Something to watch tonight: Friday 24 January
Blink Twice (Kravitz, 2024)
Firstly, thanks to readers DG of Vancouver, British Columbia and MN of (I think?) Auckland for their long and thoughtful comments about David Lynch from my Tuesday update. Always really great to hear from subscribers.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that it’s ok to recycle material from Substack as well as the old Funerals & Snakes site and RNZ. This one was in cinemas in August last year.
Watching Zoë Kravitz’ horror-thriller Blink Twice, I was reminded that in 1987 her mother, Lisa Bonet, starred in Alan Parker’s Angel Heart which traversed some similar thematic territory. That film also featured a character being tormented by slowly returning suppressed traumatic memories. As I recall, it also had a few chickens.
Reformed bad boy tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum, very successfully playing against type) invites two broke flatmates (Naomi Ackie and Alia Shawkat) to join him and his rich and powerful friends at a party on his private island. There, they are welcomed into a world seemingly without consequences and where blacking out after a night of excess doesn’t seem that unusual.
…
The script by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum is full – perhaps over-full – of carefully curated metaphors and allusions and has plenty of satisfactory call-backs and twists. It’s architecturally sound, as is Kravitz’ direction. I enjoyed it a lot, even though I was forced to grimace more than I am usually comfortable with.
That’s just some of the original review but I’ve released that update from behind the paywall so you can read the rest.
Also in that week’s new releases newsletter: We Were Dangerous, the NZ film about a group of 1950s girls sent to a reform home on an island in Lyttelton Harbour, and French feminist drama The Sitting Duck (aka La syndicaliste) starring Isabelle Huppert.
Where to watch Blink Twice
Worldwide : Streaming on Prime Video