In the Blink of an Eye (2026 film)

In the Blink of an Eye
Release poster
Directed byAndrew Stanton
Written byColby Day
Produced byJared Ian Goldman
Starring
CinematographyOle Birkeland
Edited byMollie Goldstein
Music byThomas Newman
Production
companies
Distributed byHulu
Release dates
  • January 26, 2026 (2026-01-26) (Sundance)
  • February 27, 2026 (2026-02-27) (Worldwide)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

In the Blink of an Eye is a 2026 American science fiction drama film directed by Andrew Stanton and written by Colby Day. It stars Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, and Daveed Diggs.

The film premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2026, where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize. It was released by Hulu on February 27, 2026.

Plot

In the Blink of an Eye depicts three interconnected stories exploring the history of the world. The first story followed a family in the prehistoric (about 47,000 years ago), the second story follows a present day research scientist, and the third story takes place in the future aboard a spaceship heading toward the Kepler system.

Cast

  • Kate McKinnon as Coakley, a scientist and astronaut researching plant life aboard spaceships
  • Rashida Jones as Claire, an anthropologist researching Paleolithic remains
  • Daveed Diggs as Greg, love interest of Claire
  • Tanaya Beatty as Hera, a Paleolithic woman, mother of Lark
  • Jorge Vargas as Thorn, a Paleolithic man suffering from unknown disease, father of Lark
  • Skywalker Hughes as Lark
  • Tatyana Rose Baptiste as Adult Lark
  • Yeji Kim as V

Production

It was first announced in October 2022 that Andrew Stanton had signed on to direct a film written by Colby Day for Searchlight Pictures, which cited the films 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Magnolia (1999) and Interstellar (2014) as influences for the story.[1] Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, Daveed Diggs, Jorge Vargas, Tanaya Beatty and Skywalker Hughes were among the cast announced to star in the film in March 2023.[2][3][4][5]

Principal photography began on March 24, 2023 in Vancouver,[6] and wrapped up on May 16, 2023.[7] In March 2024, Thomas Newman was hired to compose the score, after previously scoring Stanton's Pixar films Finding Nemo (2003), WALL-E (2008), and Finding Dory (2016).[8]

Release

In the Blink of an Eye premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, on January 26, 2026, followed by a worldwide streaming release on February 27, 2026, on Hulu.[9][10][11]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 18% of 49 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Aiming high in ambition but scoring low in execution, In the Blink of an Eye is a sprawling meditation on the human condition that turns up few compelling revelations."[12] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 37 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[13]

Bilge Ebiri of Vulture was critical of the lack of connection with the characters but praised the use of visual textures and storytelling, making "In the Blink of an Eye is so ambitious that a rather dramatic artistic balancing act is required to make it all work."[14] Siddhant Adlakha of Variety wrote "Both as drama and as science fiction, In the Blink of an Eye doesn’t probe these questions, but rather, drops definitive answers like anvils, leaving little room to ruminate, wrestle, or consider."[15] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com noted that the film had "so many humanist ideas that it becomes really tempting to give it a pass on that basis alone" such as people connecting to the past and future as a species in a fertile ground, but added "whether it’s the pandemic, a rushed production, the business upheaval at Searchlight, or something else entirely, that ground just never got enough water to make this work."[16]

A. A. Dowd of Empire wrote "Meditating drippily on the grand cycle of life, In The Blink Of An Eye plays more like Cloud Atlas as a self-help seminar."[17] Adrian Horton of The Guardian considereed the film to be "tediously boring – too limp, uninspired and barren to conjure any of the requisite wonder for the persistence of life" calling it equivalent to "watching paint dry on the cave wall."[18] Richard Lawson of The Hollywood Reporter felt the plots being "so broad and generic" and considered "much more powerful to see really detailed, specific stories identified as parts of a grandly universal human experience."[19] Chase Hutchinson of IGN felt that the film has "little ambition and even less genuine wonder."[20] David Ehrlich of IndieWire felt that the film was not "significantly worse than" John Carter but "bad enough to make you long for the days when Hollywood was willing to risk embarrassing itself at that scale".[21]

Alissa Wilkinson of The New York Times admitted that the film could have developed into a miniseries, as it had lack of space for the characters and felt that it often gives the impression "it’s trying to get you to feel rather than letting you feel, with swelling music and montages of people experiencing emotion, signaling what you’re supposed to be experiencing, too."[22] Damon Wise of Deadline Hollywood felt it an echo of the Stanton's previous experience with the failure of John Carter that sent him to the "Director's Jail" and ultimately considered the film to be "woolly and sentimental as this to take [Stanton] anywhere except backwards, to Director’s Siberian Gulag."[23] Jake Kleinman of Polygon felt each piece of the film "uniquely flawed" but mentioned the director and writer's greatest sin being "failing to bring them together in a clever way".[24]

Embedo Ashibeze of Screen Rant said that Thomas Newman's score, Ola Maslik's production design and Ole Birkeland's cinematography helped in saving the film from being "forgettable".[25] Sean Rinn of SLUG wrote that "Stanton and Day fail to realize that the beauty of humanity is in the uniqueness and specificity of each individual experience, not in some universal story that encompasses everyone and everything".[26] Jake Cole of Slant Magazine said that Stanton failed to add anything new in the genre, which felt like a similar tread to Cloud Atlas and The Tree of Life.[27] In a positive review, G. Allen Johnson of San Francisco Chronicle added that "Stanton is a dreamer, with an unshakeable faith in humanity" which was proven through this film.[28]

Accolades

Upon its selection for Sundance, the film was named the winner of the festival's Alfred P. Sloan Prize, awarded annually to the best depiction of science, technology, engineering, and math themes in a film screening during the festival. It also received a $25,000 cash award from the Sundance Institute with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.[29]

References

  1. ^ Kit, Borys (October 7, 2022). "Andrew Stanton to Direct Epic Sci-Fi Drama In the Blink of an Eye for Searchlight (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 7, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  2. ^ Kroll, Justin (March 21, 2023). "Kate McKinnon To Star In Searchlight And Andrew Stanton's In The Blink Of An Eye". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  3. ^ Kit, Borys (March 21, 2023). "Rashida Jones Joins Kate McKinnon in Andrew Stanton Sci-Fi Drama In the Blink of Eye (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  4. ^ Donnelly, Matt (March 23, 2023). "Daveed Diggs Joins Andrew Stanton's In the Blink of an Eye at Searchlight (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  5. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony; Cordero, Rosy (March 30, 2023). "Searchlight's Andrew Stanton Movie In The Blink Of An Eye Adds Jorge Vargas, Tanaya Beatty & Skywalker Hughes As Cameras Roll". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 30, 2023. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  6. ^ Gittins, Susan (February 17, 2023). "Big Sci-Fi Drama IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE From Andrew Stanton Filming in Vancouver This Spring". Hollywood North Buzz. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  7. ^ "In Production List". Creative BC Film Commission. Archived from the original on January 15, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  8. ^ "Thomas Newman Scoring Andrew Stanton's 'In the Blink of an Eye'". Film Music Reporter. March 29, 2024. Archived from the original on September 25, 2024. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
  9. ^ "In the Blink of an Eye - Sundance Film Festival". Sundance Film Festival. Archived from the original on February 1, 2026. Retrieved December 16, 2025.
  10. ^ Gardner, Chris (December 10, 2025). "Sundance Sets 2026 Lineup With Charli XCX, Olivia Wilde, Salman Rushdie and Courtney Love Films". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 21, 2026. Retrieved December 10, 2025.
  11. ^ @DiscussingFilm (December 16, 2025). "First poster for 'IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE', a new film from 'Wall-E' and 'Finding Nemo' director Andrew Stanton. The film follows 3 storylines, from past, present & future, that span thousands of years and represent the circle of life. Releasing February 27 on Hulu" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 17, 2025. Retrieved December 16, 2025 – via X (formerly Twitter).
  12. ^ "In the Blink of an Eye". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved March 9, 2026.
  13. ^ "In the Blink of an Eye". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved February 27, 2026.
  14. ^ Ebiri, Bilge (January 30, 2026). "In the Blink of an Eye Never Gets Around to Feeling Human". Vulture. Archived from the original on March 11, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  15. ^ Adlakha, Siddhant (January 27, 2026). "'In the Blink of an Eye' Review: Andrew Stanton's Sci-Fi Epic Is One Third of a Good Movie". Variety. Archived from the original on February 28, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  16. ^ Tallerico, Brian (January 27, 2026). "In the Blink of an Eye movie review". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on January 28, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  17. ^ "In The Blink Of An Eye review: Andrew Stanton's sci-fi epic is destined 'for the streaming void'". Empire. March 12, 2026. Archived from the original on March 13, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  18. ^ Horton, Adrian (February 25, 2026). "In the Blink of an Eye review – Pixar director's long-delayed sci-fi epic falls flat". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on March 1, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  19. ^ Lawson, Richard (January 27, 2026). "'In the Blink of an Eye' Review: Rashida Jones, Kate McKinnon and Some Cavemen Teach Us a Maudlin, Obvious Message About Life". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 3, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  20. ^ Hutchinson, Chase (January 31, 2026). "In the Blink of an Eye Review". IGN. Archived from the original on March 6, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  21. ^ Ehrlich, David (January 28, 2026). "'In the Blink of an Eye' Review: Andrew Stanton's First Live-Action Movie Since 'John Carter' Is a Dreadful Straight-to-Hulu 'Cloud Atlas' Ripoff". IndieWire. Archived from the original on March 3, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  22. ^ Wilkinson, Alissa (February 26, 2026). "'In the Blink of an Eye' Review: We Are the Future". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 1, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  23. ^ Wise, Damon (January 27, 2026). "'In The Blink Of An Eye' Review: Andrew Stanton's Dull, Centuries-Spanning Epic Is Woolly And Sentimental – Sundance Film Festival". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 12, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  24. ^ Kleinman, Jake (February 27, 2026). "Hulu just quietly released an ambitious new sci-fi movie from a legendary Pixar director". Polygon. Archived from the original on March 8, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  25. ^ Ashibeze, Emedo (February 27, 2026). "In the Blink of An Eye Review: An "Urgency of Now" Message That Fades With the Blink of an Eye". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on March 1, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  26. ^ Rinn, Sean (February 1, 2026). "In the Blink of an Eye Is Hollow, Not Hopeful". SLUG. Archived from the original on February 1, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  27. ^ Cole, Jake (February 25, 2026). "'In the Blink of an Eye' Review: A Maudlin 'Cloud Atlas' Rip-Off". Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on March 12, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  28. ^ Johnson, G. Allen (February 26, 2026). "'In the Blink of an Eye' review: Pixar's Andrew Stanton stumbles with ambitious Hulu sci‑fi film". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on March 3, 2026. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  29. ^ "2026 Sundance Film Festival Unveils 97 Projects Selected for the Feature Film and Episodic Program". Sundance.org. December 10, 2025. Archived from the original on January 18, 2026. Retrieved January 30, 2026.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.