Review: ‘Blink Twice’ has the perfect dark tone, yet feels hollow

In her daring directorial debut, “Blink Twice,” writer/director Zoë Kravitz doesn’t flinch once — not even when her film might be served by looking away.

She maintains a steely gaze in this caustic social horror fable, laced with black comedy, which nods to Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” though Kravitz chooses to aim her artistic weapon at sexual politics, not necessarily race. Co-written with E.T. Feigenbaum, “Blink Twice” is a big, bold swing from the actress-turned-filmmaker, even if her message becomes muddled along the way. It’s clear Kravitz wants to make a statement with this film. What’s less clear is what exactly that statement might be.

“Blink Twice” opens with a dead-eyed scroll in a dingy bathroom; our protagonist, Frida (Naomi Ackie), thumbs her phone screen on the toilet catatonically, observing the lives of others on Instagram, before she and her roommate Jess (Alia Shawkat) rush to work, serving champagne and canapés at a swanky gala hosted by a disgraced tech mogul, Slater King (Channing Tatum). Yearning to feel a part of something bigger, the waiters slip into slinky gowns and join the party themselves, warmly welcomed into an inner circle of wealthy men. They soon jet off to Slater’s private island with his pals.

Kravitz observes this moneyed milieu well, and what she capably achieves is an absurdist comedy of gendered manners once the guys (Tatum, Simon Rex, Haley Joel Osment, Levon Hawke and Christian Slater) and gals (Ackie, Shawkat, Adria Arjona, Liz Caribel and Trew Mullen) touch down at Slater’s resort in a lush tropical forest. Outfitted in matching white bikinis, the women are plied with fine wine, fine food and good drugs.

Everything feels off in “Blink Twice,” intentionally so. The style is quite jarring, with an abrasiveness that’s almost chafing to watch. The camera angles are strange, cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra’s images are saturated and too bright, and the sound design is overly pronounced and too sharp. This postcard-perfect setting becomes almost unbearable to endure.

It’s a terrible truth to realize that you can have all of the nice things and still be having a bad time. Jess eventually realizes it, after endless nights spent binging on fun-fun-fun. Of course something’s not right. They have no phones, no one knows what day it is, and mysterious injuries keep appearing. When Jess goes missing, it’s up to Frida to claw her way out of the fog and find out what happened to her best friend.

Kravitz nails the social analysis and the dark, satirical tone, but as the film becomes a horror/suspense thriller, her directorial execution falters. There are some dynamic shots and compositions, and overt references to her inspirations, but the element of suspense and her ability to stage a horror sequence are lacking. Kravitz miscalculates the careful calibration of “conceal” vs. “reveal” that is necessary in horror filmmaking, making the mistake of showing us the monster clearly, forgetting that what the audience can’t see is far scarier than what they can.

While Kravitz demonstrates a directorial vision that bursts with creative and audacious choices and she pulls fantastic performances out of Ackie, Arjona and Tatum, she never works out exactly what she wants to say about sex, power and revenge.

A deeply cynical coda at the end of the film undercuts any “empowerment” themes that might naturally emerge from this story. Ultimately, there’s a certain emotion and earnestness missing from “Blink Twice” that would undergird this entire endeavor and keep it from feeling so hollow. But the unrelenting cynicism robs the film of any impactful meaning. Maybe that’s the point, but it doesn’t feel good.

2.5 stars out of 4

Rated: R for violent content, sexual assault, language and drug use.

Where: In theaters Friday