This just in: movie critics think Danny Boyle’s Ink will be a contender.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker’s latest opened the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday to largely positive headlines, with reviewers hailing the film as a thrilling, fast-paced dive into the birth of modern tabloid journalism. Ink currently rates 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an 80 “generally favorable” score on Metacritic.
Starring Jack O’Connell as ambitious editor Larry Lamb and Guy Pearce as media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the Netflix feature chronicles the true story of how the duo acquired The Sun in 1969 and transformed it into a sensationalist powerhouse. Claire Foy also stars as Lamb’s deputy editor and wife.
Here’s a snapshot of what critics are saying.
‘It might be a masterpiece’
Guy Lodge at Variety calls the film a “very compelling yarn, galvanized by a terrifically bullish performance from Jack O’Connell.” Lodge also admire’s the message of the movie: “Boyle’s film is riveting and needling and leaves you feeling pretty awful, right up to a closing montage that connects Lamb’s and Murdoch’s legacy to the unregulated cacophony of today’s media and social media scenes, from Fox News to Facebook.”
Bilge Ebiri of Vulture gives the film a glowing review, saying Boyle “takes a tale steeped in the minutiae of the English newspaper business and turns it into something anthemic and fearsome: Citizen Kane by way of Trainspotting.” While acknowledging that some viewers may take issue with the film going too easy on the man who would eventually give us Fox News — especially by casting the “still-hunky Guy Pearce” as Rupert Murdoch — Ebiri ultimately concludes: “It’ll infuriate many, but it might also be a masterpiece.”
Josh Parham at Next Best Picture rates the film a 7-out-of-10, saying that it’s an entertaining portrait and praises Pearce’s portrayal of media titan Rupert Murdoch. “Pearce is simply incredible from the very first moment he appears,” he writes noting how the actor commands the screen with crude charm. “Every moment Pearce is onscreen becomes a highlight, injecting devilish delight into a twisted character.” But Parham also finds that the momentum stalls a bit in the second half.
‘Groan-inducingly predictable’
While Ben Croll of The Wrap praises the film’s kinetic energy and strong performances, he ultimately finds that its central premise becomes repetitive, with the frenetic one-upmanship losing momentum over the course of the film. “Boyle’s speed-addled style can only do so much with a story whose central idea is essentially a race to the bottom, repeated from a thousand different angles as Lamb and Murdoch try to out-sensationalize the competition. That relentless, episodic one-upmanship may be true to the news business, where every day is frenetic and every day’s the same. Over the course of a feature, though, one does feel the drag.”
Meanwhile, Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire describes the film as “stylistically overcooked.” “The lessons that British director Boyle wants to tell us by the movie’s end are groan-inducingly predictable; if you did not see from outer space that these people burnished the platform for Donald Trump’s ascension, you’ve lost the plot,” he writes. Still, he gives the film a B grade, thanks in part to an “electrifying” “late-breaking kidnapping plot” and the cast. He shouts out O’Connell as “terrific” and Foy as “striking,” adding that “Ink is bolstered by the strength of its actors, who realize characters who are never likable but are constantly fascinating.”
