The Scotsman

Zoe Kravitz delivers a slick horror in debut Blink Twice

Zoë Kravitz makes the transition from actor to filmmaker with Blink Twice, an entertaini­ngly slippery social horror movie that takes superficia­l aim at the super-rich to launch a sharper sneak attack on the sorry/not sorry patriarcha­l backlash against #Metoo.

The film is set on a luxurious private island owned by a billionair­e tech mogul called Slater King (Channing Tatum), who is newly emergent from the doghouse following a very public reckoning for an unspecifie­d abuse of his power. At his Met Gala-style fundraisin­g bash are cashstrapp­ed waitress and Slater obsessive Frida (Naomi Ackie) and her flatmate and fellow waitress Jess (Alia Shawkat), whogatecra­sh the afterparty. Soon enough they’re being whisked off to Slater’s island on a private jet for an impromptu holiday with his inner-circle. Here the film openly acknowledg­es their dumb horror movie behaviour, but amid the free-flowing champagne, hallucinog­ens and insane gourmet food, neither Frida nor Jess question too deeply why, say, there’s matching white swimwear and chic linen clothing readily available in the correct sizes for all the women on the trip, or why Slater’s tech-bro friends (played by Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Haley Joel Osment and Levon Hawke) seem awfully concerned that they’re are having as good a time as they are.

Kravitz – who co-wrote the script with ET Feigenbaum – is good at drip-feeding informatio­n that turns what we think we know on its head, revealing the full horror of her concept with a rug-pull or two that sends the film to some pleasingly outré places. General release

Kneecap (18) ★★

Disrupting the status quo is also at the heart of Kneecap, an inspired-by-real events comedy, directed and co-written by Rich Peppi, concerning the wild origins of the titular Belfast rap trio, whose punky attitude, fondness for coke and ketamine, anti-coloniser stance on British rule, and defiant refusal to let the English language drown out their native tongue has made them social media folk heroes as well as targets for right wing tabloids and the British government. Sadly, the film – co-written by and starring the band – straightja­ckets their story by turning it into, at best, the sort of post-trainspott­ing “YOOF culture” comedy epitomised by the clubbing film Human Traffic and, at worst, a kind of weirdly sentimenta­lised musical coming-of-age story – like Sing Street with swearing and Class A drugs. General release