let's talk about blink twice (2024)
trigger warning: sexual violence
This year, for National Cinema Day, I decided to go and watch Blink Twice at the cinema. Being a direct commentary on Jeffrey Epstein’s Island, Blink Twice details a story of an island being owned by tech billionaire Slater King which he utilises to sex traffic and abuse women, removing the memory of it with a perfume made from a flower local to the island. As main character Frida’s best friend suddenly disappears off the island after being bitten by a snake and no one has any memory of her but Frida, her and other island girl Sarah go on a quest to get justice for the hundreds of abused women and free themselves from sexual violence. I struggled to form a coherent opinion on it after watching due to the conflicting elements that I found awful and great; here are my thoughts.
Before watching, I saw online comparisons of the film being the baby of Don’t Worry Darling, Saltburn and Get Out. Whilst I can’t comment on Get Out as I haven’t seen it yet, I can certainly see where these comparisons are stemming from. Director Zoë Kravitz delves into the breach of female autonomy alike to Don’t Worry Darling and she pairs it with the cultish, concerning behaviour of the ultra wealthy alike to Saltburn. I would also say it has the Saltburn effect of trying to provide commentary on a serious societal issue and missing the mark.
Before the film begins to play in cinemas, a trigger warning plays, warning the audience against depictions of abuse of power and violence, including ‘sexual violence’. Personally, before Blink Twice, I had never seen a film in cinemas with a trigger warning, and I applaud it post It Ends With us after the mess of people going to watch the film and having no idea that the source material tackles domestic violence, most likely due to the film’s poor and insensitive marketing. However, I think the trigger warning missed out one key adjective - ‘graphic’.
For me, depictions of rape and sexual violence in film usually doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable as I find it easy to separate the real from the unreal, but Blink Twice was far from my normal. Upon arriving on Slater King’s (Channing Tatum) island, the women in the film are all gifted matching white dresses, adorned with a sweet and girlish bow on the back. We see an image of the women frolicking around the island, encapsulating a sense of innocence and youth as they laugh and they smile. This is then juxtaposed with the actuality of the situation as these girls are running away from men who are chasing them to rape them brutally. Girls are tied up and audibly screaming in pain. It is a horrific display of suffering. The other of these awful two scenes is found in a dark room, where the women are tied up and are being sexually assaulted in a line, all in front of each other.
Watching this made me question who exactly were these scenes for? As much of this film is supposed to be empowering for women, who wants to watch women being hurt in this way? I understand that the issue of sexual violence needs to be confronted (and bluntly) but is showing it this dark productive? I don’t particularly believe that movies need to be educational in some way. We all loved Barbie because it was introspective and raw about the female experience, yet it only really tackled base-level feminism. Blink Twice isn’t educating anyone about the horrors of sexual assault at all and the film isn’t entirely serious in nature, so why are these scenes included without a proper trigger warning? It is counterproductive and it feels like it was done purely for shock value.
Despite this, there were certain elements of this film that I really did enjoy. This film being Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut is surprising to me because she just got it. The men in the film are invasive and the directing reflects that; sound effects are heightened, the multiple uses of close up shots of Frida (Naomi Ackie) and the symbolism of colour to make the situation seem surreal when in reality it’s what women face all of the time. The film even begins with a close up shot of Frida on the toilet. I felt as if I was invading her privacy and personal space as an audience member, making the film even more disturbing.
The cast also did a fantastic job. When I think of Channing Tatum, I think of his roles in She’s The Man, Magic Mike and Free guy, which are all extremely far from the psychopathic tech billionaire Slater King. I saw a clip of him speaking about how he is never put up for roles like this, so I’m hoping and praying that he can continue to do work similar to Blink Twice because he truly aced it. All of the cast exceeded my expectations with their performances.
However, I can not say the same for the script. It was definitely poorly-written, making me believe that Kravitz is definitely a better director than she is writer. Some aspects of the narrative also felt juvenile to me and were feeding into overdone film tropes; the snake venom, the perfume, the therapist being in on the crimes. The only plot twist that really surprised me was the fact the Frida had been at the island before.
For the ending of the film, it initially really confused me. Why would she save Slater King after everything he inflicted upon her again? Upon thinking about it, I realised it was foreshadowed when Frida said in the beginning ‘success is the best revenge’. Everything that happens in the film seems ridiculous; they are forgetting their memories because of perfume, they remembered their memories because of snake venom, he is a billionaire in therapy so he would never do that! When a woman comes forward about sexual assault against a public figure, we see time and time again the people supporting the accused trying to disprove the victim and refusing to listen. Johnny Depp and Amber Herd. Melanie Martinez and Timothy Heller. Slater King would have access to the best lawyers in the business, whilst Frida would struggle financially with legal fees. Taking over his empire is the success, therefore being the best revenge in her situation.
This whole film is about the trials and tribulations of being a woman, and how we have to operate in a society that doesn’t aid us. The title of the film is a direct link to a line Frida says to Slater King’s therapist; ‘blink twice if I’m in danger’. Whilst women can come together and hold strength together, complicity and misogyny will always prevail. Overall, I think that this film definitely does have flaws in ways certain things are shown, but does show an experience which is unfortunately very real. If sexual violence doesn’t trigger you, I would say go watch it.