The first ten minutes of this were so captivating; i genuinely forgot this video was about Blink Twice. Also , i appreciate that you say the actual word instead of just SA. I know most social media sites, TH-cam included, don’t like that, but I feel like the forced censoring of the word can lessen the impact of talking about it.
Yes! Call it out for what it is! I'm sorry words like 'rape' and 'sexual assault' are triggering for some, but at least saying these words enforce how DISTURBING and DISGUSTING these acts of violence really are.
@@KnarfStein using words such as snowflakes to talk abt victims who may not be okay with hearing abt their SA ( WHICH IS 100% FINE) UNDER a comment section of a video talking abt AGAIN SA.. Truly has to be ironic.
@@KnarfStein Absolutely idiotic. Leftists are typically feminists and stringent advocates for survivors, who are not ones to use euphemisms for the act. Harris did nothing but emulate a moderate Republican party and try to sway centrists, arguing for a stronger border and refusing to stand up for trans people or Palestinians, not addressing economic anxiety, student loans, or health care, alienating huge swaths of young people who didn't vote. Trump had 3 million less votes than last time and it still didn't matter because the Democratic party refuses to do anything that engages people or make them feel that their lives would be meaningfully different if they went to the polls.
Been waiting on a black femme to talk about this movie. I had so many thoughts most of which you illustrated here. I would add that Frieda being black carries a lot of weight in her girl boss decisions at the end. I think black women have a uniquely tenuous relationship with the concept in that we tend to be a bit less critical of black women pursuing the girl boss status considering that the alternative is far more perilous for them. On the other hand, it's still bad at the end of the day and there's a need to point that out. I was shocked and appalled at the pro genocyd response of a lot of black women on tik Tok after the election, but I was happy to see so many other black women come forward to call that out, but they also faced significant backlash for doing the right thing. This obviously came out before the election but to me the ending takes on that same conflict. Are black women allowed to be girl bosses... Obviously no. Who gonna call that out. Not my ass 😂. In that regard I wonder if we're meant to be critical of Frieda at the end. There's maybe not a lot of textual evidence to say so, but idk. As for the young dude who did nothing. I didn't see his experience as one of abuse, but solely of inaction, and then obliviousness. And while there's an argument that he doesn't deserve retribution, I think it was best to let him catch hell. I'd have been even more turned off by the film if they did a "one of the good ones" character on top of everything else.
The women would've killed him too once they got their hands on him anyways. They wanted to kill every man on that island until Frida got the idea to poison Slater's vape to save herself and Sarah
Inaction and complacency can be just as evil as taking an active role. What is that saying? I can only remember the quote from Boondocks Saints off the top of my head, "Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men."
i think Blink Twice is similar to a lot of other movies where people identify the finale as a “good for her” when in reality that is not at all what the film was going for. for example Midsommar, Pearl, and The VVitch all have similar takeaways when not analyzed in depth. i think by taking the fact that Slater doesn’t get what he deserves at face value does a disservice to the movie and blinds you from seeing that this cycle of abuse, while less intense and horrific, has just been continued in another form with Frida now in control.
kinda off topic but ty for mentioning how people call certain movies "good for her" movies when they really arent. like carrie. i hate when ppl say carrie is a good for her story.
i agree, and i also think that frida being so captivated by the idea of success and attention to the point that she will ignore her own friend’s concerns is indicative of her priorities - she would still choose the success and attention every time. i liked frida’s character but i thought that she was supposed to be read as also slightly unhinged and power-hungry, making this less of a “good for her” story and more of a “the cycle of abuse will continue” story. there’s definitely still story issues and music choices that can lead to a person thinking that it’s supposed to be a “girl boss” ending though so i understand why people would read it as such!!
@@zerocaloriedelights what could have happened to slayer for him to have “gotten what he deserves”? Frida killing him? That doesn’t help out the other victims and the world still sees him as a billionaire will potential to revitalize his image. Going to the police? We all know what would’ve came out of that.
I never thought we were supposed to be on her side. I thought the cycle didn't stop and she became a part of the problem to have the power she always wanted. I felt like the movie was a warning to what really happens when people "sell their soul" for power and "success." I thought Frida was a reflection of some women in the industry ( in a bad way ). I DID NOT see her as a girl boss at the end.
i thought she was a girlboss, and that was the point - being a survivor of abuse and oppression didn't make her immune to committing those same abuses of power.
this movie could have been really interesting if it was reframed. you dont even have to change the plot that much or at all. it could have been a movie about how solidarity between women who are victims often gets traded in to secure a bag or to climb a social ladder, how even women who are victims sometimes can weaponize their victimhood to harm other women (and often themselves). the ending is the same: becoming the enemy is a hollow victory, and the smile at the end would be terrifying rather than "satisfying".
this was the first commentary on blink twice that I've read (upon fd's rec) and agree so much. i would say that i think its a good film, i recommended it to friends and really appreciated a lot of kravitz's visual handling of the material (particularly compared to the usual rape-revenge film, which you discuss). i wasn't happy with the ending either, but i was also accepting of the fact that maybe frida is just a victim AND a corrupt woman. your thoughts get right to the underlying issue though, that maybe she is, but the framing of the last scene fails to communicate that, and without that intention, it reads as the capitalist girlboss dream. really appreciated this video!!
I didn't think the audience was meant to see the ending as good and be on Frida's side at the end? My interpretation was that we were supposed to go "Oh, Frida's selfishness makes the tools of oppression just as dangerous in her hands as they were in Kane's." I haven't rewatched the movie since i saw it in august though, so maybe i'm missing something. I completely agree about the way the movie treats the islanders, though, and i think a better movie, or perhaps a sequel, could give them a more active role, maybe dismantaling the unbalanced and exploitative use of the island's resources. The movie has flaws but i just don't think we're meant to see Frida's choices as justice.
Agree with you. I saw the ending as the cycle of abuse will continue in a different form. Money is never the solution. I wish the ending was setup differently to explore that.
Same, Frida was always very selfish and self centered, I mean she spent part of the rent on some dresses and peer pressured her friend into giving up her phone. She also didn’t ever really seem guilty about ignoring her friends concerns after discovering her missing. I also don’t think it’s a good thing that they memory-roofie the other girls instead of just convincing them to leave, slater always says that they’re free to leave so that could’ve been challenged in the daylight. I do really like this movie but I don’t feel like it a girl boss ending, at the end slater is legitimately shaking like he has nerves damage, I feel like it’s implied that Frida is hurting him as well. There’s even a muffled line where the security grab Rick and pull him aside for some mysterious reason as well, most likely for Frida’s revenge.
how the hell are the tools of oppression just as dangerous in her hands? how are traumatised women doing the best they can in a male-run society just as bad qs the people who set it up? and they didn’t build up frida’s character enough for me to buy her ‘inherent selfishness’, choosing not to reveal what had happened in order to gain power. but even if that was the case, there is no perfect victim.
13:30 she gave an interview (idk with who), where she talks about the ending and she admits that the ending is ironic in that oppressed becomes the oppressor. It's not a feel good movie and it's not meant to empower. That should be obvious because of two things; she kept Slater alive and held her own gala... She decided to continue the cycle despite being a victim herself. So in short, the idea you had about the ending was the exact point of the movie.
I need to rewatch the movie to be sure, but maybe the point could be made more obvious by having a few moments in the beginning that really stress the willingness of our protagonist to ladder climb despite morality. We only really see her break rules at work to meet a celebrity, something a lot of people might justify. But if we saw her throw a coworker under the bus or something more universally offensive but mild, it would have laid better groundwork for her now irresistible and inevitable turn as a villain.
I’m pretty sure she gets that. She wasn’t saying the ending didn’t make logical sense. The video is about how she disliked the movie as the bleak experience that it was.
Also, i'm not sure Frida expressing she feels lonely, safe and seen to Jess is gaslighting... is it a tad manipulative, maybe. Terrible instincts and bad friend? hell yeah. But not everything is gaslighting - now, had she known they were in danger and she still said that bullshir, yes, gaslighting.
i think if there were more visual or audio cues highlighting the ugliness of frida's decision in the end, it would have been clearer that it's a cynical ending not to be celebrated by the audience. jess and lucas were the true tragic figures of the movie - the plot let them down the same way frida let them down.
@@toriyt2714 sacrifice her best friend for what? it was clear that she was equally horrified by what had happened to them and wanted revenge, not power.
@@sainttheresetaylor2054 she convinced her friend to stay and not leave to not ruin this opportunity for her even though her bf was clearly in panic and unease actually she was frightened but Frida ultimately only cared about herself and opportunity to access
But isn't that the point of the movie?. I felt that the film was trying to discuss how the influence of capitalistic success co ops everything that brings justice to humans? I don't think Zoe was trying to glorify it by her decision. I think she was trying to portray the condition that we are in. And how we view that condition as pretty and glorious as long as the ends justify the means. Because a pay day. Is the only thing that makes sense to us in the current condition we find ourselves in.
I remember seeing a disgusting comment saying the lead actress “wouldn’t be a victim of rape because she’s unattractive and Black” as if Black women aren’t the most assaulted demographic in the U.S. and a make up a large amount of sex trafficked victims
When considering Frida’s ending, I saw it w/ another woman that’s an acquaintance and the first thing she said to me was, “I hate the ending, she was just as bad as the men!” That made me stop in my tracks bc how in the world was she as bad as the men? I thought of the ending as a way to subvert the justice system bc we know we can’t trust it. Even earlier in the video, Yhara includes a clip of a police officer insinuating that a SA victim “brought it on herself” thus cops and the legal system can’t be trusted to carry out correct justice. Who was the judge that said, “that shouldn’t dictate his future” when referring to a young man that brutally r*ped a young woman? So I saw Frida’s enslavement of King as insurance, so that he couldn’t just get away w/ it like he did before time and time again. And it’s a lil bit since I’ve seen the movie but the ending scene was for a charity of hers, right? And lastly, I really really agree w/ everything Yhara said about Lucas. THAT was the biggest issue w/ the ending that I had, was he a victim or was he complacent and if he was both, why kill him off by the hands of the women?! So confusing! Love this vid 🩵
This was such a fantastic video! Also I’m so glad you talked about Lucas, I was really surprised by how Kravitz chose to characterize him. The scene where slater “calls out” Lucas always rubbed me the wrong way becuz throughout the film I thought it was pretty obvious that Lucas was also a victim.
@@Belihoneyyea I thought so too. Like what happens with so many young boys and men in the entertainment industry… they’re abused and go on to become abusers or complacent in the abuse of others. I read this study about how frat boys who go through violent hazing will over value the benefits of acceptance in the group over the harm they’ve experienced so their minds can come to terms with the trauma. It seems the pursuit of class mobility and power cause the same behaviours
@@sainttheresetaylor2054 It's really hinted at. He is a guest, he uses the perfume along with the women, and he forgets everything. He has bruises along with the women. During the violent scenes, he is terrified. Slater says he did nothing for himself or the women.
I was surprised a lot of ppl didn’t like the ending. A survivor choosing the money and power, especially when she speaks about always wanting power, instead of pseudo “justice”. The crime probably couldn’t have even been proven since Channing Tatum didn’t even remember it and the other perpetrators were dead. If she didn’t choose the money/power then she would’ve went back home to her shitty apartment with nothing but the memories of her abuse,
I think that's the problem with the ending, it's individualistic. It implies that after all these women team up to kill their abusers (most of them also dying in the process) the primary survivor does nothing to honor their sacrifice or the truth of her own experience. Instead she keeps the most powerful abuser alive so she can siphon his wealth and power for herself. It's only a victory for HER, it's the exact opposite of solidarity.
@ what could she have done to honor them? U think if she went to the police as a poor black woman and said the rich white man did these horrible things with no proof that anything would’ve came out of it? Or would killing him have sufficed which would have not benefited her in the slightest? Going back to her broken apartment with less money than before and now traumatized. It’s very reminiscent of the real world where it’s expected for the black woman to take on all the pain and suffering as a courtesy to everyone else on top of her own with no complaints instead of putting herself first and doing something selfish to benefit her.
Lucas is also killed in the end as a direct result of trying to help the women. Even if he was complicit before, the message seems to be “it actually is too late to do the right thing, trying to help victims will be pointless and get them to attack you”
The charitable reading of it, is that Lucas is an actual victim and Slater is just gaslighting him, and him catching a stray/friendly fire is in contrast with how Stacy is actually complicit but the girls mistakenly think she's a fellow victim, and when people talk about abuse it's common to reduce it to a strict binary that sometimes throws male survivors of abuse under the bus, while expecting solidarity from women who actually have none.
I got the vibe that it's sorta supposed to be gross. She is now continuing the cycle of abuse that was inflicted onto her. oftentimes that's exactly what happens in reality. At first it seems like a win until you realize the cycle never ends. I didn't get that immediately though, I had to look into others ideas about it too understand and come to that conclusion. Zoe Kravitz did a wonderful job with this movie
I’m glad you shared your take on this. I remember sitting in the theatre and feeling something was off as the film came to an end. I wanted to root for this film’s protagonist, but couldn’t fully get behind her. You succinctly hit the nail on the head about several issues here. What message is the film trying to send its viewers? Should women aspire to financial upward mobility over believing each other, and protecting our closest friendships and strong communal bonds? And who among us is allowed to be put down or sacrificed, vs. who is not? The loss of the protagonist’s best friend is so insidious, because for much of the movie, the characters and viewers don’t even realize she’s gone. And after her loss, how is she remembered or canonized? How are other women protected, so that the same losses don’t take place for others? Also, your views about the character Lucas were illuminating. I hadn’t considered him much at all, but he was also a victim, which I think touches on the ultimately damaging aspects of males as they matriculate through patriarchy. It’s striking, how flawed and contradictory the film’s messaging is, but how it also tries to speak for women. Thank you for shedding light on it all.
I can't say I was completely satisfied with the ending, but I liked that it was different from something like I Spit On Your Grave. I wouldn't be surprised if Frida convinced herself that going to the police wouldn't bring accurate justice and everyone involved isn't guaranteed punishment by law, especially if they give information that grants immunity or a lesser sentence. As someone that has watched men in poverty get away with crime, I can only imagine what the 1% are up to. With how powerful the men seemed to be, who knows if it would have even gone to trial. I don't think it's entirely accurate to compare Jess trying to help Frida versus Frida not helping Stacy though. Jess and Frida were unknowingly drugged to where their decision making became heavily impaired and at that point no one was remembering anything entirely so though Jess was right, Frida wasn't wrong either because she was glamoured, but she did listen and tried to save the other girls once her and Sarah realized what was going on. Stacy was not only a willing participant, but tried to kill Frida first and if we're going to hold Frida to the same standard, we would have to look at Stacy and how much she let carry on and would continue to let carry on as long as she was drugged into forgetting and Frida successfully disappeared. Stacy knew of the dangers and could have been a victim herself, but there's no indication of that nor did she try to help take down Slater, even when the opportunity became apparent. I'm kinda tired of the stigma/pressure that survivors are solely responsible for pushing justice in order to prevent further victimization. Yes, you should report that you were assaulted, but that should be for you first and the future second. In the end you mentally have to be ready for the scrutiny you're going to receive if charges are pressed and I can understand it being a lot. It also has to be understood that the Justice system is a dice roll so you never know even when you're sure you do. How is Frida going to think so far ahead when she just experienced her trauma multiple times over, realized what happened and watched people go tragically within hours? At that point, you're kinda screwed either way and I think some people miss that there's no triumph in any direction other than to heal how you can. Some people may not like that and that's fine, but it's also life. Frida's now a willing participant within her Stockholm Syndrome, but one thing that could be said is though she didn't go to court, she also didn't continue on like Stacy who knew far more than her and who knows how long. I think whoever finds her a hero or bad person could be projection of morals. There are no perfect victims, but they're still surviving their trauma like any other victim. As far as Lucas goes the movie is already explaining it to us through presentation. Slater is manipulative, gaslit Lucas into confusion and questioned his character in order to continue improper actions, hence why he simply sighed when Lucas was shot. Slater lightly warned Lucas not to go near the door, but Lucas being so terrified could only think of running from the realization of who the monster is and unfortunately became a casualty. Sarah didn't know who would be at the door let alone if he were a real ally, especially with all the chaos. Lucas is a victim in many ways and we could branch out into discussing male victims, but there's still something to be said about those who genuinely know what's going on and do nothing like people around Diddy or R. Kelly and that's where the focus should be on in that regards. I think the point is to question everything and infer, but we do have to ask the right questions when we do. If Frida went to the police, what would be the odds everyone would feel justified? Investors now go rogue, the IRS is involved and now you have a target on your head for possibly making people lose money or worse. You can consider her being part of the problem by staying quiet and collecting a check and that's fair, but I definitely wouldn't be mad at it. We always want reparations in a nice neat box, but sometimes that box is empty.
Ugh thank you! I watched this during an early screening, and i couldn't get behind the girlboss-ification of her trauma. It felt like trauma (c)orn at a point that so many people swept into the trope of female rage.
I liked the ending. It takes in consideration the fact that when you are a victim of rape, if you try to seek help or official justice, you will be mocked, humiliated, called "hysterical" or "paranoid", and it might destroy your life as weel as your family's. Speaking from experience. I wish I had never tried to report a rape and instead got revenge by myself in silence. It is the smarter things to do in today's world. Maybe one day, but I don't have any hope on this, it will be smartest to seek justice, but today it is NOT. And pretending it is is just participating in putting all the victims in more danger. I say that as someone who, once, was all about social contract, but undrstand now it is just a facade for a country to appear superior to others because citizens don't, in the end, get the rights they are supposed to get by obeying to the law. And those who break the law in the most awful ways are those who always get away with it.
My heart goes out to you. I made the immensely demoralizing mistake of attempting to pursue a disciplinary case against my r*pist in college. because I made the mistake of being assaulted in a slightly ambiguous way, the case did not work out in my favor (nothing like having to write a five paragraph essay about how reporting your assailant was a violation of your school's code of conduct). One of the only things that I can make my peace about is that it was the second time he had been reported to the folks that handled sexual misconduct cases on campus so when a third case was brought up against him later on he finally got the school was kind of like "...okay yeah this young man appears to have a pattern of sexually assaulting his classmates so while we STILL WON'T EXPEL THE FUCKER we will give him heavy disciplinary sanctions that would make it very hard for him to continue to attend this institution"
I'm glad somebody's bringing attention to this movie, I consider it to be the Stepford's Wives movie our time because it was able to do what Don't Worry Darling couldn't Given everything that has come out about Diddy and Epistein's Island. This movie is very relevant 👌
something i did appreciate about this movie was that it addressed the assault and abuse as exactly what it was, something don’t worry darling was afraid to do once they cast harry styles as the lead. and yeah, i’ve been unable to stop thinking about this movie since everything that’s come out about diddy and gisele pelichot’s trial.
Would LOVE to hear your thoughts on The Nightingale (2018). It's often left out of conversations on rape revenge movies, and I wish there was more discussion about it.
Is it possible the ending is another critique? She gets what she wants, but it’s not justice-it’s money, fame and power? I think most people see that as a win. But should they? Somebody ask Ms. Kravits. Really good video though!
When it came to the ending, I loved it since she was able to indulge in some of the best cathartic revenge I've ever seen. Justice can take many forms, and I feel like her not only torturing slater for the rest of his life while also becoming rich, is not a bad resolution. It's not the best, but I don't feel right to say that the way she dealt/is dealing with her abuser is wrong. many people wish the worst on their abuser, she just happens to also gain from it. That i can't be mad at.
i didn't think that the movie was trying to tell us that the ending is good tbh. it seemed to me like it was showing us the cycle of abuse and that we weren't supposed to think frida got a happy ending in any way, i interpreted it as a bad ending because there's no justice for anyone
I saw the ending of Blink Twice as posing the question: Why play fair in an unfair system? Frida, being in the position she's in, couldn't really count on the justice system standing by her in ensuring that rich man got justice. Why would she risk martyring herself for the small chance of justice being served, when she can have her own form of justice. One that doesn't include her going through all of that, just to be exactly where she was before, scraping by to survive for a second time.
this is a great video!! i really enjoyed this movie, mostly for the reasons you disliked it! i found everything with frida, including how self serving she is, to be like...purposeful and the point, which is why i liked it. frida is not a kind person! even her early interaction with jess where she scolds her bff for "giving up her power" was nasty. even during the gala after learning to walk from jess she starts to ditch her friend with her eye on the prize before she tripped and fell. i think, narratively, frida does believe the things she says about "believe women" and everything else, but not above herself. its why jess is so easily forgotten. i even think the framing of the island workers/natives plays into this. but i dont disagree with any of your criticisms of the film tho. especially the point about lucas (tho part of me looks at it as frida wouldnt view him that light but that may be too charitable on my part). and yeah...after the election this movie does hit very differently.
You're in good company. I liked the movie for the same reasons she was critiquing lol! Let's just all agree calling the movie "Pussy Island" like Zoe Kravitz intended was a TERRIBLE idea!
All of this! Kravitz has also said the ending is open to interpretation for however the viewer feels which I think is important to note. My biggest criticism is the character of Lucas, but my main overall takeaway is I cannot wait to see Kravitz’s next film. (I also think P*ssy Island is the best title for the film it is!)
@@starcherry6814 omgg yes! I’m so glad she chose the name ‘blink twice’ rather than ‘pussy island’. I feel like ‘blink twice’ is a much better title and the latter just felt unnecessarily crude and lazy.
9:20 - that's part of why Promising Young Woman was so astounding, the scene under discussion was purely seen by reaction, which keeps the focus on how horrible it is
My theory is that Lucas was not brought on the island and groomed to be abused, but to become an abuser. The older men wanted to "show him a good time" and and maybe collect some blackmail on someone who was gonna be powerful in the future. He did not want to partake in the abuse of the woman on the island, but felt to dependent on or indebted to the other, older men he looked up to stop it. Caught in this situation and torn between his empathy and his selfish desire to stay next in line for the top of the hierarchy, he discovered what the perfume can do and used it to "selfmedicate" and forget his dilemma. Which is why I think he deserved his ending. Whether or not the film objectifly has enough evidence to support this theory is up to discussion. But for me it makes a lot of sense with his ending and slaters final speech to him. Dare I say, with this theory in mind I found Lucas to be an interesting character and empathized with him.
The thing about the workers/people/residents on the island...I was so angry cause I was like 'oh it's going to be like a twist...they are under some kind of spell or drug of their own.' because I thought there was no way they could actually be that way in a movie in 2024...just like these silent people that smile and serve. I don't know if that's my place to say that as a white lady....but I have adopted sisters of west Asian descent and as a result it's weird....my mum and dad go to places all over and I've been to some...and the people are of course beautiful but they also HAVE to be cheery and their survival depends on going above and beyond with acts of service. It might have been a cool opportunity to make some kind of comment on that...but they're just seen like westerners see these people...just kind of flat smiling people there to serve. Right down to where they just smiled when she asked 'where am I supposed to go?' . A luxury island is a perfect place for dirtbags like that to exploit their workers. You don't have to make a comment about EVERYTHING in your movie but it was RIGHT there.
My (too charitable) reading of Lucas' treatment is that he's getting gaslit by Slater and that even women don't take male victims seriously sometimes. Even when all the signs are there that he's not "one of the boys", it's just assumed he should have done more because he's a man. He's not a perfect victim, so he's not a victim at all. But if that did happen to be what they were going for, the execution is not great. They should have leaned more obviously into cynicism, like you said.
It reminds me of the entire episode of Outlander that shows the rape of the male lead. I could not keep watching the show after watching it. Yet I know many women who love that show, but see no issue with a 45 minute prison rape.
It’s interesting because I took the ending just as that, cynical and that it’s a cycle she can benefit from. She chose personal revenge, not justice. When she pulled him out the fire, I thought it was showing how they have trauma bonded and how sometimes women will protect/forgive their abusers until I saw the ending. I sort of thought the point was to be a not feel good ending (maybe cuz I didn’t feel good about the ending lol) given Frida has been shown to prioritize herself constantly. But hearing your perspective I can see how it’s suppose to be shown as a good “girlboss” ending instead of a dark one.
Great video!!! Though the SA scene wasn't as bad as in the films you've mentioned I think it didn't need to be that graphic. I find problematic when the most uncomfortable and brutal scene is the SA instead of the revenge ones
You're one of the few, maybe only, youtubers I would trust to review this movie and the genre as a whole. Thanks for educating me on the topic and confirming my instincts to not see the movie. I am going to watch it at some point, but with the additional context you've provided.
I 100% agree with you especially about the ending, though I didn’t hate it, leaving me with kind of bad taste in my mouth for the same reason you stated, it felt disjointed. The mishandling of Lucas that to me appeared to be victim and it wasn’t properly clarified what his roles was, plus they sort of already told that plot line with the manager who wanted to forget. The injustice for Jess who got no retribution from presumably close friend comes across as callous by the ending. You can’t stick a girl boss narrative in an abuse story, it doesn’t mix. I will say I think both titles are good but I’m someone who only saw the trailer. However the elements I did enjoy were the subtle hints of losing time and misplaced or new items and the build up to the main event. I just wish it had better resolution to the entire story.
The Lucas subplot is so strange. I could see it working if his character was shown maybe turning away from the assaults happening and trying to make excuses to himself on why he couldn't do anything to stop it (losing his position in that society for one), but showing him actively putting himself in harm's way to stop the assaults and then getting drugged to forget makes no sense if the message is about complicity. Also only using the native people of the island as a plot device sucks so much when their way of life has been obliterated by people like Slater and will continue to be so even after his loss of power.
I feel like Frieda being black and the girl bossification of her trauma are linked. We don't let black women just sob and grieve the things that were done to them in fiction. Instead there's this thing where they have to be badass and strong even when white women who've had the same things happen to them don't have to be. The end result is that we can't have Frieda show the very real PTSD she'd be experiencing after all of this or have her manipulate the rich man out of his money but retreat into seclusion or anything else that would be a very normal, human response to trauma. She doesn't get to be treated like a normal human by the narrative. She has to be the Strong Black Woman trope, and for reasons I will never understand, people think 'strong' and 'has trauma' are mutually exclusive.
I think I disagree with your criticism of the ending, at least partially. My first reaction was also that Slater King's punishment doesn't match his crime. But thinking about it, if Frieda had left him in the burning building that would not be a happy ending. How is she supposed to get off the island? And if she does, how is she supposed to convince the authorities she isn't guilty of killing these rich and powerful men and burning the evidence? Unfortunately, I think Frieda controlling King with the same memory loss perfume was the only way she could have safely gotten off the island. Ultimately I don't see Frieda as selfish for inheriting King's empire because I'm not sure she had another choice. If so wants to survive she can't kill him, at least not right away, but she also can't let him go. So making him her slave might have been the best thing she could have done. Personally, the capitalist nature of the ending doesn't really bother me because the film isn't really trying to talk about capitalism. Tech CEOs are bad regardless of their gender, but for this film I don't think the ending contradicts what it was trying to say or achieve, so I see it as more of a philosophical disagreement I have rather than as a flaw with the film. It might have been better if the film had tackled the ways in which capitalism and patriarchy are intersected, but that might also make it more difficult to tell a focused story with a strong, singular theme. But maybe I'm wrong about that, I can at least see your point here. I was also unsettled by the final scene but for different reasons. Frieda keeping her abuser around her, even if he is subservient, seems like a really emotionally brutal thing to put yourself through. Ultimately, I really liked the film even if I have a couple nitpicks.
What happens to Sarah? Also, I assumed that one of the reasons Frieda took over Slater’s life was that she intended to get revenge on the men that frequented the island. That’s what I got from her interaction with Rich.
Thank you for saying this!! I kept thinking that the part about being a white male billionaire with a private island was enough to warrant revenge from a woman like Frieda. We didn’t need the graphic depiction and/suggestion of assault. Also it really bothered me that a female director wouldn’t include details that would truly be horrifying to experience if so much time was passing without realizing it- like your hair or nails or bikini line growing out, getting your period etc, there could have been more tactile ways to show how traumatic it would be to be held against your will for such a long time without your knowledge.
I’m glad you mentioned how bizarre the treatment of Lucas is. A general rule of thumb I’ve noticed is that if your grand, feminist revenge movie, created by women and starring women etc etc starts veering into…questionable commentary and portrayals of male victims, then keep an eye out because you’re probably gonna be subjected to some victim blaming logic bullshit.
I think the ending was meant to be unnerving. I think we’ve seen the ‘justice’ type ending before and Zoë chose not to go in that direction. Having a black woman as the lead does add a different dynamic to the story, I think. It makes me wonder what really happens to a black woman on an island full of dead rich white men? The ending feels like it's asking which is more valuable. Justice or reparation?
Thankyou for making this!!! I actually watched this film with my Mum (I was surprised she wanted to watch) and when we left the cinema she was in awe of Kravitz and felt vindicated by the ending. I said from the jump it screamed girl boss feminism and we went back and forth over this for so long. Kravitz '"feminism" is very Hilary 2016 and points to the limitations of identity politics. If a woman/queer person/poc is at the top (irregardless of what they are on top of or what they do within that position) then everyone is winning.
The ending doesn't work, but it does seem very honest about the director's experiences -- whether she realizes it or not. She knows what happens, but she wants to win the game and is willing to leave out the gaps that show that even when those gaps are easy to notice. Because a winner doesn't have to answer for those.
As a forced participant in capitalism, I liked the ending because I liked that Frida got what she wanted: other people to serve her champagne. Though, after listening to this, I have to agree that it is not justice for all, but justice for one.
I haaaaaaaaaaated the ending of Blink Twice. What an effective horror film throughout with the most confusing ending. I can understand the concept of “dismantling the system of abuse from the inside” but jfc why would she want to keep a rapist/murderer alive???
.......Can't the ending be BOTH, tho? Like it frames the protagonist as very morally gray, which I think is more thought provoking as having her be a more two dimensional victim that has no complicity. Perhaps I'm a cynic, but I also see the complicity of all the female characters to varying degrees, be it in flirting with a billionaire they KNOW from the jump to have assaulted previous women, to competing for his attention with the other women in slightly possessive undermining ways, to the older woman who chooses to forget, and finally the end scene to take over the company instead of expose what happened on the island, to be realistic ways women often respond to these choices in patriarchy.
Great essay. I thought there was an element in her revenge that she has her security remove the therapist and presumably give him retribution You also don’t know if she inflicts punishments on Slater in private as she has complete power over him If she doesn’t believe the courts can help her this seems her best way forward A sequel could of showed her enacting revenge. Do you think that would have been a good idea ? She could hunt down other visitors to the island like she did the therapist
Also I appreciate you not censoring the word "rape", I understand that people need that adsense money but it really does detract from the seriousness of the subject matter to dance around it.
I'm new to the channel, your aesthetic is super cute and I like your style for commentary. I want to focus on Lucas primarily because it seems like his character is misunderstood. It seems as if his role is to be the caricature of men in society who are victims of SA as children or adults, yet hide their story for the sake of not being a victim, shamed, ridiculed, and to maintain their masculinity. Yet by doing so while simultaneously not stopping other male perpetrators, only serves to continue the cycle. He also serves as the "boy who cries wolf" in the since of saying "Well men are abused" and the "women lie" and "men are falsely accused" phrases we hear from so many men today., and unfortunately, women who believe that if it didn't happen to them, it doesn't happen. So his character to me represents that and the inner turmoil of these types of ppl and societal turning of the cheek to these types of crimes. He's a victim of the same system and people the women were and is ignorant to it willfully and unwillingly and he doesn't get help from other men and perpetrators and women who view him as the enemy.
When I heard people talking about the “Girlboss ending” I thought the women all struck a cringe fighting pose like the gals at the end of avengers endgame or something… kinda sad that would at least be a moment of solidarity and the reality is one woman drinking bubbles at the met gala with the guy who endgamed her best mate.
What I got from it briefly was the imagery of the island (garden of Eden), snakes giving the women the knowledge of what was real going on (snake spoke to Eve and convinced her to eat of the tree of knowledge) Once they had received the knowledge of good and evil they had to leave the garden forever. In the Bible there was angel barring reentry. Also after they both ate the forbidden fruit by the snake man and woman were cursed. Men to work and women to give birth in pain. This is far from an articulate argument but there’s something there.
So well said, and thought out, thanks for making videos in this post election time, I don’t really even watch movies like that anymore, but your videos are always worth a watch.
Just to speak on Lucas I had a wildly different interpretation and thought he was solely a victim just as much as the women were and I thought that was the implication in the flashback was them trying to overpower him. And Slaters criticism of him basically to say he's a bystander in his own life who didn't do anything for the men who really had control on that island cause he was boring. Gave me a lot to think on with this video.
Sorry for the stupid comment, but as a kpophead. It took me like a minute of parsing the title that you were not talking about some feud between the girl group Twice and the fanclub, Blink, of another girlgroup, Blackpink 😅😅😅
I remember telling a friend about the "you did nothing" scene because the writing was so overt. It makes sense that they had to overly explain the meaning since they didn't really portray a complicit nature.
I liked the movie but felt weird about the ending and couldn't articulate why, thank you for putting it into words 🙏 I also think the tastefulness and subtletly in depicting the rape is really good. I watched a non-horror movie called Happiness yesterday, and one of the characters is a rapist and the way it's depicted is so subtle but disgusting just the same. Looking at screencaps or a scene with the volume off, you'd never guess the movie was so dark and disturbing. It's not a revenge movie unfortunately, just wanted to shout it out for the most subtle but impactful depiction of rape I've seen personally.
The whole plot line with Lucas made me feel like I was going crazy. They spent so long making him out to be sympathetic and then just... forgot at the end.
i feel like this movie is so imaginative in its storytelling and visuals that once you reach the ending you're expecting a much more compelling, inquisitive approach to its definition of justice. the ending was just really tacky to me. if we know men like him dont really face consequences and women like frida don't actually amass wealth and power from their abuse then whats another path? maybe my expectations are too high or im asking for too much lol but kravitz really had me in the beginning! i think there was opportunity there and it didnt have to be perfect.
Great video u always have such an interesting perspective on film & tv ! Like u pick up on things that actually breath refreshing life into these topics, instead of the usual summaries & obvious analysis ! Never seen the movie myself but I find it ironic/disgusting that zoe kravitz did a movie like this about "abuses of power" when theres a few clips of her adult ass flirting with underage jaden smith. Pretty creepy.... Edited for typos.
my thoughts : frida and stacy are not comparable, in the sense that frida was not aware of what was going on when she dismissed jess. she was having a great time and receiving the attention that she desperately craved as most of us do. mix that with drugs. that would get to most people’s heads. it’s not comparable to being made aware of decades worth of abuse, still choosing to side with the abusers and resorting to violence to cover it up. people’s take on the ending baffles me. what was she supposed to do, take this billionaire white man, who has the best legal team money can buy, to court? where she’d probably loose and be painted as crazy? or he’d get off with a slap on the wrist and kill himself in prison? what kind of justice is that? this was a realistic portrayal of the depressing trajectory to justice most marginalised abuse victims have in our society. for fucks sake, america just elected a rapist to its highest office. i’m a bit confused about king’s amnesic state though. did he forget everything, including her or just the past session? they didn’t frame frida as overwhelmingly power hungry, so the narrative of ‘victims can be just as bad as their abusers’ and ‘she’s just continuing the cycle of power abuse’- in the context of us living in a white supremacist patriarchy just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. aka, that oppressed people violently reclaiming power are as bad as their oppressors. i don’t agree with that bullshit and feel that it’s just a way to subdue the marginalised. screaming back doesn’t make you worse. for me, the ending was framed as the only way for jess to enact revenge and justice. *but why?* with king being subdued, did she not have enough access to ample evidence to lock him up for a long time? unless, as you guys are saying, she chose power over justice. which if true, was manifested poorly : they didn’t build frida’s character up enough nor did they explore it enough afterwards to be impactful. and even if they did, what would be point of that : to show that some abuse victims will choose proximity to power over getting full justice (and how was it not full justice : she gets all his money and he gets beat up for his the rest of life, and we don’t know if she’s still planning to reveal what he’s done) and are therefore just as bad as the original abusers? if so, i disagree - most marginalised people seeking upward mobility do so out of fear, out of a search for safety and comfort in a world where they have NONE. and when most abuse victims choose not to speak out, it’s because they fear not being heard. imo, the secondary framing of the ending is not needed in our current climate, and takes away from the horrors of white, male social cruelty. as can be seen in the comments, with people implying that frida enacting imperfect revenge against the man who cruelly violated her is ‘just as bad as him’ or even worse. wether their critiques are understandable or not, she is not just as bad or worse. she is not continuing the cycle of abuse, in the sense that she’s not perpetuating abuse or letting it happen. unless not taking king to both the court of society and justice counts as ‘continuing the cycle’, by not making him a symbol of what men are not allowed to get away with anymore. as well as not getting justice for the victims that were killed. but that’s not the same thing. this is why feminist progress is so slow. because victims who react in an ‘imperfect, less than angelic’ way are seen as just as bad. and consequently, the focus is taken away from the main source of the abuse. because the entire point of the movie imo is how being a woman means sleeping with the enemy, dissociating/creating delusions about men (giving yourself amnesia) to cope/deal with/tolerate the magnitude of inhumane cruelty and violence men have enacted on us and continue to enact on us, to stay sane and pursue relationships with them. as manifested by the subplot of the women ‘forgetting’ the existence of jess, the gaslighting frida has to go through as she desperately tries to convince the other women that SOMETHING IS WRONG. and all of this self-brainwashing to the detriment of our relationships with other women, self-respect and even safety. leading to the question of : how can we escape? how can we seek retribution for all the women and people who’ve been hurt under the patriarchy? how can we go about forgiving? can we forgive? that is the conversation we need to be having right now. not discussing how frida is an imperfect victim. but i guess these conversations are too difficult to have, so we instead resort to micromanaging how an insanely fucked up woman responds to her abuse, in an impossible situation (aka what we do to women all the time in our reality).
Okay, I thought I was crazy for hating the ending. Like it is very "good for her" coded? But I HATE IT. I can't speak on the experiences of a black woman of course, and it may be my white privilege, but it taking so long for her to feel like something was off bothers me. Again maybe it's because she feels like she's "here" and "not invisible" but the other girl notices first? Idk again I am probably very ignorant to something here.
What would justice look like in this scenario? Slater going to jail? The remaining girls don’t have proof. The pictures don’t really show abuse. Slater already acknowledged his abuse in the past and nothing happened to him. Also the remaining victims telling their stories of abuse might lead to consequence as they killed their abusers. As grim as it is, I think this is the only justice that was on the table. Idk whether I hate or like how Frida can parallel ppls view of those who describe sa from ppl in power as money hungry. Even if abusers were jailed - that doesn’t take away from the experience of survivors. I think it’s sensible for retribution to be a part of justice. I think there would be more room for the topic around justice if Freida took her phone back and got some recordings but unfortunately we don’t have that lol Great points and loved the vid
i'm pretty sure lucas is a "guest" of one of the older more powerful men on the island. i don't think that scene was him trying to help one of the women, i think he's being toyed with and chased just like the women are. i think just because he is a man he is overlooked as being a victim by frida and sarah
SO relieved i watched this before bothering to see the film. starting to wonder if rich people even CAN write a story like this, or if the money rots their brains so much that they're always doomed to fail. what was that old line, about capitalism subsuming all critique of itself...
i did not work for me bc it proved no matter what she went through she still wanted to be one of them she could’ve exposed it all but she kept him as her sheep and was using him for fame her friend died she didn’t fight for justice she moved on 😂
At the end it's implied, she stops Slater's friends from getting access to that perfume again. Because she has the therapist taken away by her security. Rewatch the scenes w/ the pictures and Slater giving his friends red bags of perfume again. They all come to the island for the perfume so they can use it to "make more victims" When Frida stops Slater's therapist from getting more perfume it's symbolic that she's stopping everybody from getting more perfume. So thats why I like it.
22:47 “c’mon guys, believe women” from a woman who literally glossed over her female friend’s safety concerns for monetary reasons is definitely wild even before the election I think the potential for the ending to be cynical vs. triumphant comes down to the editing, and every bit of the ending is giving “yes girlboss, get that bag and fuck those guys!” Or, like, having some sort of darker twist to imply this revenge of success is actively harming Slater. We… almost… get it with her knowing the doctor, but all we really see is Slater getting a taste of his own literal medicine and it’s just not great. The victory is clearly just from being in that place of power and abuse and doing nothing about the literal bodies it took to get to that spot.
The first ten minutes of this were so captivating; i genuinely forgot this video was about Blink Twice. Also , i appreciate that you say the actual word instead of just SA. I know most social media sites, TH-cam included, don’t like that, but I feel like the forced censoring of the word can lessen the impact of talking about it.
Yes! Call it out for what it is! I'm sorry words like 'rape' and 'sexual assault' are triggering for some, but at least saying these words enforce how DISTURBING and DISGUSTING these acts of violence really are.
@@danavixen6274This is tangential, but I honestly think this snowflake attitude on the left had contributed to the U.S. 2024 election results.
@@KnarfStein using words such as snowflakes to talk abt victims who may not be okay with hearing abt their SA ( WHICH IS 100% FINE) UNDER a comment section of a video talking abt AGAIN SA.. Truly has to be ironic.
@@KnarfStein Absolutely idiotic. Leftists are typically feminists and stringent advocates for survivors, who are not ones to use euphemisms for the act. Harris did nothing but emulate a moderate Republican party and try to sway centrists, arguing for a stronger border and refusing to stand up for trans people or Palestinians, not addressing economic anxiety, student loans, or health care, alienating huge swaths of young people who didn't vote. Trump had 3 million less votes than last time and it still didn't matter because the Democratic party refuses to do anything that engages people or make them feel that their lives would be meaningfully different if they went to the polls.
@@KnarfSteinyou do realise this is about censorship from companies and trying to not be demonitized rather than being a snowflake
It’s strange to consider that this ending would work as incredibly dark cynicism but, instead, is played as triumphant.
The choice of song is to blame!
Been waiting on a black femme to talk about this movie. I had so many thoughts most of which you illustrated here. I would add that Frieda being black carries a lot of weight in her girl boss decisions at the end. I think black women have a uniquely tenuous relationship with the concept in that we tend to be a bit less critical of black women pursuing the girl boss status considering that the alternative is far more perilous for them. On the other hand, it's still bad at the end of the day and there's a need to point that out. I was shocked and appalled at the pro genocyd response of a lot of black women on tik Tok after the election, but I was happy to see so many other black women come forward to call that out, but they also faced significant backlash for doing the right thing. This obviously came out before the election but to me the ending takes on that same conflict. Are black women allowed to be girl bosses... Obviously no. Who gonna call that out. Not my ass 😂.
In that regard I wonder if we're meant to be critical of Frieda at the end. There's maybe not a lot of textual evidence to say so, but idk.
As for the young dude who did nothing. I didn't see his experience as one of abuse, but solely of inaction, and then obliviousness. And while there's an argument that he doesn't deserve retribution, I think it was best to let him catch hell. I'd have been even more turned off by the film if they did a "one of the good ones" character on top of everything else.
You should do a video on the topic regardless! I have not seen many people in general be critical enough of this film and it feels weird.
The women would've killed him too once they got their hands on him anyways.
They wanted to kill every man on that island until Frida got the idea to poison Slater's vape to save herself and Sarah
Inaction and complacency can be just as evil as taking an active role. What is that saying? I can only remember the quote from Boondocks Saints off the top of my head, "Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men."
Omg you're here hahaha love your videos
FD being earlier to the video than me is crazy. Got him thinking he a bigger Yhara stan than me. Tuh
Perfect timing having just watched Gladiator II, which repeats a line to the effect of "You can't get revenge on a person by becoming that person".
That moment when gladiator two is more emotionally intelligent than your elevated feminist horror movie.
@@spectrumefp the idea that her keeping him alive to take his money is being compared to him victimizing so many woman and brutalizing them is crazy.
I Thought I may Destroy you was a really well put together show tackling subject material like this
I love that show and there is nothing else like it.
i think Blink Twice is similar to a lot of other movies where people identify the finale as a “good for her” when in reality that is not at all what the film was going for. for example Midsommar, Pearl, and The VVitch all have similar takeaways when not analyzed in depth. i think by taking the fact that Slater doesn’t get what he deserves at face value does a disservice to the movie and blinds you from seeing that this cycle of abuse, while less intense and horrific, has just been continued in another form with Frida now in control.
kinda off topic but ty for mentioning how people call certain movies "good for her" movies when they really arent. like carrie. i hate when ppl say carrie is a good for her story.
i agree, and i also think that frida being so captivated by the idea of success and attention to the point that she will ignore her own friend’s concerns is indicative of her priorities - she would still choose the success and attention every time. i liked frida’s character but i thought that she was supposed to be read as also slightly unhinged and power-hungry, making this less of a “good for her” story and more of a “the cycle of abuse will continue” story. there’s definitely still story issues and music choices that can lead to a person thinking that it’s supposed to be a “girl boss” ending though so i understand why people would read it as such!!
@@zerocaloriedelights what could have happened to slayer for him to have “gotten what he deserves”? Frida killing him? That doesn’t help out the other victims and the world still sees him as a billionaire will potential to revitalize his image. Going to the police? We all know what would’ve came out of that.
That scene when one of the girls asks “wait why are we running…” was so haunting to me
I never thought we were supposed to be on her side. I thought the cycle didn't stop and she became a part of the problem to have the power she always wanted. I felt like the movie was a warning to what really happens when people "sell their soul" for power and "success." I thought Frida was a reflection of some women in the industry ( in a bad way ). I DID NOT see her as a girl boss at the end.
I see a mess of both happening at the same time.
i thought she was a girlboss, and that was the point - being a survivor of abuse and oppression didn't make her immune to committing those same abuses of power.
@@flowerheit4512 wait how did she abuse her power? she went on to rape people? what are you talking about?
EXACTLY HER BEST FRIEND DIED SHE BECAME ONE OF THEM AND USED HIM AS HER SHEEP
this movie could have been really interesting if it was reframed. you dont even have to change the plot that much or at all. it could have been a movie about how solidarity between women who are victims often gets traded in to secure a bag or to climb a social ladder, how even women who are victims sometimes can weaponize their victimhood to harm other women (and often themselves). the ending is the same: becoming the enemy is a hollow victory, and the smile at the end would be terrifying rather than "satisfying".
this was the first commentary on blink twice that I've read (upon fd's rec) and agree so much. i would say that i think its a good film, i recommended it to friends and really appreciated a lot of kravitz's visual handling of the material (particularly compared to the usual rape-revenge film, which you discuss). i wasn't happy with the ending either, but i was also accepting of the fact that maybe frida is just a victim AND a corrupt woman. your thoughts get right to the underlying issue though, that maybe she is, but the framing of the last scene fails to communicate that, and without that intention, it reads as the capitalist girlboss dream. really appreciated this video!!
I didn't think the audience was meant to see the ending as good and be on Frida's side at the end? My interpretation was that we were supposed to go "Oh, Frida's selfishness makes the tools of oppression just as dangerous in her hands as they were in Kane's." I haven't rewatched the movie since i saw it in august though, so maybe i'm missing something.
I completely agree about the way the movie treats the islanders, though, and i think a better movie, or perhaps a sequel, could give them a more active role, maybe dismantaling the unbalanced and exploitative use of the island's resources.
The movie has flaws but i just don't think we're meant to see Frida's choices as justice.
Agree with you. I saw the ending as the cycle of abuse will continue in a different form. Money is never the solution. I wish the ending was setup differently to explore that.
Same, Frida was always very selfish and self centered, I mean she spent part of the rent on some dresses and peer pressured her friend into giving up her phone. She also didn’t ever really seem guilty about ignoring her friends concerns after discovering her missing. I also don’t think it’s a good thing that they memory-roofie the other girls instead of just convincing them to leave, slater always says that they’re free to leave so that could’ve been challenged in the daylight. I do really like this movie but I don’t feel like it a girl boss ending, at the end slater is legitimately shaking like he has nerves damage, I feel like it’s implied that Frida is hurting him as well. There’s even a muffled line where the security grab Rick and pull him aside for some mysterious reason as well, most likely for Frida’s revenge.
@@faithharris919 her guilt about her friend going missing is literally what pushes her to unravel the whole mystery…what are you talking about?
how the hell are the tools of oppression just as dangerous in her hands? how are traumatised women doing the best they can in a male-run society just as bad qs the people who set it up?
and they didn’t build up frida’s character enough for me to buy her ‘inherent selfishness’, choosing not to reveal what had happened in order to gain power. but even if that was the case, there is no perfect victim.
13:30 she gave an interview (idk with who), where she talks about the ending and she admits that the ending is ironic in that oppressed becomes the oppressor. It's not a feel good movie and it's not meant to empower. That should be obvious because of two things; she kept Slater alive and held her own gala... She decided to continue the cycle despite being a victim herself. So in short, the idea you had about the ending was the exact point of the movie.
interesting! i hadn’t heard of that interview and i want to try to find it now.
I need to rewatch the movie to be sure, but maybe the point could be made more obvious by having a few moments in the beginning that really stress the willingness of our protagonist to ladder climb despite morality.
We only really see her break rules at work to meet a celebrity, something a lot of people might justify. But if we saw her throw a coworker under the bus or something more universally offensive but mild, it would have laid better groundwork for her now irresistible and inevitable turn as a villain.
I’m pretty sure she gets that. She wasn’t saying the ending didn’t make logical sense. The video is about how she disliked the movie as the bleak experience that it was.
how does her holding the gala ‘make her the oppressor’? like, in a capitalistic sense?
Also, i'm not sure Frida expressing she feels lonely, safe and seen to Jess is gaslighting... is it a tad manipulative, maybe. Terrible instincts and bad friend? hell yeah. But not everything is gaslighting - now, had she known they were in danger and she still said that bullshir, yes, gaslighting.
yhara zayd thank you for not quitting this means so much to me omfg
she was gonna quit?
i think if there were more visual or audio cues highlighting the ugliness of frida's decision in the end, it would have been clearer that it's a cynical ending not to be celebrated by the audience. jess and lucas were the true tragic figures of the movie - the plot let them down the same way frida let them down.
Maybe all along she was willing to sacrifice her best friend. It was a by any means necessary
@toriyt2714 maybe so. dang, that's so dark.
@@toriyt2714 sacrifice her best friend for what? it was clear that she was equally horrified by what had happened to them and wanted revenge, not power.
@@sainttheresetaylor2054 she convinced her friend to stay and not leave to not ruin this opportunity for her even though her bf was clearly in panic and unease actually she was frightened but Frida ultimately only cared about herself and opportunity to access
But isn't that the point of the movie?. I felt that the film was trying to discuss how the influence of capitalistic success co ops everything that brings justice to humans? I don't think Zoe was trying to glorify it by her decision. I think she was trying to portray the condition that we are in. And how we view that condition as pretty and glorious as long as the ends justify the means. Because a pay day. Is the only thing that makes sense to us in the current condition we find ourselves in.
I remember seeing a disgusting comment saying the lead actress “wouldn’t be a victim of rape because she’s unattractive and Black” as if Black women aren’t the most assaulted demographic in the U.S. and a make up a large amount of sex trafficked victims
I've rarely seen such difficult subject matter handled so well (referring to Yhara's essay, not the film she's discussing).
When considering Frida’s ending, I saw it w/ another woman that’s an acquaintance and the first thing she said to me was, “I hate the ending, she was just as bad as the men!” That made me stop in my tracks bc how in the world was she as bad as the men? I thought of the ending as a way to subvert the justice system bc we know we can’t trust it. Even earlier in the video, Yhara includes a clip of a police officer insinuating that a SA victim “brought it on herself” thus cops and the legal system can’t be trusted to carry out correct justice. Who was the judge that said, “that shouldn’t dictate his future” when referring to a young man that brutally r*ped a young woman? So I saw Frida’s enslavement of King as insurance, so that he couldn’t just get away w/ it like he did before time and time again. And it’s a lil bit since I’ve seen the movie but the ending scene was for a charity of hers, right?
And lastly, I really really agree w/ everything Yhara said about Lucas. THAT was the biggest issue w/ the ending that I had, was he a victim or was he complacent and if he was both, why kill him off by the hands of the women?! So confusing!
Love this vid 🩵
This was such a fantastic video! Also I’m so glad you talked about Lucas, I was really surprised by how Kravitz chose to characterize him. The scene where slater “calls out” Lucas always rubbed me the wrong way becuz throughout the film I thought it was pretty obvious that Lucas was also a victim.
I thought that was a comment on what the patriarchy does to young men. Indoctrinate them into harming others through harming them
@@Belihoneyyea I thought so too. Like what happens with so many young boys and men in the entertainment industry… they’re abused and go on to become abusers or complacent in the abuse of others. I read this study about how frat boys who go through violent hazing will over value the benefits of acceptance in the group over the harm they’ve experienced so their minds can come to terms with the trauma. It seems the pursuit of class mobility and power cause the same behaviours
how was Lucas also a victim?
@@sainttheresetaylor2054 It's really hinted at. He is a guest, he uses the perfume along with the women, and he forgets everything. He has bruises along with the women. During the violent scenes, he is terrified. Slater says he did nothing for himself or the women.
I was surprised a lot of ppl didn’t like the ending. A survivor choosing the money and power, especially when she speaks about always wanting power, instead of pseudo “justice”. The crime probably couldn’t have even been proven since Channing Tatum didn’t even remember it and the other perpetrators were dead. If she didn’t choose the money/power then she would’ve went back home to her shitty apartment with nothing but the memories of her abuse,
I think that's the problem with the ending, it's individualistic. It implies that after all these women team up to kill their abusers (most of them also dying in the process) the primary survivor does nothing to honor their sacrifice or the truth of her own experience. Instead she keeps the most powerful abuser alive so she can siphon his wealth and power for herself. It's only a victory for HER, it's the exact opposite of solidarity.
@ what could she have done to honor them? U think if she went to the police as a poor black woman and said the rich white man did these horrible things with no proof that anything would’ve came out of it? Or would killing him have sufficed which would have not benefited her in the slightest? Going back to her broken apartment with less money than before and now traumatized. It’s very reminiscent of the real world where it’s expected for the black woman to take on all the pain and suffering as a courtesy to everyone else on top of her own with no complaints instead of putting herself first and doing something selfish to benefit her.
Lucas is also killed in the end as a direct result of trying to help the women. Even if he was complicit before, the message seems to be “it actually is too late to do the right thing, trying to help victims will be pointless and get them to attack you”
The charitable reading of it, is that Lucas is an actual victim and Slater is just gaslighting him, and him catching a stray/friendly fire is in contrast with how Stacy is actually complicit but the girls mistakenly think she's a fellow victim, and when people talk about abuse it's common to reduce it to a strict binary that sometimes throws male survivors of abuse under the bus, while expecting solidarity from women who actually have none.
@@umusuukThank you for sharing your thoughts. Very insightful 💚.
the ending was soooo misguided and gross
it's a horror film , so it fits.
I got the vibe that it's sorta supposed to be gross. She is now continuing the cycle of abuse that was inflicted onto her. oftentimes that's exactly what happens in reality. At first it seems like a win until you realize the cycle never ends. I didn't get that immediately though, I had to look into others ideas about it too understand and come to that conclusion. Zoe Kravitz did a wonderful job with this movie
It feels illintended
I’m glad you shared your take on this. I remember sitting in the theatre and feeling something was off as the film came to an end. I wanted to root for this film’s protagonist, but couldn’t fully get behind her. You succinctly hit the nail on the head about several issues here. What message is the film trying to send its viewers? Should women aspire to financial upward mobility over believing each other, and protecting our closest friendships and strong communal bonds? And who among us is allowed to be put down or sacrificed, vs. who is not? The loss of the protagonist’s best friend is so insidious, because for much of the movie, the characters and viewers don’t even realize she’s gone. And after her loss, how is she remembered or canonized? How are other women protected, so that the same losses don’t take place for others? Also, your views about the character Lucas were illuminating. I hadn’t considered him much at all, but he was also a victim, which I think touches on the ultimately damaging aspects of males as they matriculate through patriarchy. It’s striking, how flawed and contradictory the film’s messaging is, but how it also tries to speak for women. Thank you for shedding light on it all.
I can't say I was completely satisfied with the ending, but I liked that it was different from something like I Spit On Your Grave. I wouldn't be surprised if Frida convinced herself that going to the police wouldn't bring accurate justice and everyone involved isn't guaranteed punishment by law, especially if they give information that grants immunity or a lesser sentence.
As someone that has watched men in poverty get away with crime, I can only imagine what the 1% are up to. With how powerful the men seemed to be, who knows if it would have even gone to trial. I don't think it's entirely accurate to compare Jess trying to help Frida versus Frida not helping Stacy though.
Jess and Frida were unknowingly drugged to where their decision making became heavily impaired and at that point no one was remembering anything entirely so though Jess was right, Frida wasn't wrong either because she was glamoured, but she did listen and tried to save the other girls once her and Sarah realized what was going on.
Stacy was not only a willing participant, but tried to kill Frida first and if we're going to hold Frida to the same standard, we would have to look at Stacy and how much she let carry on and would continue to let carry on as long as she was drugged into forgetting and Frida successfully disappeared. Stacy knew of the dangers and could have been a victim herself, but there's no indication of that nor did she try to help take down Slater, even when the opportunity became apparent.
I'm kinda tired of the stigma/pressure that survivors are solely responsible for pushing justice in order to prevent further victimization. Yes, you should report that you were assaulted, but that should be for you first and the future second. In the end you mentally have to be ready for the scrutiny you're going to receive if charges are pressed and I can understand it being a lot. It also has to be understood that the Justice system is a dice roll so you never know even when you're sure you do.
How is Frida going to think so far ahead when she just experienced her trauma multiple times over, realized what happened and watched people go tragically within hours?
At that point, you're kinda screwed either way and I think some people miss that there's no triumph in any direction other than to heal how you can. Some people may not like that and that's fine, but it's also life.
Frida's now a willing participant within her Stockholm Syndrome, but one thing that could be said is though she didn't go to court, she also didn't continue on like Stacy who knew far more than her and who knows how long. I think whoever finds her a hero or bad person could be projection of morals. There are no perfect victims, but they're still surviving their trauma like any other victim.
As far as Lucas goes the movie is already explaining it to us through presentation. Slater is manipulative, gaslit Lucas into confusion and questioned his character in order to continue improper actions, hence why he simply sighed when Lucas was shot. Slater lightly warned Lucas not to go near the door, but Lucas being so terrified could only think of running from the realization of who the monster is and unfortunately became a casualty. Sarah didn't know who would be at the door let alone if he were a real ally, especially with all the chaos.
Lucas is a victim in many ways and we could branch out into discussing male victims, but there's still something to be said about those who genuinely know what's going on and do nothing like people around Diddy or R. Kelly and that's where the focus should be on in that regards. I think the point is to question everything and infer, but we do have to ask the right questions when we do.
If Frida went to the police, what would be the odds everyone would feel justified? Investors now go rogue, the IRS is involved and now you have a target on your head for possibly making people lose money or worse. You can consider her being part of the problem by staying quiet and collecting a check and that's fair, but I definitely wouldn't be mad at it. We always want reparations in a nice neat box, but sometimes that box is empty.
The way you described Bastiéns work is exactly how I feel about yours.
Ugh thank you! I watched this during an early screening, and i couldn't get behind the girlboss-ification of her trauma. It felt like trauma (c)orn at a point that so many people swept into the trope of female rage.
😊😊😊😊😊
I liked the ending. It takes in consideration the fact that when you are a victim of rape, if you try to seek help or official justice, you will be mocked, humiliated, called "hysterical" or "paranoid", and it might destroy your life as weel as your family's.
Speaking from experience.
I wish
I had never tried to report a rape and instead got revenge by myself in silence. It is the smarter things to do in today's world. Maybe one day, but I don't have any hope on this, it will be smartest to seek justice, but today it is NOT.
And pretending it is is just participating in putting all the victims in more danger.
I say that as someone who, once, was all about social contract, but undrstand now it is just a facade for a country to appear superior to others because citizens don't, in the end, get the rights they are supposed to get by obeying to the law. And those who break the law in the most awful ways are those who always get away with it.
My heart goes out to you. I made the immensely demoralizing mistake of attempting to pursue a disciplinary case against my r*pist in college. because I made the mistake of being assaulted in a slightly ambiguous way, the case did not work out in my favor (nothing like having to write a five paragraph essay about how reporting your assailant was a violation of your school's code of conduct). One of the only things that I can make my peace about is that it was the second time he had been reported to the folks that handled sexual misconduct cases on campus so when a third case was brought up against him later on he finally got the school was kind of like "...okay yeah this young man appears to have a pattern of sexually assaulting his classmates so while we STILL WON'T EXPEL THE FUCKER we will give him heavy disciplinary sanctions that would make it very hard for him to continue to attend this institution"
I'm glad somebody's bringing attention to this movie, I consider it to be the Stepford's Wives movie our time because it was able to do what Don't Worry Darling couldn't
Given everything that has come out about Diddy and Epistein's Island. This movie is very relevant 👌
something i did appreciate about this movie was that it addressed the assault and abuse as exactly what it was, something don’t worry darling was afraid to do once they cast harry styles as the lead. and yeah, i’ve been unable to stop thinking about this movie since everything that’s come out about diddy and gisele pelichot’s trial.
Same !
Would LOVE to hear your thoughts on The Nightingale (2018). It's often left out of conversations on rape revenge movies, and I wish there was more discussion about it.
Great video. Thought the title of the movie should’ve been ‘red rabbit’
Is it possible the ending is another critique? She gets what she wants, but it’s not justice-it’s money, fame and power? I think most people see that as a win. But should they? Somebody ask Ms. Kravits. Really good video though!
When it came to the ending, I loved it since she was able to indulge in some of the best cathartic revenge I've ever seen.
Justice can take many forms, and I feel like her not only torturing slater for the rest of his life while also becoming rich, is not a bad resolution. It's not the best, but I don't feel right to say that the way she dealt/is dealing with her abuser is wrong. many people wish the worst on their abuser, she just happens to also gain from it. That i can't be mad at.
i didn't think that the movie was trying to tell us that the ending is good tbh. it seemed to me like it was showing us the cycle of abuse and that we weren't supposed to think frida got a happy ending in any way, i interpreted it as a bad ending because there's no justice for anyone
I saw the ending of Blink Twice as posing the question: Why play fair in an unfair system?
Frida, being in the position she's in, couldn't really count on the justice system standing by her in ensuring that rich man got justice. Why would she risk martyring herself for the small chance of justice being served, when she can have her own form of justice. One that doesn't include her going through all of that, just to be exactly where she was before, scraping by to survive for a second time.
this is a great video!! i really enjoyed this movie, mostly for the reasons you disliked it! i found everything with frida, including how self serving she is, to be like...purposeful and the point, which is why i liked it.
frida is not a kind person! even her early interaction with jess where she scolds her bff for "giving up her power" was nasty. even during the gala after learning to walk from jess she starts to ditch her friend with her eye on the prize before she tripped and fell.
i think, narratively, frida does believe the things she says about "believe women" and everything else, but not above herself. its why jess is so easily forgotten. i even think the framing of the island workers/natives plays into this.
but i dont disagree with any of your criticisms of the film tho. especially the point about lucas (tho part of me looks at it as frida wouldnt view him that light but that may be too charitable on my part). and yeah...after the election this movie does hit very differently.
You're in good company. I liked the movie for the same reasons she was critiquing lol!
Let's just all agree calling the movie "Pussy Island" like Zoe Kravitz intended was a TERRIBLE idea!
All of this! Kravitz has also said the ending is open to interpretation for however the viewer feels which I think is important to note. My biggest criticism is the character of Lucas, but my main overall takeaway is I cannot wait to see Kravitz’s next film.
(I also think P*ssy Island is the best title for the film it is!)
@@starcherry6814 omgg yes! I’m so glad she chose the name ‘blink twice’ rather than ‘pussy island’. I feel like ‘blink twice’ is a much better title and the latter just felt unnecessarily crude and lazy.
I've been WAITING on this one...
9:20 - that's part of why Promising Young Woman was so astounding, the scene under discussion was purely seen by reaction, which keeps the focus on how horrible it is
My theory is that Lucas was not brought on the island and groomed to be abused, but to become an abuser. The older men wanted to "show him a good time" and and maybe collect some blackmail on someone who was gonna be powerful in the future. He did not want to partake in the abuse of the woman on the island, but felt to dependent on or indebted to the other, older men he looked up to stop it. Caught in this situation and torn between his empathy and his selfish desire to stay next in line for the top of the hierarchy, he discovered what the perfume can do and used it to "selfmedicate" and forget his dilemma.
Which is why I think he deserved his ending. Whether or not the film objectifly has enough evidence to support this theory is up to discussion.
But for me it makes a lot of sense with his ending and slaters final speech to him. Dare I say, with this theory in mind I found Lucas to be an interesting character and empathized with him.
I read that title and felt validated because no, that ending does not work for me either. I felt like its message fell off a cliff into bullshit
The thing about the workers/people/residents on the island...I was so angry cause I was like 'oh it's going to be like a twist...they are under some kind of spell or drug of their own.' because I thought there was no way they could actually be that way in a movie in 2024...just like these silent people that smile and serve. I don't know if that's my place to say that as a white lady....but I have adopted sisters of west Asian descent and as a result it's weird....my mum and dad go to places all over and I've been to some...and the people are of course beautiful but they also HAVE to be cheery and their survival depends on going above and beyond with acts of service. It might have been a cool opportunity to make some kind of comment on that...but they're just seen like westerners see these people...just kind of flat smiling people there to serve. Right down to where they just smiled when she asked 'where am I supposed to go?' . A luxury island is a perfect place for dirtbags like that to exploit their workers. You don't have to make a comment about EVERYTHING in your movie but it was RIGHT there.
My (too charitable) reading of Lucas' treatment is that he's getting gaslit by Slater and that even women don't take male victims seriously sometimes. Even when all the signs are there that he's not "one of the boys", it's just assumed he should have done more because he's a man. He's not a perfect victim, so he's not a victim at all. But if that did happen to be what they were going for, the execution is not great. They should have leaned more obviously into cynicism, like you said.
It reminds me of the entire episode of Outlander that shows the rape of the male lead. I could not keep watching the show after watching it. Yet I know many women who love that show, but see no issue with a 45 minute prison rape.
It’s interesting because I took the ending just as that, cynical and that it’s a cycle she can benefit from. She chose personal revenge, not justice. When she pulled him out the fire, I thought it was showing how they have trauma bonded and how sometimes women will protect/forgive their abusers until I saw the ending. I sort of thought the point was to be a not feel good ending (maybe cuz I didn’t feel good about the ending lol) given Frida has been shown to prioritize herself constantly. But hearing your perspective I can see how it’s suppose to be shown as a good “girlboss” ending instead of a dark one.
Great video!!! Though the SA scene wasn't as bad as in the films you've mentioned I think it didn't need to be that graphic. I find problematic when the most uncomfortable and brutal scene is the SA instead of the revenge ones
You're one of the few, maybe only, youtubers I would trust to review this movie and the genre as a whole. Thanks for educating me on the topic and confirming my instincts to not see the movie. I am going to watch it at some point, but with the additional context you've provided.
I 100% agree with you especially about the ending, though I didn’t hate it, leaving me with kind of bad taste in my mouth for the same reason you stated, it felt disjointed. The mishandling of Lucas that to me appeared to be victim and it wasn’t properly clarified what his roles was, plus they sort of already told that plot line with the manager who wanted to forget. The injustice for Jess who got no retribution from presumably close friend comes across as callous by the ending. You can’t stick a girl boss narrative in an abuse story, it doesn’t mix. I will say I think both titles are good but I’m someone who only saw the trailer. However the elements I did enjoy were the subtle hints of losing time and misplaced or new items and the build up to the main event. I just wish it had better resolution to the entire story.
The Lucas subplot is so strange. I could see it working if his character was shown maybe turning away from the assaults happening and trying to make excuses to himself on why he couldn't do anything to stop it (losing his position in that society for one), but showing him actively putting himself in harm's way to stop the assaults and then getting drugged to forget makes no sense if the message is about complicity. Also only using the native people of the island as a plot device sucks so much when their way of life has been obliterated by people like Slater and will continue to be so even after his loss of power.
I feel like Frieda being black and the girl bossification of her trauma are linked. We don't let black women just sob and grieve the things that were done to them in fiction. Instead there's this thing where they have to be badass and strong even when white women who've had the same things happen to them don't have to be. The end result is that we can't have Frieda show the very real PTSD she'd be experiencing after all of this or have her manipulate the rich man out of his money but retreat into seclusion or anything else that would be a very normal, human response to trauma. She doesn't get to be treated like a normal human by the narrative. She has to be the Strong Black Woman trope, and for reasons I will never understand, people think 'strong' and 'has trauma' are mutually exclusive.
I think I disagree with your criticism of the ending, at least partially. My first reaction was also that Slater King's punishment doesn't match his crime. But thinking about it, if Frieda had left him in the burning building that would not be a happy ending. How is she supposed to get off the island? And if she does, how is she supposed to convince the authorities she isn't guilty of killing these rich and powerful men and burning the evidence? Unfortunately, I think Frieda controlling King with the same memory loss perfume was the only way she could have safely gotten off the island. Ultimately I don't see Frieda as selfish for inheriting King's empire because I'm not sure she had another choice. If so wants to survive she can't kill him, at least not right away, but she also can't let him go. So making him her slave might have been the best thing she could have done.
Personally, the capitalist nature of the ending doesn't really bother me because the film isn't really trying to talk about capitalism. Tech CEOs are bad regardless of their gender, but for this film I don't think the ending contradicts what it was trying to say or achieve, so I see it as more of a philosophical disagreement I have rather than as a flaw with the film. It might have been better if the film had tackled the ways in which capitalism and patriarchy are intersected, but that might also make it more difficult to tell a focused story with a strong, singular theme. But maybe I'm wrong about that, I can at least see your point here.
I was also unsettled by the final scene but for different reasons. Frieda keeping her abuser around her, even if he is subservient, seems like a really emotionally brutal thing to put yourself through. Ultimately, I really liked the film even if I have a couple nitpicks.
Thank you so much for giving clarity to my feelings of uncomfortability with the movie I couldn't quite explain myself
What happens to Sarah?
Also, I assumed that one of the reasons Frieda took over Slater’s life was that she intended to get revenge on the men that frequented the island. That’s what I got from her interaction with Rich.
Thank you for saying this!! I kept thinking that the part about being a white male billionaire with a private island was enough to warrant revenge from a woman like Frieda. We didn’t need the graphic depiction and/suggestion of assault.
Also it really bothered me that a female director wouldn’t include details that would truly be horrifying to experience if so much time was passing without realizing it- like your hair or nails or bikini line growing out, getting your period etc, there could have been more tactile ways to show how traumatic it would be to be held against your will for such a long time without your knowledge.
YEEEEESSSS IVE BEEN WAITING FOR A VIDEO ON THIS EXACT TOPIC THE ENDING PISSED ME AWWWWWFFF
So excited to hear your thoughts on this film!
Your topics are always so thoroughly researched and packed full of sources, it’s hard to watch any of your videos and *not* learn something new!
I’m glad you mentioned how bizarre the treatment of Lucas is. A general rule of thumb I’ve noticed is that if your grand, feminist revenge movie, created by women and starring women etc etc starts veering into…questionable commentary and portrayals of male victims, then keep an eye out because you’re probably gonna be subjected to some victim blaming logic bullshit.
I think the ending was meant to be unnerving. I think we’ve seen the ‘justice’ type ending before and Zoë chose not to go in that direction.
Having a black woman as the lead does add a different dynamic to the story, I think. It makes me wonder what really happens to a black woman on an island full of dead rich white men?
The ending feels like it's asking which is more valuable. Justice or reparation?
Thankyou for making this!!! I actually watched this film with my Mum (I was surprised she wanted to watch) and when we left the cinema she was in awe of Kravitz and felt vindicated by the ending. I said from the jump it screamed girl boss feminism and we went back and forth over this for so long. Kravitz '"feminism" is very Hilary 2016 and points to the limitations of identity politics. If a woman/queer person/poc is at the top (irregardless of what they are on top of or what they do within that position) then everyone is winning.
The ending doesn't work, but it does seem very honest about the director's experiences -- whether she realizes it or not. She knows what happens, but she wants to win the game and is willing to leave out the gaps that show that even when those gaps are easy to notice. Because a winner doesn't have to answer for those.
Well put.
what amazing timing! thank youuuu ❤❤❤
As a forced participant in capitalism, I liked the ending because I liked that Frida got what she wanted: other people to serve her champagne.
Though, after listening to this, I have to agree that it is not justice for all, but justice for one.
Such a good perspective on the movie. I never even considered a lot of the takes you had on it, especially the end.
I haaaaaaaaaaated the ending of Blink Twice. What an effective horror film throughout with the most confusing ending. I can understand the concept of “dismantling the system of abuse from the inside” but jfc why would she want to keep a rapist/murderer alive???
.......Can't the ending be BOTH, tho? Like it frames the protagonist as very morally gray, which I think is more thought provoking as having her be a more two dimensional victim that has no complicity. Perhaps I'm a cynic, but I also see the complicity of all the female characters to varying degrees, be it in flirting with a billionaire they KNOW from the jump to have assaulted previous women, to competing for his attention with the other women in slightly possessive undermining ways, to the older woman who chooses to forget, and finally the end scene to take over the company instead of expose what happened on the island, to be realistic ways women often respond to these choices in patriarchy.
Great essay. I thought there was an element in her revenge that she has her security remove the therapist and presumably give him retribution
You also don’t know if she inflicts punishments on Slater in private as she has complete power over him
If she doesn’t believe the courts can help her this seems her best way forward
A sequel could of showed her enacting revenge. Do you think that would have been a good idea ? She could hunt down other visitors to the island like she did the therapist
Also I appreciate you not censoring the word "rape", I understand that people need that adsense money but it really does detract from the seriousness of the subject matter to dance around it.
"Thank you Yhara, this was so good!"
*We all say in unison*
also there's the other contradiction if Lucas gets to die for being inactive what does that MAKE FRIEDA for sitting beside her "bestie's" murderer?
I'm new to the channel, your aesthetic is super cute and I like your style for commentary. I want to focus on Lucas primarily because it seems like his character is misunderstood. It seems as if his role is to be the caricature of men in society who are victims of SA as children or adults, yet hide their story for the sake of not being a victim, shamed, ridiculed, and to maintain their masculinity. Yet by doing so while simultaneously not stopping other male perpetrators, only serves to continue the cycle. He also serves as the "boy who cries wolf" in the since of saying "Well men are abused" and the "women lie" and "men are falsely accused" phrases we hear from so many men today., and unfortunately, women who believe that if it didn't happen to them, it doesn't happen. So his character to me represents that and the inner turmoil of these types of ppl and societal turning of the cheek to these types of crimes. He's a victim of the same system and people the women were and is ignorant to it willfully and unwillingly and he doesn't get help from other men and perpetrators and women who view him as the enemy.
When I heard people talking about the “Girlboss ending” I thought the women all struck a cringe fighting pose like the gals at the end of avengers endgame or something… kinda sad that would at least be a moment of solidarity and the reality is one woman drinking bubbles at the met gala with the guy who endgamed her best mate.
I don’t necessarily agree but I respect your opinion. Now I need someone to explore the religious undertones and overtones of the film.
I miss the religious meaning.
What I got from it briefly was the imagery of the island (garden of Eden), snakes giving the women the knowledge of what was real going on (snake spoke to Eve and convinced her to eat of the tree of knowledge) Once they had received the knowledge of good and evil they had to leave the garden forever. In the Bible there was angel barring reentry. Also after they both ate the forbidden fruit by the snake man and woman were cursed. Men to work and women to give birth in pain. This is far from an articulate argument but there’s something there.
So well said, and thought out, thanks for making videos in this post election time, I don’t really even watch movies like that anymore, but your videos are always worth a watch.
Just to speak on Lucas I had a wildly different interpretation and thought he was solely a victim just as much as the women were and I thought that was the implication in the flashback was them trying to overpower him. And Slaters criticism of him basically to say he's a bystander in his own life who didn't do anything for the men who really had control on that island cause he was boring. Gave me a lot to think on with this video.
Amazing video as always! Did you read books/essays about the RR genre for this? I’m looking for something to read on the genre.
Thank you for articulating the problem, this movie really bothered me lol
Yhara yes yes YES!!!!! The only person I needed to talk about it 🤲🏾
Oh my god yes this video is genius!!
Excellent breakdown!
Sorry for the stupid comment, but as a kpophead. It took me like a minute of parsing the title that you were not talking about some feud between the girl group Twice and the fanclub, Blink, of another girlgroup, Blackpink 😅😅😅
OOOOO I BEEN WAITING ON THIS ONE!!!
I remember telling a friend about the "you did nothing" scene because the writing was so overt. It makes sense that they had to overly explain the meaning since they didn't really portray a complicit nature.
I liked the movie but felt weird about the ending and couldn't articulate why, thank you for putting it into words 🙏
I also think the tastefulness and subtletly in depicting the rape is really good. I watched a non-horror movie called Happiness yesterday, and one of the characters is a rapist and the way it's depicted is so subtle but disgusting just the same. Looking at screencaps or a scene with the volume off, you'd never guess the movie was so dark and disturbing. It's not a revenge movie unfortunately, just wanted to shout it out for the most subtle but impactful depiction of rape I've seen personally.
The whole plot line with Lucas made me feel like I was going crazy. They spent so long making him out to be sympathetic and then just... forgot at the end.
i feel like this movie is so imaginative in its storytelling and visuals that once you reach the ending you're expecting a much more compelling, inquisitive approach to its definition of justice. the ending was just really tacky to me. if we know men like him dont really face consequences and women like frida don't actually amass wealth and power from their abuse then whats another path? maybe my expectations are too high or im asking for too much lol but kravitz really had me in the beginning! i think there was opportunity there and it didnt have to be perfect.
Great video u always have such an interesting perspective on film & tv ! Like u pick up on things that actually breath refreshing life into these topics, instead of the usual summaries & obvious analysis ! Never seen the movie myself but I find it ironic/disgusting that zoe kravitz did a movie like this about "abuses of power" when theres a few clips of her adult ass flirting with underage jaden smith. Pretty creepy....
Edited for typos.
my thoughts :
frida and stacy are not comparable, in the sense that frida was not aware of what was going on when she dismissed jess. she was having a great time and receiving the attention that she desperately craved as most of us do. mix that with drugs. that would get to most people’s heads.
it’s not comparable to being made aware of decades worth of abuse, still choosing to side with the abusers and resorting to violence to cover it up.
people’s take on the ending baffles me. what was she supposed to do, take this billionaire white man, who has the best legal team money can buy, to court? where she’d probably loose and be painted as crazy? or he’d get off with a slap on the wrist and kill himself in prison? what kind of justice is that?
this was a realistic portrayal of the depressing trajectory to justice most marginalised abuse victims have in our society. for fucks sake, america just elected a rapist to its highest office.
i’m a bit confused about king’s amnesic state though. did he forget everything, including her or just the past session? they didn’t frame frida as overwhelmingly power hungry, so the narrative of ‘victims can be just as bad as their abusers’ and ‘she’s just continuing the cycle of power abuse’- in the context of us living in a white supremacist patriarchy just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. aka, that oppressed people violently reclaiming power are as bad as their oppressors. i don’t agree with that bullshit and feel that it’s just a way to subdue the marginalised. screaming back doesn’t make you worse.
for me, the ending was framed as the only way for jess to enact revenge and justice. *but why?* with king being subdued, did she not have enough access to ample evidence to lock him up for a long time? unless, as you guys are saying, she chose power over justice. which if true, was manifested poorly : they didn’t build frida’s character up enough nor did they explore it enough afterwards to be impactful. and even if they did, what would be point of that : to show that some abuse victims will choose proximity to power over getting full justice (and how was it not full justice : she gets all his money and he gets beat up for his the rest of life, and we don’t know if she’s still planning to reveal what he’s done) and are therefore just as bad as the original abusers? if so, i disagree - most marginalised people seeking upward mobility do so out of fear, out of a search for safety and comfort in a world where they have NONE. and when most abuse victims choose not to speak out, it’s because they fear not being heard. imo, the secondary framing of the ending is not needed in our current climate, and takes away from the horrors of white, male social cruelty. as can be seen in the comments, with people implying that frida enacting imperfect revenge against the man who cruelly violated her is ‘just as bad as him’ or even worse. wether their critiques are understandable or not, she is not just as bad or worse. she is not continuing the cycle of abuse, in the sense that she’s not perpetuating abuse or letting it happen. unless not taking king to both the court of society and justice counts as ‘continuing the cycle’, by not making him a symbol of what men are not allowed to get away with anymore. as well as not getting justice for the victims that were killed. but that’s not the same thing.
this is why feminist progress is so slow. because victims who react in an ‘imperfect, less than angelic’ way are seen as just as bad. and consequently, the focus is taken away from the main source of the abuse. because the entire point of the movie imo is how being a woman means sleeping with the enemy, dissociating/creating delusions about men (giving yourself amnesia) to cope/deal with/tolerate the magnitude of inhumane cruelty and violence men have enacted on us and continue to enact on us, to stay sane and pursue relationships with them. as manifested by the subplot of the women ‘forgetting’ the existence of jess, the gaslighting frida has to go through as she desperately tries to convince the other women that SOMETHING IS WRONG. and all of this self-brainwashing to the detriment of our relationships with other women, self-respect and even safety. leading to the question of : how can we escape? how can we seek retribution for all the women and people who’ve been hurt under the patriarchy? how can we go about forgiving? can we forgive?
that is the conversation we need to be having right now. not discussing how frida is an imperfect victim. but i guess these conversations are too difficult to have, so we instead resort to micromanaging how an insanely fucked up woman responds to her abuse, in an impossible situation (aka what we do to women all the time in our reality).
Okay, I thought I was crazy for hating the ending. Like it is very "good for her" coded? But I HATE IT. I can't speak on the experiences of a black woman of course, and it may be my white privilege, but it taking so long for her to feel like something was off bothers me. Again maybe it's because she feels like she's "here" and "not invisible" but the other girl notices first? Idk again I am probably very ignorant to something here.
What would justice look like in this scenario? Slater going to jail? The remaining girls don’t have proof. The pictures don’t really show abuse. Slater already acknowledged his abuse in the past and nothing happened to him. Also the remaining victims telling their stories of abuse might lead to consequence as they killed their abusers. As grim as it is, I think this is the only justice that was on the table.
Idk whether I hate or like how Frida can parallel ppls view of those who describe sa from ppl in power as money hungry. Even if abusers were jailed - that doesn’t take away from the experience of survivors. I think it’s sensible for retribution to be a part of justice.
I think there would be more room for the topic around justice if Freida took her phone back and got some recordings but unfortunately we don’t have that lol
Great points and loved the vid
i'm pretty sure lucas is a "guest" of one of the older more powerful men on the island. i don't think that scene was him trying to help one of the women, i think he's being toyed with and chased just like the women are. i think just because he is a man he is overlooked as being a victim by frida and sarah
This is an amazing analysis!!
SO relieved i watched this before bothering to see the film. starting to wonder if rich people even CAN write a story like this, or if the money rots their brains so much that they're always doomed to fail. what was that old line, about capitalism subsuming all critique of itself...
thank you for the content warning. i'm sure its a great video. see you on the next one
It’s worrying that just saying “Billionaire” and “abuse” in the same sentence is enough to let the audience know how much danger there is
Spike Lee needs to NEVER, EVER, portray female characters. Men, yes - “Get On The Bus” is excellent.
i did not work for me bc it proved no matter what she went through she still wanted to be one of them she could’ve exposed it all but she kept him as her sheep and was using him for fame her friend died she didn’t fight for justice she moved on 😂
Thank you, I also did not like ending, it felt weird and out of no where
At the end it's implied, she stops Slater's friends from getting access to that perfume again.
Because she has the therapist taken away by her security.
Rewatch the scenes w/ the pictures and Slater giving his friends red bags of perfume again.
They all come to the island for the perfume so they can use it to "make more victims"
When Frida stops Slater's therapist from getting more perfume it's symbolic that she's stopping everybody from getting more perfume.
So thats why I like it.
I really like all of your thumbnail images
My Dad is 73 and he always absolutely loved Death Wish he was a boomer girl Dad he tried he's learned a lot and votes for our rights
22:47 “c’mon guys, believe women” from a woman who literally glossed over her female friend’s safety concerns for monetary reasons is definitely wild even before the election
I think the potential for the ending to be cynical vs. triumphant comes down to the editing, and every bit of the ending is giving “yes girlboss, get that bag and fuck those guys!” Or, like, having some sort of darker twist to imply this revenge of success is actively harming Slater. We… almost… get it with her knowing the doctor, but all we really see is Slater getting a taste of his own literal medicine and it’s just not great. The victory is clearly just from being in that place of power and abuse and doing nothing about the literal bodies it took to get to that spot.