Plot Summary – When tech billionaire Slater King meets cocktail waitress Frida at his fundraising gala, he invites her to join him and his friends for a dream vacation on his private island

★★★★  

Watched 24 Aug 2024

This is an incredible directorial debut from Zoe Kravitz. I’ve been a pretty big fan of her acting so I was intrigued when I found out she was directing a movie. Google the original title of this movie and you’ll be even more understanding of why this piqued my interest so much.

This movie has a lot of strong ideas and does a fairly good job of tackling them. I’m really enjoying the rise of Adria Arjona as one of the movie stars of this generation because she’s impossible not to admire in this film. She was really standout in the power of her performance. Ackie and Channing Tatum are also great in this film. I got to see Channing Tatum do something completely different than anything I’ve seen him do and I thought he had a lot of fun with this character (written for him by his fiancee).

Kravitz proves to be a pretty effective director though. She’s pretty talented behind the camera as she carefully crafts the world of this movie. There are some really interesting and meticulously designed shots throughout the film and its whole shtick of dropping little clues is only effective because how well-communicated it is visually.

It’s very difficult to talk about this film without spoiling it though and I’m being pretty careful not to give anything away. This film has a very strong first act and a really thrilling third act, but I really felt the middle chunk of the film’s runtime. It felt like the film wanted to this slow reveal, psychological horror thing but it makes the reveal way too slow and the whole “small clues” thing way too bit by bit to a point where you begin to seriously question the intelligence of the characters. However, the first and third act are so strong that I largely forgave (hehe) this movie for its bloated second half, which is still pretty interesting in concept. I would recommend that you check this out, it’s a pretty fun thriller and I think especially pertinent in today’s time. More than anything, this film makes me super excited to see what Kravitz does next behind the camera.