Blink Twice | FILM REVIEW

So it starts out like a class story, the haves and the have nots.  Toxic relationships are briefly discussed when Frida (Naomi Ackie) slates her room mate Jess (Alia Shawkat) for her low self esteem, sneaking out to bed a boy when he treats her badly.  Then the ladies crash the party, a connection is made (love match – slide right) and we are all off to the island.  Blink Twice is the kinda film that works better the more you watch it, each time it unveils a little bit more of itself. 

DISCLAIMER CONTAINS SPOILERS – Directorial debut from Zoe Kravitz, who jointly wrote the script with E.T. Feigenbaum.  Music by Chanda Dancy, Cinematography by Adam Newport-Berra and Editing by Kathryn J Schubert.  Synopsis – Billionaire meets cocktail waitress at fundraisers and whisks her off to his private island, all sounds familiar and equally ominous.  

I actually feel the more you watch it the tighter you feel they are trapped in the situation and countless times they ignore their better judgement.  It’s about coercion ‘You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to” – when an objection is made to phones being confiscated and the undertone is, this is just what we do, if you are one of us you will do it too.  

Jess represents the character with the biggest doubts and her unsettled self can’t be allowed to stay just her lighter, inscrawled with her name as no one is ever able to return her property to her, it’s the communal lighter, for use by all.

 Initially the line “Don’t call me babe” stated stridently by Sarah (Adria Arjona) I thought was an amusing nod to Pammy in Barb Wire (1996) but frankly it was, oh so much more insidious and that’s really the vibe of this film.  It’s about assumptions.  The causal way this simple word ‘babe’ takes ownership of Sarah to the point that we all assume her to be in a relationship.  Cody is presented as a neglected boyfriend not the one entrapping her, her rejection of him does nothing but to paint her as a bitch.  When the realisation hits the girls both get a decent monologue that they each nail and the collective stance is Ignore those crazy bitches, when women don’t know their place or make a fuss about the current state of affairs, they are always simply pushed aside as crazy bitches.

To this day I carry my passport in my bag in case someone offers to jump on a plane with me and go somewhere interesting.  Even after watching this I didn’t take it out, maybe I think I’m too smart and this couldn’t happen to me or maybe I wanna live in a world which doesn’t present all men as predators, maybe that makes me easy prey or forever a naive optimist.  I wish believing in the good of people wasn’t seen as such a weak trait, it takes strength of character to not always think the worst.

I guess post Gisèle Pelicot it’s impossible to now say it’s only a film, this wouldn’t happen, men wouldn’t collectively all sink to such low behaviour and I still strongly feel not ALL men.  We simply can’t keep painting all men with the same brush but some men do shameful things and that frankly has always been the case.  Me too as a movement made me uncomfortable as I think the greater message Me alone should be enough but I understand the power in numbers.  If men on mass believe bad behaviours are lessened if everyone is doing it, why shouldn’t women embrace that same solidarity for positive change. 

The poignancy of the film comes in the moments of connections the ‘couples’ share Tom (Haley Joel Osment) and Camila (Liz Caribel) make shapes out of the clouds.  Its feel like intimacy in this situation wouldn’t be off the cards but the pleasure isn’t in the consentual act but in the taking of something forbidden.  Even now I’m struck, it’s odd the spelling consentual and consensual for both are used interchangeably but they feel worlds apart as words to me.  

In a world where permissions are always over stepped, our data with the internet, our image with CCTV, our location with our phones GPS, Echo always listening in readiness to help, I feel we live in a world that lacks consent and it’s ‘just what we do’. Fit in or fuck off, insta smile and look like your having fun, it only took 58 photos to convey the right mood, look at me I’m having fun.  Mummy bloggers sharing their child’s first period with the world for content, is nothing private anymore?

Kravitz echoes this concern, are you having a good time?  

Cinematically I think it’s a triumph, the use of camera movement to lock us into Frida’s vantage point, while still engaging with her emotions is a motif used throughout, we can’t see what she is seeing but we clearly see how she sees it and the impact it has upon her.  The sound design is also really masterful, the random beauty of the island on a slow zoom with the humming score to cut and stopped instantly in what feels like an abrasive act, like being woken from a trance.  

Both Stacy (Geena Davis)  and Slater King (Channing Tatum) have perhaps the biggest symbolism Stacy being the old guard, the women saying – hush now don’t make a fuss better to forget, let them cheat and abuse us, know your place.  Channing screaming “I’m sorry” hammers the point home, are men allowed to fail in such ways and be forgiven, perhaps quite simply not.  For some things, no matter how many times you say you’re sorry, there is no exoneration so why bother trying to make amends.  It’s the damned if you do and damned if you don’t mentality, so I might as well do what I want.  I don’t think all men want to drug women and have sex with them against their will but this film paints a bleak picture.

I cannot lie when the camera follows the two women back to settle the score, with big bows bouncing and the Princess Loko sample from Beyonce – I’m that girl,  It gives happy film chills. BUT even though they are empowered, I’m disappointed.  Why does it always have to be a war? The world is full of two types of people, those who have felt the worst of pains and would never want anyone to suffer like they have and those whose pain they wish to inflict on others, just so everyone can see how much it hurts, don’t be the latter.  If hell exists and there is a special place for people who do nothing, those that need to throw pain back probably also get a seat at the table. 

I appreciate they have been horribly wronged, I appreciate the utter abuse of the situation, killing as an act of self defence I can understand, I can also understand the logic of wanting someone dead because of the fear of what they might do to you if they are not but i can’t lean into vigilantism, I totally appreciate that one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist, it just depends on which side of the line you sit but with that knowledge I also can’t endorse the radical aspect of causing harm, unless to save one’s own life.  I’m glad Slater was saved but why Frida had to become the abuser and saddle herself to this nightmare felt anything but liberating to me.  

The film should have included some valiant men, not princes to rescue the princess but men of moral character as they do exist in the world and this film is doing nothing but preaching to the converted.  There are no likable male characters in this film and there needs to be, we have to co-exist.  It felt like Barbie Greta Gerwig, (2023) all over again, I get it empowers me but not to the exclusion of strong, moral admirable men.  When did we get so bogged down in gender and not just ask for characters of moral substance regardless of their gender.  It made me want to rewatch Promising Young Women (2020) again , a directorial debut from a female director Emerald Fennell, with Cary Mulligan, as that gave me the same feels.  It felt like a wretched form of empowerment, happy to play with overtly sexualised tropes, again objectifying and I honestly don’t know how cinema breaks its historic male gaze.  Give Fennell her dues however I found Saltburn (2023) really quite captivating and enjoyed the uncomfortableness and its contentious tone greatly. 

This is a film that is concerned with gender, I’m not sure if it does much more than poke at the topic but nevertheless I very much enjoyed the experience, I think Zoe Kravitz has an interesting voice and I’m keen to see more of her work so ‘jobs a gooden’ really.  

So ….are you having a good time? – Answers down below, thoughts and feels?

*I read Zoe wanted to title the film Pussy Island to reclaim the word like academia has done with queer and I think that notion is admirable but again because of the already existing connotations I think the title carries too much weight – victimising the women, like they should have known better.  Blink twice is intriguing as a title and once I watched the trailer it seemed a perfect pitch.

CAST – Frida (Naomi Ackie) – Jess (Alia Shawkat)  – Slater King (Channing Tatum)  Sarah (Adria Arjona) – Vic (Christian Slater) – Rich (Kyle MacLachlan) – Stacy (Geena Davis) – Camila (Liz Caribel) – Heather (Trew Mullen) – Cody (Simon Rex) –  Tom (Haley Joel Osment) – Lucas (Levon Roan Thurman Hawke)

SIDE NOTE FOR ALL REVIEWS – People say write evergreen content, don’t include pop culture references but I thought about it and that’s dumb.  My review of this film is of the moment, the moment I’m in and tomorrow the world keeps spinning, situations will change and I will have new thoughts and feelings.  I may see things completely differently and that for me, that is the joy of film, finding something new in something already seen.  It’s a different experience every time because I’m different sometimes in huge ginormous ways and sometimes in small seemingly insignificant ways, but I’m always just a little bit different from who I was before.

All images sourced from IMDB.

Treat your ears nice – Y O U T U B E – S O U N D T R A C K – P L A Y L I S T – Just Click