Movie: Blink Twice (2024)
Production Companies: MGM, Free Association, this is important, Bold Choices
Distributed by: Amazon MGM Studios
Producers: Bruce Cohen, Tiffany Persons, Garret Levitz, Zoë Kravitz, and Channing Tatum
Directed by: Zoë Kravitz
Written by: Zoë Kravitz, E.T. Feigenbaum
Starring: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, Adria Arjona, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis
Review by: Cam Wiggs

Nepo baby. If you’ve been anywhere near the internet over the last couple of years, you’ve no doubt encountered the term. Now one of Dictionary.com’s newest inductees, “nepo baby” has taken the pop culture social discourse by storm as one of the most provocative terms one can use in reference to a celebrity.

According to Dictionary.com (yes, I’m doing the thing) a “nepo baby” is “a person who is notable or powerful, such as a celebrity or politician, and has a parent who is also notable or powerful. The term implies that the child was able to use their parent’s industry connections to build a career in similar or related industries.” That last part is the precise reason the term inspires much fervor in the now ongoing debate regarding whether these nepo babies should have their artistic contributions taken at face-value or if each project of theirs should have a John Hancock-sized asterisk next to it indicating they got a free ticket on the gravy train. As debates like these go, the “correct” answer is a point of personal preference.

Some relevant examples of so-called nepo babies are Jack Quaid (son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan), Dakota Johnson (daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith), Kate Hudson (daughter of Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson), and, of course, Zoë Kravitz (daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet), the actor turned writer-director making her directorial debut with subject of this review, Blink Twice.

Starring Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, and Adria Arjona among others, Blink Twice follows Frida (Ackie) and her best friend Jess (Shawkat), two employees of a catering company who find themselves working an event hosted by Slater King (Tatum) CEO of King Tech (think OpenAI or any other hip tech company). Slater King is, as tech billionaires tend to be, a controversial figure but also someone whose aura has attracted Frida to the point of obsession. During the event, through a little initiative on Frida’s part and a bit of serendipity, Frida scores some one-on-one face-time with Slater King and later scores an invitation for her and Jess to join King and his friends on his private island. Once there, Frida and Jess start to notice some strange occurrences and inconsistencies around the island and, after some time, it becomes clear they are a part of something much more nefarious than they had in mind when they accepted the invite.

Based on that setup, your first thought might be “I’ve seen this movie before,” and, if so, it’s fair point to make. For about as long as there have been stories, the trope of following someone or something to a mysterious place where your wildest dreams will come true has always existed. It’s Icarus, it’s Hansel and Gretel, it’s any number of thriller books and movies that have been released since the beginning of the 20th century. More relevant to the current age of film, however, the Zoë Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum penned screenplay takes the lead of modern satirical, socially-critical, horror-comedies like Get Out, Bodies Bodies Bodies, and others in crafting its story, tone, and theming. And from that melting pot of inspirations comes something that, counterintuitively, feels altogether fresh.

On one hand, you wouldn’t be far off-base if you called Blink Twice “Get Out if it was about the experience of women in post-women’s rights movement America.” But, on the other hand, there is no denying this film’s uniqueness in the face of all of those natural comparisons. Much of that uniqueness is driven by the creative vision of writer-director Zoë Kravitz.

One of the first and most-obvious ways Kravitz exhibits her directorial prowess is in the shot selection around the island. So many films that take place primarily in a singular location feel dull and monotonous, largely because the audience is seeing the same locations over and over again. And in many ways, there’s no way to avoid showing your audience the same locations because… it is your location. What it has is what you’ve got. What you can control as a director is how you show the audience those locations repeatedly, something of which both Zoë Kravitz and her D.P. Adam Newport-Berra (The Last Black Man in San Francisco) were acutely aware. Using different framing, camera angles, camera tricks, lighting, and bright solid-colored costumes, Kravitz and her team create an island experience that is every bit as dizzingly-vibrant for the viewer as it is for our protagonists.

Beyond how the movie looks, it always comes down to the two “T’s” for me: tone and theming. Those aspects of the movie are, in my humble opinion, where a writer-director like Kravitz really proves their mettle. Blink Twice‘s theming is reminiscent of what we’ve scene from many modern satires regarding the perils of social media and clout chasing, the expectations placed on women by today’s society, and the lack of such expectations for men. It’s delivery, however, feels much fresher because it is both full of conviction and still subtle and satirical enough such that it doesn’t water down the material with clunky monologues or winks to the audience to get its point across. Overall, the themes of the film are sound and well-executed, though I would argue the other of the two “T’s” I mentioned earlier is where this movie really cements its claim as one of the best of the year.

If you were paying attention, that other “T” stands for tone. Tone can be such a difficult aspect of a script to manage. It comes down to performances, line delivery, timing, and so much more. But, most of all, it requires a director to understand exactly where the audience is emotionally at each point in the film. A good script and a good director will take hold of a viewer through their visual and verbal storytelling, guiding them through each act of the film and matching the tone to the emotional state of the viewer. In this regard, I would describe Kravitz’s performance in managing the tone of Blink Twice as nothing short of masterful.

As mentioned before, this film is a satire and a horror/thriller/comedy of sorts with a heaping pile of social commentary to go with it. As such, the tone is both the most important aspect of the film as well as the most difficult to manage. But Zoë Kravitz, makes it look easy. She knows exactly how long to let the suspenseful beats breathe and exactly when the audience is ready for double dose of ridiculous comedy beats to release the tension. Working with excellent actors like Naomi Ackie, Adria Arjona, Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, and so many more, Kravitz clearly prepped each performer for the exact “place” their character should be in each scene. She gave them the confidence to be goofy when it was appropriate within the tone of the film and gave them the character depth to craft so many unique multi-dimensional characters.

Now, as with any directorial debut, there are going to be kinks that need to be worked out. In the case of Blink Twice there are some noticeable pacing issues in the first act that may lose some viewers. The issue with pacing is not so much in the length of scenes but more so in the repetition of them. Additionally, there is a bit of character bloat. And, while I am sure Kravitz and Feigenbaum would argue there is a story- or theme-related purpose for each character in the film, in my opinion, the volume of characters is too large and some characters fade out of relevance as the movie progresses despite their constant presence. This creates an imbalance in the film that could have been resolved by consolidating characters.

In the end, nepo baby or not, Zoë Kravitz has planted her flag on the summit of rising director mountain. Her sense of tone, her conviction in theming, and her direction of an ensemble in Blink Twice has ensured she will get many more chances to direct major films in this industry. And, no matter where you fall on the nepo baby debate, one thing is certain: she’ll land her next directing project on the merit of her work, not by her last name.

8.0 out of 10 Kernels

Thanks for reading!

-Cam