Don’t you know you never trust the guy who bought his own island? Examples of why you should be wary abound in popular culture, and also in Blink Twice, before the proof comes indisputably rolling in. In fact, we meet Slater King – even the name should set off warning flags – in the context of his apology tour, for unspecified transgressions that have prompted the tech bro to step away from running the company he turned into a smashing success. “I am sorry,” Slater tells the journalist interviewing him. Because he’s put a seemingly genuine emphasis on the word “am,” and because it’s Channing Tatum, we’re inclined to believe him.

The social satire on the surface of this trigger-warning-worthy thriller — it even comes with an explicit trigger warning at the start — is evident. Director Zoe Kravitz’ film does not need to surprise us with the idea that Slater is bad; she puts it up front. However, she also puts forward the idea that he may really have done the necessary soul searching to change himself, and points up a reality of our cancel-obsessed culture: We may be quick to cancel celebrities, but deep down, we remain infatuated with them and want to give them a second chance, whether they deserve it or not.

Frida (Naomi Ackie) is the viewer surrogate who wants to give Slater a second chance, especially since she’s about to pour champagne at a gala banquet for Slater’s foundation. It’s a gig she does every year, though last year she apparently called too much attention to herself, as her prick boss reminds her. Frida must be a slow learner, because when she and her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) sneak into an after party, she breaks a heel while sauntering toward the approachable billionaire and collides with the person who’s pouring champagne at this party. Before that boss has a chance to fire her, Slater has invited her and Jess – and a half-dozen others at the party – to the remote island he now calls home, for an indeterminate amount of partying.

Although the vibe of Slater’s partying seems to have changed – Frida says she expected something more bacchanalian – there’s still plenty of drugs, poolside hangs, gourmet dining and thousand-thread-count-sheeted beds to make the stay as pleasurable as they could want. Other faces involved in the partying include Adria Arjona, Simon Rex, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis of all people, and another Slater – Christian Slater.

How long will this all last? That’s unclear, and things are starting to blend into one another, with the partiers sometimes losing their bearings on what day it is or how long they’ve been there, and with some blank spots in their memories. And Slater? He’s involved but sort of to the side, presiding over it with his ever-present vape pen, a former bad boy enlightened into a thoughtful poet. But viewer be warned: If owning an island is a surefire cinematic signifier that you might be a megalomaniac, vaping is a surefire cinematic signifier that you might also be a douchebag.

Blink Twice starts dropping hints that all is not well early on, such as when a cleaning woman starts speaking indecipherable words to Frida when she’s not helping control the island’s infestation by venomous yellow snakes. But Kravitz also wants to give us glimpses of the sort of travelogue Insta FOMO that supposedly fuels today’s generation of young people, knowing this is part of why her audience bought the tickets. It’s a similar vibe given to us by the makers of Bodies Bodies Bodies, who gathered beautiful people in an isolated party location kissed by opulence, only to send them through the ringer.

Blink Twice starts out containing many of the strengths of Bodies Bodies Bodies, but steadily starts distinguishing itself in the wrong direction. The ending of that other film revealed how it was underpinned by a certain narrative rigour, and Blink Twice ultimately can’t say the same thing. Kravitz’ script, which she wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum, has a pacing problem, as it fails to connect certain narrative dots in its middle portions. This leads its ending to comes on quickly, without sufficient explanations in the script for why certain things are happening, why certain characters are regaining some of the memories that have been drained from them, and why and how and when they are able to do certain things to overcome what we learn pretty quickly is their oppressor – or maybe multiple oppressors. (Need to leave it vague for spoiler reasons.) So while some of the later plot developments play out in satisfying and sometimes bleakly funny ways, the connective tissue in between is threadbare.

What Kravitz has to say about people who abuse their power is important, but not surprising. Blink Twice comes late enough during our popular reckoning with the toxicity of influential men that we can acknowledge the social usefulness of its messages, without finding them particularly clever, or presented in unexpected ways.

However, there are some go-for-broke performances here that do get our attention. One is by Tatum, who is not, we should note, going to stay in hunky poet mode for long. He has a moment at the end that really stands out, which both undercuts the hollowness of the celebrity apology while illustrating his derangement. This is also a step forward in the budding career of Adria Arjona, who assumes more of a central role in the story after initially being presented as an unserious rival to our lead characters, a woman who became famous on a Survivor-type reality show where she constantly wore a bikini. She’s a super captivating presence, but her transition and definition as a character suggests missteps in the story’s conception.

A few narrative shortcomings aside, Kravitz does really assert herself here as a director. This is the first directing effort for the actress and daughter of Lenny Kravitz, recently seen as Catwoman in The Batman. She announces a keen eye for stylish choices right from the start, when the title splashes across the screen for only as long as it takes to blink once, between that mechanical processing sound of a Polaroid camera. Her capable hands will be put to better use in the future, but this is a good start.

 

Blink Twice is currently playing in cinemas.