Blink

I saw "Blink" at Worldfest Houston this month, where it picked up a well-deserved award. Short and snappy, anyone who has had to work a 9 to 5 job (and hated it) easily identifies with our star. The audience laughed and groaned as our star's day unfolds, and gasped along with the twist ending. On the surface, the film is first humorous, then shocking. Underneath, it exposes, in very dramatic fashion, a potential dire consequence of falling into the narrow, cubicle-based routine where ignorance is, sadly, not bliss. It forces you to think about what you're REALLY missing when you blunder through life without paying attention to the little things. The film itself is well done, snappy, and haunting. You have to see it to appreciate it.

Deborah Vancelette has created a thoroughly engaging film with BLINK. By setting audiences up for a charming short about a harried woman's day from hell, and then smacking them upside the head with a surprise ending. Not only that, but Vancelette delivers a pitch-perfect, unselfconscious performance in the lead role. With an economy of image, action, and plot, Vancelette shows a mature control of the medium lacking in many veteran directors, let alone first-time filmmakers like herself. A favorite among audiences at the Chlotrudis Awards Short Film Festival in Boston, BLINK should be at the top of the list of any festival-goer.

I saw this film at the Method Fest in Pasadena. This a beautiful little piece of filmmaking. It lures you in with the subtle comedic moments of a typical "bad" day that everyone can relate to. Then it leaves you with a smack in the face the wake you out of your own self-indulgent world to realize that your "bad" day is really nothing. It challenges you to look at what is really important in your life and break out of your self-involved world for a moment to see a bigger picture. This movie made me cry and it made me think. It stuck around in my head for a few days. Beautifully acted by Deborah Vancelette (who also happens to direct this film), this is an excellent example of how film can touch a person. It touched me.

What an amazing accomplishment of filmmakers Deborah Vancelette's to write, direct, star, and do just about everything else in this funny, realistic, and ultimately tragic film. Vancelette perfectly captures the harried life of the protagonist. Viewers will empathize with her rough day. Yet Vancelette eloquently shows us that it's all a matter of perspective, and that it's easy to get self-involved and wrapped up in our own situations. "Blink" is a herald of fine work to come from this filmmaker.

This is a slick little movie well worth your time to find and see.

It really speaks to all those mundane choices we all make every day and (like an H.G. Welles Story I can't quite recall) may live to want back.

Keep in mind that this is a SHORT (very short). It starts out slowly but just as you begin to think it has become boring =bang= it's over. And, believe me, the 'punch line' is one you will remember.

I'm not sure if the producers are going to make it available for purchase - or available on the web but either way you'd be happy you took the time to get hold of a copy - of that I am sure.