and Wild. They rarely get it right, but the 2020 Netflix film His House is an exception, which I thought was brilliantly done.

So, watching the trailer for a film that seemed to fit into this “mysterious thriller” category, and seeing a Black woman star in it without her skin color being mentioned even once, was quite refreshing.

I know, the bar is in hell.

But after seeing the film, was it any good? Short answer: Yes

Lets talk about it!

SYPNOPSIS

So the film follows Frida (Naomi Ackie), a young beautiful woman fed up with her demanding job as a waitress and is in desperate need of a getaway. One day while at work, she and her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) disguise themselves as attendees for a Gala they are supposed to be waitressing. There, she bumps into a rich and handsome millionaire, whom she had been stalking on social media earlier in the film, by the name of Slater King (Channing Tatum). They hit it off, and she, along with Jess and several of Slater’s friends, head to Slater’s private island.

Once they arrive, their cell phones are immediately confiscated (red flag), and they quickly begin to indulge in all the pursuits this breathtaking island has to offer: smoking blunts, drinking their livers away, eating fancy dinners at a luxurious mansion, and dancing to 70s music (mainly James Brown).

But notice how I didn’t say hooking up. More on that later…..

As the days and nights begin to seemingly blend together, our main group of friends continue to obliviously party. The passage of time being lost on both the audience and the characters in the film. But slowly, a certain uneasy feeling begins to settle in.

It’s the same uneasiness invoked when watching the faux-paradise presented by the murdering cultists in the 2019 film Midsommar.

Something ain’t right……..

This uneasiness is picked up on first by Frida’s best friend Jess, who starts to notice the strange nature of the island and the even stranger behavior coming from the main housekeeper (Maria Elena Olivares). After being bitten by a snake one night, Jess passionately shares her feelings with Frida. However, Frida, who is still having a great time and actively seeking Slater’s affections, quickly brushes her off.

The next morning, Frida joins the rest of the gang, as they continue to eat delicious food and party, completely unaware that Jess has seemingly disappeared. She begins looking for Slater, but accidentally bumps into the head housekeeper in a small shack deep into the islands’ jungle. The housekeeper offers her a bottle of snake venom to drink, drained from the same snake that bit Jess the night before. Frida, trying to be polite and misunderstanding the housekeeper’s accent, drinks it and comments on its strong flavor.

A while later, as Frida relaxes by the pool with the other female guests, she suddenly realizes that Jess is not only missing—no one seems to recall she was there to begin with. Panicking, Frida rushes to her room where she has a brief memory from the night before of Jess telling her to hide a knife.

Suddenly, she finds a large knife hidden behind the mirror in her bathroom.

Frida begins confiding in another female guest Sarah (Adria Arjona) about Jess’s disappearance. Together, they head back to the shack where Frida had consumed the snake venom and discover a wall of red gift bags, each filled with perfume crafted from a flower indigenous to the island. They realize that this perfume, which they had been dousing themselves in since they arrived, is causing memory loss. They also conclude that the snake venom may be serving as an anecdote. Frida and Sarah trick the other two girls on the island, Camilla (Liz Caribel) and Heather (Trew Mullen), into drinking this venom by disguising it in tequila.

As the other girls are getting drunk on their venom-tequila shots, Frida sneaks into Slater’s room in an attempt to recover her cell phone. There, she finds a slew of polaroid pictures filled with guest who visited the island in the past. This triggers an extended memory from the night before. In this flashback, we see Frida and the rest of the girls tied up, trembling with fear as they are tormented by Slater’s male friends. We also find out what happened to Jess, who was murdered by Slater for getting her memory back due to her snake bite.

Frida shares her revelation with Sarah, and the girls eagerly anticipate their escape once Camilla and Heather regain their memories. That evening at dinner, Frida remembers everything, and the film’s big ‘twist’ is revealed through another lengthy flashback: the male guests have been sexually assaulting the women each night and then using the perfume to make them forget it ever happened.

Soon after, Camilla and Heather’s memories return, and all four girls begin to get revenge on their rapists.

Frida confronts Slater back at the mansion, and they begin to fight. During this altercation, more memories return for Frida and it is revealed that she had visited the island in the past and escaped with no recollection of what happened to her. This is a full circle moment as we saw the head housekeeper recognize Frida when she first arrived to the island earlier in the film.

Slater overpowers Frida, and starts monologuing about the concept of forgiveness and the philosophy behind why he believes “forgetting” is the only way to overcome trauma. Sarah then breaks in to rescue Frida and is nearly killed by Slater who goes to slit her throat while puffing at his vape. However, he is unable to, as Frida had added the flower toxin to his vape, quickly making him disoriented and completely insensible to his surroundings.

The movie ends where it started, at a wealthy Gala event attended by Slater and his rich colleagues. Only this time, Frida has know married Slater and completely taken over his business and finances. Slater, still puffing at his memory wiping vape, appears to be amnesiac and unaware of who and where he is.

First off, I want to say kudos to Zoe for not only cowriting and directing an original psycho-horror movie, but not being afraid to cast an unambiguous black girl as the lead. This genre is growing to become one my faves this decade as it seems to be one of the few genres filmmakers are actually putting effort into. As I mentioned before, her race not being the focal point of the story really gave creative room to actually write a character for a black actress and not just rely on her skin color to tell the story.

Because boy, that’s lazy af!

With that being said, I would be lying if I told you I didn’t immediately pick up on similarities between this film and Get Out. Elements of the plot (the main character reaching a revelation through polaroid pictures, a sinister attractive white person seducing a black person into impeding danger) felt very reminiscent of Peele’s first critically acclaimed film. Also, Zoe wrote this film the same year Get Out was released so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was her main inspiration. However, I feel like the two films are different enough to where it doesn’t feel like cheap Jordan Peele cosplay (*cough cough* Antebellum *cough cough*). Zoe pulls some creative beats from Peele for sure, but I believe the way she chose to convey the themes of her film and its overall message were unique to her. I think this is really apparent in the movie’s ending, which features Frida using slater’s manipulative philosophy against him rather than killing him and facing the consequences that can potentially arise from murdering a white male millionaire. This is how Frida chose to take her power back and, dare I say it’s kind of genius….

I’m looking forward to more of her work in the future if this film is a sign of what’s to come.

This review is getting lengthy, so here are a summary of my thoughts for each aspect of this movie.

DIALOGUE

This film captured the language and attitude of our modern world without making it annoying. Often, when I watch newer TV shows or films, the writing feels like it’s trying too hard to pander to Gen Z and keep up with the times, but it usually misses the mark. The dialogue and character choices end up feeling out of place, as if they belong to a different planet. In this film, however, there was a nice blend of current ‘slang’ and regular language, which made the conversations feel authentic.

PERFORMANCES

I think every last one of the female actresses in this move nailed it! Naomi and Adria were definitely the standouts for me. The fear and panic they displayed when they started to get their memories back was so convincing. However, I think Alia gave my favorite performance in the movie. Although her presence was very brief, she acts as the main vehicle in revealing the true sinister nature of Slater’s paradise. When she finally cracks and tells Frida about the unsettling feeling she is getting from being there, you truly feel the gravity of what she is revealing as if she was talking to you because of how excellent Alia delivers her lines.

As for the male actors, I don’t think any of them truly felt like their own distinct characters. I think they served their purpose for where the plot was going, but if they were characterized just a bit more, it would have made the big plot twist even more devastating. Like, the guys all acted like the same annoying dirtbag since the movie started so the big ‘reveal’ did not shock me as much as I wanted it too. It was clear from the beginning that the women in this film did not 100% care for the company of Slater’s male friends and for good reason.

However, I believe if they had been written as less overtly sleazy and more as genuine friends to these girls, the film’s central themes surrounding sexual assault would have been even more impactful. It would’ve highlighted how, in many cases, women are assaulted by men they have relationships with.

Men they know. Men they trust.

This also would have made the revelation even more disturbing that Lucas (Levon Hawke), who acted the most friendly to the girls throughout the entire movie, did nothing to stop them from being raped. Imagine if his character had been written as an ultra-woke, leftist, feminist ally throughout the whole movie, only to cower in fear when his female friends needed him the most.

Oh, that would’ve woken shit up.

As for Magic Mike, I think he did just fine. This was a character I haven’t seen him play before yet it felt a little familiar to performances he gave in the past. I would have loved to have seen an actor in this role who could really pull off that charismatic yet terrifying male antagonist (think James McAvoy).

In the end, he did just enough for me.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The film is GORGEOUS need I say more.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I think this film was a great debut for Ms. Kravitz and a promising glimpse into what’s to come from her. I am already a fan of her directing, I just need her to realize that a compelling protagonist is only served be an equally compelling antagonist. Slater King and the men of this movie needed better writing but the message she was sending was delivered to me loud and clear.

In the years to come, this film will definitely be dissected and compared to the likes of Jordan Peele and I think Zoe is okay with that. Let’s just hope she doesn’t become formulaic, and give her films the creative liberty to express a plethora of themes because she is very good at conveying them.

All in all, although Blink Twice felt a bit familiar, it was good. REALLY good!

7.5/10!