BLINK TWICE : Tuesday 27th August 2024

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'BLINK TWICE' earlier this week, and this American psychological thriller film is Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Zoe Kravitz in her Directorial debut. The film was released last week too in the US, has so far grossed US$17M from a production budget of US$20M and has generated largely positive critical reviews. 

Here animal-themed nail artist and casual cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) works an exclusive fund raising gala event with her best friend Jess (Alia Shawcat). Frida encounters billionaire tech mogul, Slater King (Channing Tatum), who is hosting the event and who recently stepped down as CEO amid a very public apology for his past behaviour toward his employees. After their shift has finished, the pair put on their glad rags and crash the after party, where ultimately Slater invites her and Jess to join him on his private island. And so Slater and his entourage fly off to the island on his private jet.

There, Slater's assistant Stacy (Geena Davis) confiscates their phones. In attendance are Slater's friends and business associates, photographer Vic (Christian Slater), private chef Cody (Simon Rex), DJ Tom (Haley Joel-Osment), and graduate Lucas (Levon Hawke), as well as three female guests - Sarah (Adria Arjona), Camilla (Liz Caribel), and Heather (Trew Mullen). The women are treated with lavish rooms, gift bags of perfume, and a high end holiday experience, enhanced by gourmet meals, cocktails and fine wines prepared by Cody, and potent hallucinogenic drugs supplied by Vic.

Frida clashes with Sarah for Slater's attention while Jess observes lapses in her memory. Frida notices that the local workers all sport the same snake tattoo on their arm, and she has strange encounters with an older maid who doesn't speak English, yet appears to recognise her and calls her 'Red Rabbit'. Later, Rich (Kyle MacLachlan), Slater's therapist, visits and receives a gift in a red bag. During a night of partying and drugs, Jess is bitten by a non-venomous snake and later confesses to Frida she wants to leave. 

At breakfast, Frida notices that Lucas smells like the perfume the women are given. While the men are away on a fishing trip, Frida discovers a room with dozens of identical red gift bags all lined up neatly around the room on rows of shelves. She is then tricked into drinking the snake's venom from a bottle by the maid and shortly thereafter begins to remember strange events. She realises that Jess is missing, although the rest of the women do not. Alarmed, Frida investigates and learns a flower indigenous to the island capable of wiping memories has been inside the food and perfume gifted to them. Frida convinces Sarah of what is happening and gets her to drink the venom too, an antidote to the flower's effects.

The men return from their fishing trip later that afternoon, as Frida and Sarah grow increasingly agitated and concerned for their ongoing safety. The pair trick the other women, including Stacy, into drinking tequila shots laced with the venom to restore their memories. Frida sneaks into Slater's office to retrieve their phones, only to find they are out of power and out of service range. Her full memories return, revealing the men have been sexually assaulting the women and then wiping their memories using the flower. When Jess's memories could not be wiped due to the venom in her system from the earlier snake bite, they killed her. She also discovers polaroids featuring different women and men with red gift bags, revealing that Slater is inviting guests to rape people regularly and gifting them perfume to use when they are away from the island.

Frida and Sarah try to buy themselves time with varying degrees of success as Camilla and Heather's memories return, leading Camilla to stab Tom to death while Heather badly injures Vic by repeatedly slamming a marble chess board into his head, before being shot dead by Stan (Cris Costa), Slater's former US Marine security guard. Slater kills Camilla and the men take refuge in Slater's villa where Slater chastises Lucas for opting to be inactively complicit in the abuse by doing nothing to help the women. Stacy attacks Frida, preferring to be ignorant of the men’s behaviour before Frida stabs her to death. Frida runs into the woods behind the villa and is chased by Stan who catches up with her and holds her at gunpoint, but is then bludgeoned to death from behind by Sarah with a rock, who takes his gun. Cody makes his way to the woods but is shot dead by Sarah. In the villa, Lucas tries to run away but due to a trap set for Slater by Frida and Sarah, is mistakenly shot in the head. Following this, Slater traps Frida in the villa and binds her hands and gags her mouth. 

It is revealed that Frida was invited to the island the year before and experienced the same events, biting off Vic's little finger and scarring her temple when she fell against a rock before her memories were wiped. The maid had recognised Frida from her fingernails painted with red rabbits. Slater laughs off his recent apology in the media and exclaims that forgetting is better than forgiveness, before leaving to retrieve Sarah. While Slater is gone, Frida cuts through her hand bindings with a shard of broken glass, and laces his vape with the memory-erasing perfume. When Slater returns with Sarah he holds a kitchen knife to her throat, but the effects make him forget the previous events, back away from Sarah and cause him to panic upon seeing the dead and mutilated bodies strewn across the floor. Slater slips and knocks himself unconscious as the villa catches fire. The two women escape, leaving Vic to die but Frida saves Slater. 

Sometime later at a similar gala dinner as to the one that opened the film, Rich, who also assaulted Frida on the island, encounters Slater who is noticeably incoherent. It is revealed that Frida has married Slater and assumed his position as CEO, all the while drugging his vape with the flower to keep him compliant. As the event's guests congratulate Frida, Rich is apprehended by law enforcement officers.

For Zoe Kravitz Directorial debut, she has hit on a winner here proving her filmmaking talents both in front and behind the camera, leaving this Reviewer keen to see what she turns her mind to next. Here she ably ramps up the tension, leverages the suspense, throws in the occasional laugh before serving up a blood soaked ending with nods to 'The Menu' and 'Get Out' especially. Channing Tatum is right on form here as the disgraced CEO tech tycoon, and Naomi Ackie and Adria Arjona add weight and credibility through their performances too. A well crafted film, with on point sound design, a cracking soundtrack and a stacked cast of A-list talent, this film is worth searching out for the underlying messages it seeks to impart, the visual spectacle and its power to keep you talking after the credits have rolled.

'Blink Twice' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

SWEET GIRL : Monday 23rd August 2021.

With Greater Sydney still in COVID lockdown now until the end of September at least, and as a result all cinema's closed until sometime after this date, I've been reviewing over the last few weeks some the latest feature films released recently onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own home this week is the American action thriller 'SWEET GIRL' Directed by Brian Andrew Mendoza in his feature film making debut following his only other foray into film making with the 2009 short film 'The Via Monterey'. He has however, in the intervening years been kept busy with a number of Producer credits on such films as 'Road to Paloma' Directed, Co-Written and starring Jason Momoa, 'Braven' with Jason Momoa, on three episodes as Executive Producer of 'Frontier' with Jason Momoa, and the upcoming 'The Last Manhunt' Written by Jason Momoa. It will come as no surprise therefore, that this films headlining star is none other than Jason Momoa, who also takes a Producer credit here. The film was released on Netflix on 20th August and has generated mixed or average Reviews. 

The film opens up with Ray Cooper (Jason Momoa) and his wife Amanda (Adria Arjona) and their young daughter Rachel (Milena Rivero) enjoying peaceful and loving family time on a forest camping trip. Sometime later in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Amanda falls ill with life threatening cancer. Doctor Wu (Reggie Lee) comes to Ray with the great news that a soon to be available new drug will halt the cancer's progress in its tracks, which lifts his spirits considerably. Soon afterwards when there is no further news on this groundbreaking drug, Ray learns from Dr. Wu that the potentially life saving drug has been pulled off the market, due to the BioPrime CEO Simon Keeley's (Justin Bartha) new business move. Watching Keeley on a live debate on the TV with Congresswoman Diana Morgan (Amy Brenneman), Ray calls in to question Keeley live on air. He threatens Keeley, saying if he doesn't reverse his decision, that he'll personally kill him with his own bare hands. Keeley needless to say doesn't take the threat seriously and sometime shortly thereafter Amanda passes away, devastating both Ray and Rachel.

Fast forward six months and Ray one day out of the blue gets a phone call from a reporter Martin Bennett (Nelson Franklin) who tells him he can help him get justice for Amanda. After a goose chase, they meet on a subway train, having been unknowingly followed by Rachel (now played by Isabella Merced). Bennett tells Ray that BioPrime has been bribing anyone who questions their dirty deeds, including the company that made the drug Amanda needed to save her life. Before he has finished and Ray is trying to take all of this in, a hitman named Santos (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) attacks and kills Bennett. Ray fights back and as the train stops at a station, Santos stabs Ray and knocks out Rachel, leaving them both lying on the platform as he makes his getaway on the train.

Fast fast forward two years and father and daughter are living in some dead beat apartment. Ray has been keeping tabs on, and investigating Keeley in the meantime. He sneaks into a lavish charity fund raising event honouring Keeley, posing as a waiter. He eventually gets Keeley on his own with two of his bodyguards - one of which he thwarts with a CO2 fire extinguisher to the face and the other gets accidentally shot in the head when Ray and Keeley tussle with a gun. Holding a knife to Keeley throat, he questions him about the hit on Bennett and the bribes. As Keeley tells him it was the Chairman Vinod Shah (Raza Jaffrey) who signed off on all hits, Keeley is able to break free and in the ensuing fight, Ray wraps a sheet of plastic wrapping around his face and holds it tight from behind suffocating the CEO. 

Ray and Rachel need to abandon their apartment and quickly for fear of reprisals. They book into a motel somewhere outside town. Rachel, now growing increasingly concerned about her father's pursuit for revenge calls FBI Agent Sarah Meeker (Lex Scott Davis) and advises her to look into BioPrime. Early the next day two gun totting heavies break into the motel and Ray dispenses with them both, only adding to the tensions between the pair. They go on the run, and Meeker puts out an APB on Ray's car. They pull off the road up a dirt track in the snow and out of sight. The next day Ray plans to go after Shah alone, leaving Rachel behind but she convinces him to take her with him.

They ambush Shah's car and its convoy of two others carrying a contingent of bodyguards. Ray disables two vehicles using nails to puncture the tyres of one and a bulldozer to upturn the other leaving Shah's car stranded on a tree trunk that Ray had cut down earlier in the day blocking the exit from a tunnel. Santos has meanwhile arrived on the scene all guns blazing. He takes out Shah's one remaining bodyguard and as Ray tries to interrogate him in the tunnel, Shah is shot and killed by Santos who's also been following him. Ray and Rachel make a hasty retreat with Santos shooting out one of the tyres. Rachel recognises Santos as the man who attacked them on the subway train. They abandon their vehicle and steal a breakdown tow truck. Driving past a diner, they spot Santos' Volkswagen Kombi Van, and the three meet up there on neutral territory, with four Police Officers sat in a booth at the other end of the diner. Ray gets Santos to tell him his employer is Diana Morgan. Upon leaving, Santos calls after Rachel saying that they'll meet up again in Pittsburgh. 

Upon arriving in Pittsburgh, they're spotted by the FBI helicopters and a convoy of Police vehicles in hot pursuit. Ray gets out of the truck and heads into a baseball stadium where the game has just ended and the crowds are exiting. A foot chase ensues through the crowds and the FBI catch up with Ray on the roof of the stadium. As Meeker attempts to talk him down, it is revealed that Ray is in fact Rachel. It seems that Ray died from the stab wound at the subway station two years previously and since then Rachel, suffering from PTSD, has been on her own journey for her own brand of justice. She jumps off the rooftop into the river below. She is found and arrested by Meeker, and strapped down with her neck in a brace in the back of an ambulance. She successfully manages to thwart her captors, gain control of the steering wheel so crashing the ambulance and flees the scene.

Determined to finally get some form of justice for her Mum and Dad, Rachel breaks into Morgan's office. However, she is greeted by Santos and a knife fight breaks out. Rachel crashes through a window and clings to a set of scaffolds and clambers down several levels. Santos reaches her and the pair fight once again ending up in a fountain. Santos gains the upper hand by strangling Rachel under the water where she looses consciousness. The voice of her father telling her to wake up sees Rachel spring into action against an unsuspecting Santos, and this time it is she who has the upper hand repeatedly stabbing him in the chest finally killing him until the water runs red. She returns to Morgan's office and confronts the Congresswoman and secretly records her admitting she was bribed by BioPrime and ordered the hit that killed Bennett and in turn her father. Rachel boards a plane to an unknown destination and an uncertain future as the voice recording is received on Meeker's email. 

Ultimately there's nothing sweet about this sweet girl - more of a sour puss really who's hell bent on revenge at any cost for those no good conniving big pharma types who seem to have hitmen and politicians planted firmly in their very deep pockets. That said there does seem to be a screen presence between Momoa and Merced that carries the film forward, and Momoa shows that he's capable of portraying real raw emotion as well as the physical aspects of his prior big and small screen outings. The plot twist at two-thirds in adds a new dimension to the film that almost takes it into the realms of fantasy, but to get there Ray/Rachel has to climb up onto the roof of a baseball stadium, just so that he/she can jump of it (reminding me of the closing scene in 'The Bourne Ultimatum') - plllleeeease! The fight sequences are realistic and well choreographed but after the first couple of rounds it's more of the same, repetitive shoot 'em, knife 'em, kick & punch 'em fare with an eighteen year old girl winning the day against a far deadlier and more heavily armed foe, that thanks to that plot twist makes you lose all credibility in what went before. 

'Sweet Girl' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-