I saw Blink Twice on Amazon Prime and there was a title card disclaimer alerting the viewers there’s scenes of sexual violence in the movie. While that pretty much spoils the twist in this movie, you can pretty much guess what is happening.
A movie like this blends elements of the British TV show The Prisoner with current events surrounding Bill Cosby and especially Jeffrey Epstein who is the model for the character on which Slater King (Channing Tatum) is based.
Slater is a CEO billionaire tech mogul who recently retired from his company for unspecified reasons. But let’s face it. What else does anyone really resign anymore? I heard on the radio that Dave Grohl has retreated from public life for the time being as more news emerges about the child he sired with another woman. Grohl, who was universally loved for his behavior and attitude before the news came out, is as one radio DJ called caught with “his hand in the cookie jar.” But let’s face it, a lot of celebrities did it and they got away with it unscathed.
Here are the five I can name off the top of my head: Andre the Giant, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donald Trump (twice), Harold Ramis and Clint Eastwood. I mean, Sean Astin, at one point thought Lucille Ball was his grandmother as it was believed Desi Arnaz Jr. impregnated his mother, Patty Duke.
Yet a movie like Blink Twice, directed and co-written by Zoe Kravitz, who has reportedly been a victim of sexual harassment, as well as allegedly the perpetrator against Jaden Smith when he was only 14 and she was 24, thinks it’s being edgy when it actually isn’t. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t buy Tatum as a tech mogul nor Geena Davis as his sister. Yes, she’s 25 years his senior but she’s his sister.
I did understand her position in the movie as an older woman who is forced to be his obedient lacky which is a sign on how people in power abuse it. But Matt Damon’s Leslie Groves as a full colonel tossing his military suit coat toward Dane DeHaan’s character, who is a lieutenant colonel, is a good way. I did like Kyle MacLachlan as a creepy predator.
The whole movie is one big set-up that results in the same old bloodbath at the end. Slater invites Frida (Naomi Ackle), who is a nail artist and cocktail waitress, and her friend/co-worker, Jess (Alia Shawkat), to his private island with some other women. These become so indistinguishable it would be provocative if the movie was so well better made. The other men at the island obviously just see the women as a piece of meat as the way “ladies men” would pick among themselves the redheads, blondes and brunettes to hit on at a party.
They all live a life of debauchery and an endless party on the island. Yet, things are fuzzy. The women have bruises they don’t remember. Then one day, as they’re sunbathing with facial masks on, Frida suddenly realizes Jess is missing. And none of the other women know who she is talking about, even though we’ve seen them all interacting and having a fun time.
You don’t have to be very intelligent to understand what is going on. One thing I will credit Kravitz in doing is keeping the sexual violence footage at a bare minimum. And while the ending does have a nice little commentary on how men of wealth and power get away with actions like these, it feels that Kravitz and co-writer E.T. Feigenbaum blew a chance to take the movie down a new way.
Once you sit through this movie, you’ll really not want to watch it again.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 