Most critics like Blink Twice, and the reviews agree on what works: Kravitz directs with confidence, the soundtrack and cutting are sharp, and Naomi Ackie holds the film together, with Tatum, Adria Arjona and Geena Davis picked out from the ensemble. The spread is wide, though. The warmest reviews call it a tense, funny crowd-pleaser; the coolest find it hollow. The reservations cluster around the script rather than the surface. Several critics think it borrows too plainly from Get Out, that the plot is convoluted or shows its hand early, and that the film says less about wealth, power and abuse than it wants to. The strongest dissents, from Vulture and RogerEbert.com, argue it is too taken with Tatum’s image to critique him, and that it trades nuance for exploitation. Deadline calls the ending a cop-out. Even the doubters, though, tend to credit the performances and the style.
T
Total Film
14 August 2024 · Leila Latif
90*
Kravitz makes a phenomenal directorial debut with a gripping thriller that keeps viewers hooked from start to finish.
Read the full review →E
Empire
14 August 2024 · Sophie Butcher
85*
Kravitz delivers an accomplished, incisive directorial debut with a tense, Get Out-inspired thriller about coercion and cancel culture on a billionaire's island. The film is praised for its style, humour, soundtrack, and strong performances, especially from Ackie and Tatum.
Read the full review →E
Evening Standard
21 August 2024 · Maddy Mussen
85*
Kravitz's brutal and brilliant directing debut is an intoxicating, savage triumph with real style, panache, and harrowing social commentary on misogyny; Tatum is chilling in a departure from type, and the music and performances stand out.
Read the full review →L
Little White Lies
22 August 2024 · 4/4/4 · Hannah Strong
80
Kravitz's directorial debut is a gutsy thriller full of righteous fury in paradise that is angry, energetic and anchored by stand-out work from Naomi Ackie and Adria Arjona. It serves as a primal scream for any woman who has had to exist in a world that resents them.
Read the full review →R
Radio Times
★★★★ · Jeremy Aspinall
80
Kravitz makes a confident and thought-provoking directorial debut benefiting from a strong support cast and stylish visuals that deftly tease out the mystery until a furious finale reveals the sinister truth in this mind-bending mystery thriller.
Read the full review →T
Time Out
20 August 2024 · ★★★★
80
Kravitz delivers a supremely entertaining directorial debut that is a twisty-turny crowd-pleaser confident with its thrills, surprises and deftly handled sexual politics. It is intelligent, funny, gory and deeply cinematic, marking her as a storyteller of huge promise.
Read the full review →Kravitz proves herself a total filmmaker with an intimate, brash #MeToo thriller that works as both suspenseful story and feminist allegory of memory.
Read the full review →A
The AV Club
21 August 2024 · B · Brianna Zigler
77
The directorial debut is a fun, fluffy social thriller that pulls from familiar sources but remains entertaining with strong visuals and promise. It succeeds as a popcorn film focused on gender dynamics rather than nuance or deep societal lessons.
Read the full review →i
The i Paper
21 August 2024 · Christina Newland
70*
Kravitz's debut is a stylish, deeply entertaining eat-the-rich revenge thriller with strong performances from Ackie, though it moves too fast and doesn't dig as deeply into its themes as it could. The hyper-violent final act provides catharsis.
Read the full review →L
Los Angeles Times
22 August 2024 · Katie Walsh
40*
Kravitz's debut is stylish and bold with good performances but muddled in message and falters in horror execution, resulting in a hollow impact.
Read the full review →V
Vulture
19 August 2024 · Angelica Jade Bastién
30*
The film is a timid and shallow take on its eat-the-rich and #MeToo premise, too obsessed with Tatum's image to deliver meaningful critique or disrupt expectations. It fails to explore the protagonist's arc or the intersections of wealth, power, and gender effectively.
Read the full review →R
RogerEbert.com
23 August 2024 · Peyton Robinson
20*
The critic finds the film fails to engage meaningfully with its themes of power and #MeToo, resorting to exploitation and lacking nuance, though performances by Tatum and Ackie are strong.
Read the full review →F
Financial Times
22 August 2024 · ★★★☆☆ · Stephanie Bunbury
Kravitz's glossy debut is cheerfully derivative of island thrillers and eat-the-rich satires but goes for light laughs rather than damning satire. Tatum convinces as the creepy billionaire, the tone stays light and entertaining, and Geena Davis stands out in the ensemble.
Read the full review →I
IndieWire
14 August 2024 · Kate Erbland
Kravitz's directorial debut is raucous and razor-sharp, redefining the possibilities of an entertaining #MeToo thriller with a stacked cast. The film builds an effective social satire and horror hybrid that demands attention.
Read the full review →S
Sight and Sound
22 August 2024
Kravitz shows promise as a director with sharp cuts and vivid compositions, but the script is overwritten and frustratingly vague with a convoluted plot and poorly defined characters. The satirical intent is undermined by hollowness; Adria Arjona shines in a standout performance.
Read the full review →S
Slant Magazine
23 August 2024 · Ross McIndoe
The Me Too thriller borrows heavily from Get Out but shows its hand too early and never reaches similar heights, resulting in a passable but clumsy vacation read. It offers only surface-level commentary on male danger and female performance without satisfying catharsis or satire.
Read the full review →G
The Guardian
22 August 2024 · Peter Bradshaw
Kravitz's directorial debut is a propulsive but unwieldy #MeToo thriller overloaded with echoes of Get Out, Don't Worry Darling and The Menu, plus Epstein-island inspiration. It works best as a visually alluring date-night mystery but falters as a finger-wagging dissertation, with a script more interested in the male antagonist and too many unanswered questions.
Read the full review →H
The Hollywood Reporter
14 August 2024 · Lovia Gyarkye
The film is skillful but scattered as a directorial debut, with a busy narrative that stretches thin under the weight of its themes and plot points. Ackie and Arjona deliver the standout performances that focus and energize the story.
Read the full review →T
The Telegraph
22 August 2024
Kravitz's predictable directorial debut recycles the Get Out formula for the #MeToo era on a private island but gets the mechanics backwards with an inefficient, bizarre plot. Tatum is miscast as the monstrous mogul, though the film comes close to being interesting at times.
Read the full review →T
The Times
20 August 2024 · ★★★☆☆
Kravitz delivers a dazzling, slickly entertaining directorial debut that is a guttural howl of feminist rage engaging with Epstein-island implications. Ackie is astounding as the wide-eyed lead and Tatum is never better as the creepy tech billionaire.
Read the full review →/
/Film
14 August 2024 · 8/10 · BJ Colangelo
80
The critic calls it a jaw-dropping thrill ride and the biggest surprise of the year, praising Kravitz's strong narrative voice and the way the film subverts expectations with its shocking turns. They highlight the expertly assembled ensemble cast, especially the chemistry and performances that sell the film's twisted dynamics.
Read the full review →N
NME
20 August 2024 · ★★★★ · James Mottram
80
Kravitz's directorial debut is a razor-sharp, bloodcurdling thriller that blends wish-fulfilment fantasy with a disturbing tale of abuse and female solidarity. The critic praises the sharp writing, effective drip-feed of tension, strong performances especially from Ackie, and the brilliant soundtrack.
Read the full review →The review calls the directorial debut devilishly entertaining and a superbly punchy thrill ride, though somewhat glib. It singles out Kravitz’s accomplished technical craft in sound design, music, and cinematography for building tension and stylistic verve.
Read the full review →P
Polygon
23 August 2024 · Tasha Robinson
70*
The horror-thriller is blunt, obvious, and incandescently angry in its eat-the-rich message about men versus women and haves versus have-nots. It provokes recognition and righteous fury but rarely pulls its punches in a familiar story made cathartic through imagined bloody response.
Read the full review →P
Paste
27 August 2024 · 6.4/10 · Jesse Hassenger
64
Blink Twice cannot quite escape the shadow of Get Out despite making its points with force, humor, and style. The protracted twistiness often feels processed primarily through the lens of movies rather than direct experience.
Read the full review →C
Collider
22 August 2024 · 6/10 · Taylor Gates
60
The film struggles with pacing but provides refreshing twists on the #MeToo thriller. It is at its best when leaning into its dark premise of patriarchal oppression, with strong performances and gorgeous cinematography.
Read the full review →R
The Ringer
23 August 2024 · Adam Nayman
50*
Kravitz shows real chops with her eat-the-rich horror spin but the movie ultimately falls short of its lofty influences like Rosemary's Baby. It is determined to be on the right side of its topic and sidesteps the insidious contradictions that make the most unsettling thrillers work.
Read the full review →D
Deadline
23 August 2024 · Damon Wise
40*
The critic finds the premise timely and intriguing but concludes the film promises more than it delivers, leaving moral questions unresolved in a high-end genre format. He praises the strong cast, especially Naomi Ackie and Geena Davis, while noting the script takes a familiar twisty route and the ending feels like a cop-out.
Read the full review →Ordered by the weight we give each publication, then by score. Scores are normalised to 100; * means inferred from an unrated review. Summaries are ours, not quotations; follow the links for the reviews themselves. How we rate