Success often comes at a price, and those desperate to achieve it may be willing to do anything – and cross any lines necessary – to achieve it. In the world of journalism, it can mean getting the story no matter what it takes, or ensuring that a publication is popular even if the path to doing so is less than reputable or responsible. Ink takes this to the extreme with the story of the publisher and editor who turned The Sun into the best-selling newspaper in the world, flagrantly and deliberately disregarding established industry standards and practices to completely redefine the parameters and boundaries of their field.
Rupert Murdoch (Guy Pearce) has just purchased The Sun, and he wants Larry Lamb (Jack O’Connell) to be its editor and transform it from a flailing remnant of the past to something vital and widely-read across the country. Larry ultimately accepts and assembles a ragtag team split between the few people he can actually convince to come over from his former place of employment, The Daily Mirror, and those who are either too young or too old to be desired by competitors. A series of button-pushing changes instituted by Lamb are met with trepidation by the man who hired him, forcing him to consider whether he’s created something more powerful and far more unwieldy than he had ever imagined.
Murdoch is a figure who is well-known for his continued involvement is news media and particularly his growth of Fox News, but Lamb, who died at age 70 in 2000, may be someone with whom audiences are not quite as familiar. They essentially get the chance to introduce each other as they dine at a long-standing restaurant to discuss their potential business partnership and educate each other on the parts of news that they know best. This begins a reoccurring theme of the film, which is that it’s never quite clear who’s steering the ship and which of them supports or doubts the intentions of the other more. It makes for a dizzying experience where the moral compass is constantly shifting and who’s on the right side feels like a ball being passed back and forth.
Director Danny Boyle, best known for the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, tackles this material with an energetic approach that ends up feeling quite schizophrenic. Unlike print journalism, which requires specific and evocative phrasing to move a reader, this film boasts an overactive imagination, interspersing flashes to other moments or to constructed representative scenes that show, for instance, each member of Lamb’s staff sitting on a couch watching television as their personal preferences are added to the menu of what The Sun should offer. Lamb and Murdoch are frequently seen riding an empty subway train car as their battle of wills intensifies. These are decent devices to hook audiences and keep their attention but, like the paper being overhauled, it can feel like everything is just being thrown at the wall.
O’Connell is a talented actor who has been steadily building his profile since his film festival beginnings in Starred Up and ‘71, with a memorable turn in Sinners and previous collaborations with Boyle in 28 Years Later and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Here, he presents a mix of loudly projected confidence and internalized doubt that functions well to make Lamb feel like a three-dimensional and highly volatile character. Pearce portrays Murdoch as easily frazzled and rattled, far less magnetic and passionate. Claire Foy is a standout from the supporting cast as a fictional reporter determined to make the case for female-centric journalism who often pushes Lamb to reconsider his bold and ill-advised moves.
Ink is undeniably captivating, even if its presentation is extremely frontal and intense. The current state of journalism and tabloids feels so influenced by the events of this film, a connection that’s only made in a final montage powerful enough to knock the wind out of anyone with remaining hope for the future of media. The focus on these two personalities as the harbingers of doom serves its purpose but also has the potential to envelop those watching in a sinking feeling of darkness that may prove overwhelming. Like Lamb’s effect on The Sun, this film is definitely a big swing determined to make an impact.
Movie Rating: 6/10
Ink makes its Canadia premiere in the Special Presentations section at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival and will be released theatrically by Netflix on December 11th.
