When James Graham’s play Ink premiered in London in 2017 and jumped to Broadway two years later, director Rupert Goold infused the drama with rollercoaster momentum, extravagant musical flourishes and jolts of bawdy low comedy. Danny Boyle adopts a similar strategy with this snazzy screen adaptation, shot through with kinetic energy, convulsive editing and a liberal sprinkling of post-punk, electro-pop and indie rock that thumbs its nose at period accuracy. It’s all visually stimulating and highly enjoyable in its anti-establishment attitude, even if the impression remains that this is a morality play with an elusive point of view.
Graham, who also penned the adaptation, doesn’t pretend otherwise. Declining to preach, he simply lays out the historical facts in a compelling narrative spanning the late ‘60s to the 1980s. The material might have felt almost like docudrama if it weren’t for the crackling work of Boyle — this is unequivocally a film from the man who gave us Trainspotting — and an ace ensemble led by Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy.
Ink
The Bottom Line
A chronicle more than a critique, but vigorously entertaining.
