Blink Twice Review
Fury Basso-Davis | April 30, 2025
Blink Twice, directed and produced by Zoe Kravitz, is a psychological thriller that follows Frida (Naomi Ackie) and her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) and others after they are invited to a private island by tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum). Blink Twice follows them as strange things happen and a mystery unfurls.
The film explores how society frequently idolizes billionaires. This idolization leads to us celebrating their wealth and success while also looking past or excusing their moral failings and questionable behaviors. The movie sheds light on the dangerous consequences of putting celebrities on pedestals simply because of their financial power.
It is a story of survival and reclaiming agency over one's body. Frida’s narrative journey symbolizes a larger struggle against systems of control. As Frida navigates the forces that dominate her, her experience becomes a testament to resilience and the fight for personal autonomy.
The opening scene features a shot of a lizard in a jungle looking directly into the camera as the shot pans out. It then abruptly cuts off to Frida looking at her phone, scrolling through an app where she comes across a video of King apologizing for his behavior. Frida then looks him up and sees that he has been accused of “abuse of power” and “regrettable behavior” towards women.
Frida and Jess are cocktail waitresses working at an exclusive event where they encounter King. King and Frida seem to be immediately entranced with each other. During the event, she and King cuddle up next to each other. He invites her to his island alongside six others, Cody (Simon Rex), Vic (Christian Slater), Tom (Haley Joel Osment), Sarah (Adria Arjona), Heather (Trew Mullen) and Camilla (Liz Caribel). King's assistant and sister (Geena Davis) take their phones when they arrive, which is the first red flag. The second comes with the reveal that the clothes she and everyone else were given fit them perfectly.
Although the island seems like paradise, you can tell something is wrong.
Blink Twice is a wonderful female revenge film, but not in the usual way where the man, in this case, King, is killed, but Frida can enact her revenge differently.
On a surface level, the island seems peaceful and like everything you could wish for, but on the underbelly, it hides dark secrets. I think that this duality shows how appearance isn’t everything. All the female characters are coaxed into what seems like a dream vacation, but they realize they are trapped psychologically and physically. This makes me think about how women don’t have autonomy over their bodies, and I think it was a genius idea on Kravitz's part.
Kravitz creates a beautifully tense energy throughout the entire movie. The movie artfully portrays themes of gender dynamics in the real world, exploring how wealth can be used to influence, manipulate and exploit others, especially young women. The movie portrays how women are objectified, underestimated and trapped by misogyny that is ingrained into society.