BLINK TWICE

Zoë Kravitz proves herself as a talented director in Blink Twice, which makes it even sadder that her debut film is a blunt, uninspired morality play, lacking pace, ambition and originality.

It is clear from the outset that Blink Twice wants to do to # MeToo what Get Out did for fraught racial divides, mimicking not only the narrative build-up but also that film’s visual style. If only it would have had Jordan Peele’s expert sense of purpose and unease, the film might have gotten somewhere.

The plot strands half a dozen young women on the idyllic island of a tech billionaire and his wealthy friends. At first they soak up the sun, booze and indulgent party atmosphere, but once one of the women mysteriously disappears, it becomes obvious that something more nefarious is at play.

The odds are high that you’ll guess pretty early on what exactly is happening – Blink Twice isn’t exactly a movie that proudly wears nuance on its sleeve – but Zoë Kravitz, who not only directs but co-write the script, takes nearly half the picture to truly get the plot going, and once she does, she just pummels you with easy jump scares and hardly revelatory plot disclosures.

Further diluting the picture’s power are mostly one-note performances and its central message, which at first doesn’t move beyond a simple revenge take, before concluding with a final scene that is at best disturbingly muddled and at worst a complete volte-face of what you’d assume Kravitz wants to say.

Nevertheless, in her debut behind the camera Kravitz does show considerable talent: she has a keen eye for composition, uses needle-drops smartly and is well-versed in visual metaphors, trite as they might be in Blink Twice. So while I wasn’t a fan of this film, I’m looking forward to see what she does next.

release: 2024

director: Zoë Kravitz

starring: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Adria Arjona, Alia Shawkat