Danny Boyle, fresh from reviving the zombie 28 Years Later franchise, injects heist thriller energy into the ugly origin of modern media with Ink. It’s the pulse-pounding story of Rupert Murdoch, now known as the infamous creator of Fox News, spreading tall tales as fact all around the world. But that ugliness didn’t start there, it began in the 1960s when Murdoch, played by Guy Pearce, acquired The Sun tabloid newspaper in the UK, and hired straight news man Larry Lamb, played by Jack O’Connell, to run it.
The Sun was a failing rag back then, and Murdoch’s acquisition and attempted revival were seen as a joke. Murdoch had yet to become the top shoveler of misinformation and conservative bullshit at this point, and when you hear him railing against the elitism that fuels the top newspaper, he almost sounds like a raging liberal. He encourages Lamb to do something wildly different that will reach the audience that isn’t being catered to.
The first half of Ink unspools with the kinetic camerawork that Boyle has been known for since Trainspotting. Crazy camera angles, insane close-ups, and the occasional speed ramp energize Lamb’s gathering of his team, which plays out like a crime boss gathering a team of thieves for the perfect bank job. It’s an exhilarating feat how Boyle and screenwriter James Graham, adapting Graham’s stageplay, energize the hiring process. After an initial failure that Murdoch feels plays it safe, Lamb goes all out and doesn’t mind breaking a few taboos of the UK newspaper scene. That means hiring Jules Davies (an excellent Claire Foy) to run a page entirely dedicated to women’s issues. It also means stories about drinking, clubbing, and sex, with half-naked models plastered on the front page. Predictably, the sales start to skyrocket.
What’s interesting is how Ink shows how Murdoch and Lamb often squabbled about The Sun’s racy content. Murdoch wasn’t a fan of a lot of it, but rather than put his foot down and stop it, he usually gave in to the rising sales numbers, a precusor to the Murdoch who pushes Trumpism at every turn today, regardless of the consequences.
Ink only loses steam when it takes on the shape of a true-crime flick, and the kidnapping of Muriel McKay, wife of The Sun exec and Murdoch confidante, Alick McKay. Lamb takes it upon himself to start making the news rather than covering it, and it’s a decision that leads to tragic consequences, and a heavy choice for Murdoch to make. While still thrilling, Boyle’s dynamic camerawork is dialed down a notch to cover this dark chapter, and the film suffers as a result.
Still, it’s good to see Boyle back in this terrain again. He hasn’t been this energized by a subject in ages, with the last time being his Steve Jobs biopic in 2015. Leave it to Boyle to deliver a newspaper movie that couldn’t be more different than The Post, Spotlight, or any of the others to emerge in recent years. The warning Ink issues comes too late, as we are living with the rotten state of journalism right now. Boyle is at the top of his game while delivering this message, though, and people would do well to pay attention.
Ink opens in select theaters on December 11th, followed by Netflix on January 8th 2027.
