by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Simon Rex, Christian Slater, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, Alia Shawkat
Intro:
… a marvellous psycho-thriller, packed with an amazing cast, astounding film craft, and an approach to dicey topics that (mostly) shows a lot of care and understanding of all the pieces involved.
There is a joy to be found in being unbearably uncomfortable. When watching waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) get whisked away by tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) to his private island, Blink Twice undercuts everything with the violently obvious notion that there is something wrong with this. Kathryn J. Schubert’s editing cuts and strips the edges off DP Adam Newport-Berra’s gorgeously decadent visuals, employing a similar aesthetic to Don’t Worry Darling in its psychological scar tissue effect; like raw pain bubbling just under the surface of the mind. Chanda Dancy’s soundtrack (and indeed the entirety of the sound design) amplifies everything a hundred-fold, with a razor-sharp edge that fashions every single noise, no matter how suspicious (sharpening of a knife) or mundane (sparking of a vape coil) into a jagged piece of glass that sticks right into the audience.
It’s basically a nerve-wracked take on the horrors of (Jeffrey Epstein’s) Little Saint James, filtered through some Monkeypaw-style absurdism, with Channing Tatum as the dangerously charming host of the party.
Channing’s casting is some of the best weaponizing of natural charisma in a modern film in recent years, turning his leading man ruggedness into a potent weapon. His fellow scumbags share in that trait, with Simon Rex tapping back into the Red Rocket mock-swagger well, Christian Slater and Haley Joel Osment taking unassuming creep in deliciously varying directions, Geena Davis doing an unspeakably good Ghislaine impression, and Levon Hawke is every crypto-bro/Tate University ‘graduate’ at once. Alone, they all threaten to steal the scene from each other, but when put together, they become a complete unit that holds up the larger picture of wanton manipulation and cruelty.
In terms of embodying the ‘thriller’ side of the genre spectrum, Blink Twice holds its own with the best of them. While seemingly held back by how media-savvy the main characters are (to the point of openly joking about Slater King’s island being sinister), it still fits with how media saturation is part-and-parcel with the narrative itself; the ways that social media furthers the divide between the haves and have-nots in showing off the lavish lifestyles of the former until the latter is chomping at the bit to be part of it. There’s vulgarity aplenty in both the production design of the island and the activities within, but even with the underlying dread, there’s still a certain… pull towards it. Towards the kind of money that can allow you to escape from just about anything, even the consequences of your own actions. Must be nice.
There is zero chill (and zero reason to be chill) in its depiction of class divides, envy politics, and systemic sexual abuse. While there’s a potential argument to be made about where the film ultimately takes those ideas… said argument won’t be made here. All of that build-up, that crackling tension, which stays nightmarishly consistent throughout, leads to an outrageous and intensely satisfying denouement that not only reveals the truth behind a lot of mass media influence, but also makes for a startlingly accurate statement on the nature of trauma and why, in some ways, we need it.
Blink Twice? Honey, you’ll be lucky to blink even once; your eyelids will be too scared to move, as will the rest of you. This is a marvellous psycho-thriller, packed with an amazing cast (Naomi Ackie and Adria Arjona are a legendary double-act; more of this, please!), astounding film craft, and an approach to dicey topics that (mostly) shows a lot of care and understanding of all the pieces involved. That this is Zöe Kravitz starting as a director and co-writer is almost scarier than the film itself, as she doesn’t so much kick down the door as set the entire house on fire. Anyone need a light?
