Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut is everything you could possibly want from a summer blockbuster: a black box plot wrapped in the glitz and glamor of a private vacation island for the uber wealthy, staring superstars like Channing Tatum in the third and final entry in the summer of Channing Tatum (starting with the rom-com Fly Me to the Moon, followed by his breathtaking and long-awaited cameo in the MCU in Deadpool & Wolverine); the It Girl Adria Arjona, costar to Glen Powell from Linklater’s Hitman; Naomi Ackie (playing our protagonist Frida), from everything cool, including Lady Macbeth, Rise of Skywalker, Master of None, and the forthcoming indie sci-fi film alongside Robert Pattinson Mickey 17; Alia Shawkat from all the other cool things, including Green Room and not Spy Kids; Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osmond, Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan, padding out the star-studded list, along with newcomers Liz Caribel and Trew Mullen.
As Friend glanced at their watch at the forty-five minute mark at the first indications of a dark and nefarious twist coming, they later mentioned they could’ve done with the first act altogether, but so much of what’s offered in the opening sequences are the Easter eggs that you are rewarded for later, the innocent and silly elements of the film, like when Channing Tatum treats the placement of a red velvet chair in his main house with a level of seriousness completely unwarranted relative to the other shenanigans happening on the island, the flirtations between Frida and Slater King which sizzle and pop with chemistry without every being exploitative or male gaze-y. It’s so easy to see how Blink Twice shares its sexy-smooth vibes without any icky, red flag behavior or long, slow pans over cleavage and thighs with contemporary films that been infused with Kravitz’s aesthetic as an actress (The Batman, Mad Max: Fury Road, Kimi, even Rough Night alongside ScarJo). The first act is atmospheric, aesthetic, but also descriptive, imagistic, snarky, and tense. The playful is mixed with the dangerous, chairs next to snakes next to champagne and black eyes.
Blink Twice is the most perfect distillation of the non-Duchennes smile as a safety mechanism one can imagine. It’s kind of perfect to see this film alongside the trailers for Smile 2, where the non-Duchennes smile is used in a way much more common of the genre. I just got finished rewatching the USS Callister episode of Black Mirror today and watching Nanette help-me-smile her way through her interactions with Jesse Plemmons’s character really gives you a sense for the construction of a deep and varied physical lexicon for actors in #MeToo cinema.
In my notes I’ve written that so much of the second act of this movie feels like “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” grown up, which I think is already taken as an artpiece known as The Magicians by Lev Grossman, but I think there are a lot of magical realist elements of Blink Twice that make it both fanciful and also terrifying. Tatum’s “I’m sorry” monologue sticks in my brain weeks after I first saw this movie, more than really any other moment. Slate’s Joshua Rivera has a piece that suggests there are elements of the Final Girl trope in this movie that need to be retired, though I’m not sure I really agree. It’s a film that will obviously reward upon re-watching and sits as one of the most entertaining watches of the summer.
