“ Blink Twice ” opens with a blurry close-up shot of a frog, which then comes into glistening focus. The sound is eerie; the image is sinister, fascinating, mysterious and trippy. That describes the movie as well.
“Blink Twice” is the first feature directed by Zoë Kravitz , who also co-wrote it (with E.T. Feigenbaum), and it’s a post-#MeToo feminist party-girl nightmare thriller that’s been made with an unusual sense of intimacy.
Kravitz, the veteran actor (“The Batman,” “Kimi,” “Big Little Lies”), doesn’t rely on the standard medium shot/POV pedestrian film grammar. She composes the movie out of vibrant close-ups, using each shot (a cocktail, a glance, a social-media cutaway) to tell a story, drawing us into the center of an encounter, so that we’re staring at it and experiencing it at the same time. Her technique is riveting; this is the work of a born filmmaker.
I wouldn’t call “Blink Twice” a horror movie, but it’s rooted in some pretty horrifying things. It’s about a naïve but socially ambitious upscale-catering waitress, Frida (Naomie Ackie), who gets herself invited to the private island of a famous tech billionaire named Slater King ( Channing Tatum ). Once there, she joins the other select young women who’ve been asked along, as well as the dudes who are there (most of whom work for the company, King-Tech), plunging into a luxe party vacation that never stops.
Against a tropical paradise setting, the fancy drinks keep flowi.