August 23, 2024
Frida (Naomi Ackie) and Jess (Alia Shawkat) were working as waitresses during a swanky party thrown by tech mogul Slater King (Channing Tatum). Midway through the night, the girls sneaked off to change into evening gowns to mingle with the other guests. Frida successfully caught King's attention with a bad noisy fall. By the end of night, Frida and Jess accepted King's invitation to join him and his friends for a decadent adventure at his private island.
King had a secretary Stacy (Geena Davis) and a gang of older male friends included Vic (Christian Slater), Cody (Simon Rex), Tom (Haley Joel Osment) and Rich (Kyle McLachlan). Coming along with Frida and Jess were similar clueless ladies, like Sarah (Adria Arjona), Camilla (Liz Caribel) and Heather (Trew Mullen). King treated the girls all to hedonistic activities daily with generous yummy goodies, until one day, one of them went missing.
I went into this film without watching the trailer, so I totally did not know what it was going to be about. From its first act, I thought it could be a murder-mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie or "Knives Out." But as the second act went along, it became apparent that this was one of those social-experiment types of thriller films, in the tradition of "Get Out" or "Saltburn" where the protagonist was caught in a milieu which was totally out of his financial league.
This was the feature directorial debut of Zoe Kravitz, who also co-wrote the screenplay with E.T. Feigenbaum. Kravitz had a very complex story to tell, but all those side characters were really not too memorable, even if they were played by familiar actors from the 1990s. I even remember the character credited as "Badass Maid" (María Elena Olivares), her strong greenish brew and her gibberish utterances, more than any of the others.
Kravitz did succeed to make the atmosphere very uncomfortable, which was key to make this film feel like a weird, drug-induced trip. Those loud sound effects all had an startling effect that made audiences jumpy. Tatum Channing felt too slight for the role of Slater King. Oddly, it seemed that Naomi Ackie was purposely being shot in an unflattering manner (a total opposite of how pretty she was shot as Whitney Houston in "I Wanna Dance with Somebody"). 5/10
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