LWLies 104: The Blink Twice issue – Out now!

If you believe the trade pub­li­ca­tions, then 2024 is a desert when it comes to big tick­et movie releas­es. To that we say: pop­py­cock. There’s qual­i­ty there for the tak­ing if you’re will­ing to take a moment and seek it out. Case in point: Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice, a sun-bleached par­ty movie set in a trop­i­cal vil­la with booze and drugs on tap in which cor­dial­i­ties between the gen­der-split atten­dees break down in the most spec­tac­u­lar way pos­si­ble. It’s a show­case for Lon­don­er Nao­mi Ack­ie, who plays Fri­da in the film, a food ser­vice work­er who man­ages to place her­self in the sight­lines of the dash­ing tech mogul Slater King (Chan­ning Tatum). Ini­tial­ly, Fri­da is a ball of ner­vous excite­ment who can’t believe her luck, as she and her bestie Jess (Alia Shawkat) are sip­ping cock­tails on a pri­vate jet, head­ed to a mys­te­ri­ous yet lux­u­ri­ous destination.

It’s hard to place Blink Twice into a spe­cif­ic genre, as it touch­es on ele­ments of so many. At one minute it’s an antic com­e­dy about female friend­ship; then it’s a roman­tic dra­ma as Slater seems to be try­ing to woo Fri­da; but then there are quite a few ele­ments sug­ges­tive of occult hor­ror, espe­cial­ly the omi­nous yel­low snakes that con­stant­ly slith­er around the estate. Yet it ends up being all of those things and more, coa­lesc­ing into some­thing that’s raw, polit­i­cal and provocative. 

So of course, we’re thrilled to be pre­sent­ing this to you as the cov­er film of issue 104 of Lit­tle White Lies, one in which we chart the tonal bal­anc­ing act involved in bring­ing the pro­duc­tion togeth­er, as well as offer­ing a wider cel­e­bra­tion of women in the film indus­try. We speak to Kravitz, Ack­ie, co-star Adria Arjona, along­side pro­duc­er Bruce Cohen who col­lec­tive­ly tell us the sto­ry of how Blink Twice came together.

On the cover

We’re proud to show­case the work of Leeds-based artist Sarah Mad­den, who has cre­at­ed a gor­geous por­trait of Nao­mi Ack­ie as Fri­da. The con­cept of the cov­er trans­mits the character’s ini­tial joy at being accept­ed into this set, and the snakes rep­re­sent the var­i­ous dan­gers she encoun­ters on her dis­com­bob­u­lat­ing and trau­ma­tis­ing journey.

Also in the issue, we have new illus­tra­tion work from Car­oli­na Altavil­la, Eloïse Héri­ti­er, Eve Lloyd Knight, Hazel Mason, Agnès Ricart, Katie Scar­lett, Stéphanie Sergeant and Nick Tay­lor.

In the issue

Burn­ing Down the House
A con­ver­sa­tion with Blink Twice direc­tor and co-writer Zoë Kravitz on craft, cast­ing and embrac­ing discomfort.

Beau­ty and the Beast
Leila Latif has a nat­ter with one of our favourite actors on the block (and star of Blink Twice), Nao­mi Ackie.

The Out­rages
Lau­ra Ven­ning explores the valu­able cin­e­mat­ic art­works that have been born on the back of the #MeToo movement.

Chan the Man
Han­nah Strong’s heart­felt per­son­al ode to her even­tu­al lov­ing accep­tance of the actor Chan­ning Tatum.

Fear Fac­tor
2024’s biggest break­out star, Adria Arjona, on how act­ing is about over­com­ing your deep­est fears.

The New Roman­tic
David Jenk­ins chats to British film­mak­er and actress Alice Lowe about the mak­ing of her for­mi­da­ble Timestalker.

Dou­ble Threat
An expan­sive, 50-film chronol­o­gy look­ing back at the his­to­ry of films direct­ed by female actors.

In the back section

Face-to-face with Kneecap
Rōgan Gra­ham hopped on an ear­ly morn­ing flight to Belfast to chat to the stars of of Kneecap – a music biopic that’s actu­al­ly good.

Moin Hus­sein
Sky Peals is one of our favourite British indies of 2024, and Rafa Sales Ross chats to its writer/​director about its inno­v­a­tive depic­tion of loneliness.

Car­ol Kane
A leg­end of Hol­ly­wood final­ly gets to play the lead in the great Between the Tem­ples, and so Nick New­man cel­e­brates the occa­sion with a long and wind­ing chat.

Shuchi Talati
Girls Will be Girls offers a fresh spin on the time­worn teenage love sto­ry, and so Leila Latif meets its mak­er to talk about cap­tur­ing inti­ma­cy and eupho­ria on screen.

Obit­u­ary

Shel­ley Duval
One of the great all-time screen actors passed as we were near­ing our press dead­line, yet we made room for Sophie Monks Kauf­man to hon­our her achievements. 

In review

Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap
Fran­cis Ford Coppola’s Mega­lopo­lis
Alice Lowe’s Timestalk­er
Moin Hussain’s Sky Peals
Sean Wang’s Dìdi
Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendy’s Kensuke’s King­dom
Marie Mire’s Clan­des­ti­na
Justin Lerner’s Cadi­jo Blan­co
Naqqash Khalid’s In Cam­era
Daniel Kokotajlo’s Starve Acre
Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing
Nathan Silver’s Between the Tem­ples
Azazel Jacobs’ His Three Daugh­ters
Coralie Faraget’s The Sub­stance
Wei Shujun’s Only the Riv­er Flows
Shuchi Talati’s Girls Will Be Girls
Mayram Moqadam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s My Favourite Cake
Nora Fingscheidt’s The Out­run
Cata­ri­na Mourão Astrakan 79
Cédric Kahn’s The Gold­man Case

Plus, Matt Turn­er selects six key home ents releas­es for your con­sid­er­a­tion; and Mari­na Ash­i­oti hails the queer eco-cyber para­ble Fresh Kill as it turns 30 for her Sticky Gold Stars column.

LWLies 104 is avail­able to order now from our online shop. Become a Club LWLies Gold Mem­ber or sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss an issue.