Tag Archives: Geena Davis

Blink Twice

Blink Twice. No spoilers. Just a few hints.

A rich guy Slater King (Channing Tatum) has a private island and likes to throw extravagant days-long events there. Unlike at Jeffrey Epstein’s place, all the guests here appear to be adults. But as Epstein famously did, King casts his net wide with his invitations.

Among the invitees are characters played by Geena Davis, Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osment and Kyle Maclachlan, among others.

Tatum’s co-star Naomi Ackie as Frida does the movie’s heavy lifting, moving the story along and maintaining the mystery. First time director Zoe Kravitz (who also co-wrote the movie) took a big leap of faith in casting the less-than-well-known Ackie in the lead role. Lucky for both women, Ackie does good work in what could be a star-making turn.

As is revealed in the trailer, all guests have to give up their phones. Even if they could get a signal, it is preferred that guests not take pics. (Christian Slater’s character Vic snaps lots of Polaroid photos.) The island getaway consists mainly of eating, drinking, drugs and pool time. While sexual tension simmers, it doesn’t appear to go far. The guests seem to have fun mainly by teasing one another, sharing booze and blunts and outrageous meals.

Google says: “‘Blinking twice’ implies that someone can’t believe what they’re seeing, so they blink again to make sure they’re not imagining it.” And in the drug and drink addled minds of the participants in Slater King’s island party, what’s real and what’s imagined is sometimes blurred.

Zoe Kravitz has crafted a suspenseful tale but my guess is that since she’s a rookie helmer, the studio had “final cut.” Blink Twice feels as if much more movie was shot but, as often happens, was trimmed here and there to speed things up. Should there have been more mystery? More exposition? More resolution? Or… was the film’s hour and forty minutes run time just about right? “Always leave ‘em wanting more” is a timeless showbiz adage and maybe it applies here.

The opening shot of Blink Twice has Frida doom scrolling through social media posts until she gets to a Slater King video. Here’s hoping that the folks who see Blink Twice and then jump onto TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, etc. will respect the folks who made the movie AND the folks who will see it in the next few weeks and think twice about sharing any spoilers. If you are a social media user, be careful where you click.

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In A World

Make way for a new showbiz triple threat! Lake Bell wrote and directed In A World and stars as the film’s central character Carol Solomon. The film is a romantic comedy, a family comedy and a workplace comedy.

Lake Bell’s is not a household name, but she has worked as an actor for years. I interviewed her for radio a decade ago when she was on a short-lived TV show called Miss Match. Now she adds feature film director and writer to her resume and I look forward to seeing what she delivers in the future. (She has also received great exposure this month with a nude cover shot for New York magazine.)

Carol Solomon is a voice coach who wants to make it big as an L.A. voice over talent, just like her father Sam Sotto (Fred Melamed) has done. His voce is anything but sotto—he has killer pipes and gets lots of work narrating movie trailers. Sam designates fellow voice talent Gustav Warner (Ken Marino) as the heir apparent to the real life announcer Don LaFontaine (noted for trailer scripts that begin with the words “In a world…”)

Sam tosses Carol out of his place because his girlfriend is moving in. Carol crashes with her sister Dani (Michela Watkins) and eventually causes her sister and her boyfriend Moe (Rob Corddry) to bust up. Meanwhile, Carol is in competition with Gustav for the plum gig of narrating the trailers for a new movie “quadrilogy.” When Gustav and Carol hook up, he doesn’t know (a) that she’s a voice talent and (b) her friend Sam’s daughter.

In A World is not gut busting funny, but it has its moments. I overheard a fellow critic call it “sitcomy.” In a way, the movie does recall elements of media-related workplace sitcoms (The Mary Tyler Moore Show and WKRP in Cincinnati come to mind) with its lineup of likeable second bananas and oddball tertiary characters. Plus plot points that circle back to earlier setups.

The cast also includes Demetri Martin, Nick Offerman and Tig Notaro as recording studio personnel. Eva Longoria cameos as herself, doing ADR dubbing. Geena Davis appears as a movie studio head. (The formerly glamorous Davis also serves as a sad example of bad plastic surgery.)

In A World is rated R, mainly for language. This is a movie for grownups that is nicely paced and thoroughly entertaining. It clocks in at 93 minutes.

Oddly, the trailer for In A World, is one of those that gives away many of the movie’s best lines. Skip the trailer, but see this movie about trailers. As has been written in bad commercial copy read by voice talents for decades, “You’ll be glad you did!”

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