Blink Twice (2024)

Some may roll their eyes at Blink Twice starting with a pretty serious trigger warning, but I don't have a problem with it. The subject matter here is something that needs to be carefully navigated, and if any film warrants a trigger warning at the start of it then it's this one.

Naomi Ackie plays Frida, a young woman who cannot believe her luck when she and a friend (Jess, played by Alia Shawkat) end up blagging themselves into the exclusive company of super-rich Slater (Channing Tatum) and his friends. When I say super-rich, I mean that he has the kind of money that allows him to have his own private island, and that is where everyone goes. It's a remote paradise, with everyone enjoying plenty of food, drink, and a variety of illicit substances. But Frida starts to worry when she realises that she has lost track of time, and she has no idea when, or how, she will get home.

This is an impressively bold feature directorial debut from Zoë Kravitz, who also co-wrote the film with E. T. Feigenbaum, but I have already had conversations with people who really disliked what she ended up delivering. I think, personally, that there's an important balance here between things we know to align very closely to real people and events and things that work as a bit of cinematic wish-fulfilment. If you've been reading some of the dark and depressing news headlines of the past decade then you will know who is being (not so) loosely represented onscreen, and the whole film serves as a reminder that justice still needs to be served, as well as being a conversation-starter about the behaviour, entitlement, and different perceptions of abusers and victims.

Although it feels best to start with the female cast members here, for obvious reasons, I am going to praise Tatum for his willingness to take on a role that paints him in such a bad light. He's still charming enough for most of the runtime, which helps a lot in showing the women being seduced by the combination of the setting and the company. Alongside Tatum, making up his inner circle, are Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osment, Simon Rex, and Levon Hawke, and they all do well as fellow party-goers who spend a lot of their time making sure that everyone else remains smiling and blissfully ignorant of any dark undercurrent. Geena Davis also deserves to be highlighted, with her character easily as important as either of our leads, in terms of her part in the proceedings and how she creates another big part of the post-film conversation. Ackie is the real star though, and a great lead to stick close to. She's absolutely brilliant, and the script allows her to enjoy herself for a long time before cracks start to show in the idyllic environment around her, but it helps that she's supported by Shawkat, as great as usual with her portrayal of the ride or die bestie that every woman wants in her life. Adria Arjona also does great work, and actually gets some of the best development of any of the characters, and both Liz Caribel and Trew Mullen do well to avoid getting lost in the busy mix as the party slides towards a close. 

The more carefree moments are soundtracked by the kind of tracks that go with that cool party vibe, but there's also a superb score from Chanda Dancy running throughout the whole thing, and Adam Newport-Berra keeps the visuals light and vibrant until that glow of contentment starts to disappear. I thought this worked on a couple of different levels, and Kravitz has surrounded herself with people who are able to help her walk a very tricky tightrope (including editor Kathryn J. Schubert, and all of those responsible for the whole look and feel of the luxurious playground where we spend most of our time). I know that others disagree, but that disagreement is almost as valuable as agreement with something like this. It's all about the conversation, and keeping that conversation going is one way to stop people from forgetting how these horrors keep being perpetuated.

8/10

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The Batman (2022)

Here are some things that Matt Reeves seems to really like, based on what he presents to viewers in The Batman. "Something In The Way", by Nirvana, Seven, putting a camera as close to someone as possible so you can be right beside them as they grapple hook up to a roof/BASE jump off a building/crash a car/etc, Seven, Zodiac, and . . . Seven. Oh, and shots of people riding motorbikes. If you took out every moments of someone riding a motorbike here than you might have a film that would clock in at a much more reasonable runtime, instead of the hefty three hours we get.

Here's the story, boiled down to essential elements. Batman (Robert Pattinson) is being given the runaround by Riddler (Paul Dano), a criminal determined to expose the secrets of Gotham City. As he tries to get information from the underworld that essentially rules Gotham, Batman deals with Penguin (Colin Farrell), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and is helped in his investigative work by James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz). People are placed in deathtraps, forced to admit to their weaknesses and crimes, and a whole master plan is in place, with the Riddler moving pieces around the city, perhaps including the Batman himself.

There's a lot to like here, a lot that is easy to enjoy if you're a fan of Batman (and so many people are). Despite the darkness of the colour scheme, it's often a visually impressive film. The score is decent, although hampered by those that have come before it, and Reeves and Peter Craig have crafted a screenplay that attempts to provide a perfect mix of the cerebral and the visceral. The biggest problem is how often it defers to past movies, be they other Batman movies, Seven/Fight Club/Zodiac, or Taxi Driver (you could say that the entire finale of this film shows a real rain coming along to wash away the scum).

The pacing of the film is helped by the action set-pieces. They're generally of a high standard, although that close-up camera trick spoils a number of moments, and it's good to see consistency in the way Batman uses skill, strength, and confusion to take on groups of henchmen. There’s nothing new here, and it would be nice to have a Batman/Bruce Wayne who isn’t wrestling with his own guilt and self-doubt for a while, but it is given, for the most part, a decent makeover. I didn’t personally like the reinterpretation of the Riddler, nor do I think a tiresomely inevitable cameo bodes well, but it all works within the film that Reeves set out to deliver.

The cast are, by and large, almost perfect. Pattinson has to be a bit too dour as Wayne, although he doesn’t spend a lot of screentime without the mask and cape on, but he really suits the Bat attire, and has a good voice that doesn’t wander too far towards Bale-growl territory. Dano is disappointingly underused, seen largely through phone screens and computer monitors, but his performance is excellent, and he is allowed to believably posit himself as someone much smarter than everyone around him. I have seen people say that Farrell is also underused, but I think his character is crucially involved in a number of moments that help him make an indelible impression. Wright is a perfect choice for Jim Gordon, and Kravitz stands out as the best Catwoman since Michelle Pfeiffer played the role so memorably back in Batman Returns (I like Anne Hathaway, I just don’t think she was as good when asked to portray this particular character in The Dark Knight Rises). Strong, athletic, smart, sexy, and believing she has extra lives to make use of, Catwoman is once again a very believable and viable yin to Batman’s yang (get your mind out of the gutter), and Kravitz is perfect for the role. Turturro makes a great Falcone, the criminal kingpin who controls so much of the city, and the famous Alfred is played this time around by Andy Serkis. As good as he is in the role, Serkis has to play a character who is basically forgotten, aside from a few small scenes, which feels strange in a film with so much runtime to fill.

The good far outweighs the bad, and a lot of that is thanks to the canny casting, but it’s sometimes hard to view this favourably when it constantly indulges in such obvious plundering and cannibalism. The ending feels especially dull, and familiar, considering how it basically turns a great villain into a sad totem for . . . well, just wait and see for yourself what you think of the “grand finale” and big reveals.

This is a good way to reconfigure the character (although it would have been nice to not keep referring to dead parents as a main plot point again), and I was surprised by how much I didn’t care for the runtime as things moved from one impressive sequence to the next, but it still doesn’t quite equal the best of the Bat-flicks. It’s very good though, despite the flaws.

8/10

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