Zoë Kravitz did her big one on the film Blink Twice. The psychological thriller is a directorial first for the multi-talented daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lilakoi Moon (formerly Lisa Bonet) and is not for the faint at heart, particularly as it relates to women navigating a depraved world. Do not expect this movie to be mindful, demure, or cutesy. It is very much the antithesis. It is very arresting, very uncanny, very disturbing.
Kravitz delivers a mindfuck that is urgent and a sign of the times. She invites viewers on an intoxicating journey that will sober TF outta folks by the time the movie ends—after clutching our pearls, gasping, wincing, and squirming in our seats for one hour and 42 minutes. Those who might take stranger danger and women’s issues not-so seriously might exit this cautionary tale as believers.
“I wanted to see a story that explored what might happen if women stop playing by the rules,” Kravitz shared in production notes.
“What if Eve WOKE UP and realized—the Garden of Eden is uh, kinda bullshit. And wait, actually, this place suuuucks. And wait, Adam, you also kinda suck?”
I caught up with Zoë Kravitz to discuss this concept and the origins of Blink Twice, directing for the first time, and to give her a few well-deserved flowers.
The Dope actress explores the risk in throwing caution to the wind and highlights trust as liability for women. Kravitz forces the audience to examine the ways desire and vulnerability act as a gateway for women to be preyed upon and pairs such serial moments with a killer soundtrack. The integration of 1970s banger “Young Hearts Run Free” by Candi Stanton is indeed a nod to the Age of Aquarius or rather the throwback nature of the film (think love, drugs, and hippies). The use of each song heightens each instance or hints at plot shifts toward something ominous. For example, when Rufus and Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody” drops, the women characters band together like the Sirens in Greek mythology to distract the male predators and subsequently go to war with them to save their lives. In the midst of their battle to stay alive, “I’m That Girl” by Beyoncé plays in the background. By the way, the Black girl does not get killed off in the beginning. She survives.
While there won’t be much ado on spoilers, I’d be remiss to not mention how Kravitz toys with memory and rememory at the intersection of trauma, forgiving, and forgetting. “Forgetting is a gift” is a line and resounding theme that is intricately woven into the fabric of the film that she masterfully flips on its head. Kravitz plants questions that remain with audiences well beyond the movie’s conclusion. Moviegoers will definitely trouble themselves with how society negotiates depravity, harm, restorative justice.
Blink Twice is a trigger. It is beautiful, brazen, and necessary.
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