BLINK TWICE (2024)

Genre: Suspense/Horror
Director: Zoë Kravitz
Cast: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan, Geena Davis, Alia Shawkat
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence & Coarse Language)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website: https://www.blinktwice.com.sg

Opening Day: 22 August 2024

Synopsis: When tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) meets cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) at his fundraising gala, sparks fly. He invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. It’s paradise. Wild nights blend into sun soaked days and everyone's having a great time. No one wants this trip to end, but as strange things start to happen, Frida begins to question her reality. There is something wrong with this place. She’ll have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out of this party alive.

Movie Review:

Channing Tatum plays a charming tech mogul named Slater King in this movie. With a power soaked name like this, coupled with chiseled good looks, it will be hard to say no when this man invites you to a private island for a fun getaway. We admit we wouldn’t think too long before agreeing to this invitation, which is almost too good to be true. It doesn’t matter whether he stepped down as CEO for unspecified past behaviour, because a well executed public apology is all it takes to make doubts about his dubious character go away.

And that’s the premise of this directorial debut from Zoë Kravitz. You know something bad is going to happen to the protagonists Frida and her friend Jess (Naomi Ackie and Alia Shawkat) when they go gaga over Slater after the cocktail waitresses pretend to be guests at an event and manage to get up close and personal with the handsome dude.

How bad are things going to be? Enough for the studio behind this thriller to issue a trigger warning before its release, stating upfront that the film is about the abuse of power, and while it is a fictionalised movie, there are mature themes and depictions of sexual violence. That should be enough to alert viewers who are expecting a rom com where Tatum plays someone’s Prince Charming.

All seem good at first when Frida and Jess arrive at a luxurious villa with Slater and his friends and business partners, including a photographer (Christian Slater), a private chef (Simon Rex), a DJ (Haley Joel Osment) and a young graduate (Levon Hawke), as well as three other female guests (Adria Arjona, Liz Caribel and Trew Mullen). There is also the ultra efficient but somewhat uptight assistant (Geena Davis) and a very proper therapist (Kyle MacLachlan) who shows up midway through the vacation.

Viewers who have seen enough thrillers would know this ensemble of characters would be the list of suspected bad guys to scrutinise when something goes wrong. And when Frida finds Jess missing one morning after a night of partying (of course it involves alcohol and drugs), she is forced to look closer at the things and people around her, and try her very best to leave the island alive.

This movie stands out from many other titles of similar genre because of how images and sounds are put together inventively by the filmmakers, possibly with Kravitz’s confident direction. You are forced to pay attention to every detail, and every recurring pop of the champagne bottle, every repeated clink of the champagne glass, as well as every echoed fizzle of the champagne bubbles seems to be a clue to uncover a secret. There is also the lighter that people just can’t seem to find, the red flowers that are planted around the villa, and the snakes that the locals have to perpetually get rid of – all these elements keep bugging you as the characters go about having pool parties and enjoying lavish dinners.

Kudos also to the ensemble cast for delivering committed performances, especially to Ackie who is totally believable as a single woman who goes along for a fun ride before realising how she needs to fight back to survive, and Tatum who probably had a great time playing the attractive villain. He’s the sort of guy you know is up to no good, but it’s a matter of whether you can resist his charisma to stay out of trouble.

Movie Rating:

(While seeing the attractive people enjoy their island getaway, the thriller constantly grips your senses with its slick editing and unsettling themes)

Review by John Li