Danny Boyle’s popular drama inkthe original story of Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloid The sunopened the Venice Film Festival.
James Graham’s screenplay, starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce (as Murdoch) and Claire Foy, is set in 1969 when a rising media mogul takes over the daily newspaper. His partnership with editor Larry Lamb (O’Connell) turned the newspaper into Britain’s most influential tabloid.
Early notices have been positive so far, with the cast in particular receiving high praise. Rotten Tomatoes has a rating of 92% for the film from 12 reviews.
Deadline’s Pete Hammond called the film “exciting” and said of the acting: “O’Connell and Pierce have never been better and they really come into play here. It’s an exciting match to see them go toe-to-toe and watch the power dynamics between them change.”
The Times of London gave the film 4/5 stars, writing: “Flashbacks and flashbacks abound, archive titles pulse through stunning frames and everywhere there is a sense that Graham’s talky source material is being brought to vivid life by a director whose default setting is an adrenaline overdose.”
The UK’s Daily Telegraph also scored it 4/5, while raving: “In its own special, whisky-puffing, nicotine-tinged way, ink It may be Britain’s belated response to this mad men…”
Bilge Ebiri admired for Vulture, calling the drama “thrilling” and “Danny Boyle’s best film in decades”: “While it doesn’t overtly condemn, the film makes abundantly clear that the events it depicts have ultimately generated the selfish, techno-feudal quagmire of our present moment. This will anger many, but it may also be a masterpiece.”
Another positive review came from Screen International who praised the “engaging performances” of the “entertaining” film, while Variety also described the film as “sizzling” and Jack O’Connell described it as “terrific”.
Indiewire was more moderate, giving the film a B: “The lessons that British director Boyle wants to tell us by the end of the film are groaningly predictable… but… ink Supported by the strength of its actors, who create characters that are never likable but always fascinating.
The Guardian He gave the film three stars, praising O’Connell’s role, but also found faults, calling it “a terrible, violent, and astonishingly inaccurate film full of Dutch angles, cartoonish shocks and close-ups.”
