“Something's gotta stop the flow....1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4”
I’ve been meaning to write this for while. Despite the fact that Watchmen was made into a film and Star Trek got a great re-boot. My favourite film of 2009 has to be Ink.
Even more amazing is that Ink is a very low budget indie movie costing in the region of $250,000, absolute peanuts compared to the two previous movies mentioned.
It’s hard to sum this film up in words but I’ll attempt to outline it as best I can. In the brilliantly worked opening we are introduced to reluctant/troubled father John (Chris Kelly) and his daughter Emma (Quinn Hunchar). Things soon get interesting when as the suburb sleeps flittering lights reveal the “Storytellers” the givers of our good dreams and the shadows reveal the “Incubi” the givers of nightmares. Emma’s sprit (or consciousness) is then kidnapped while she sleeps by a mysterious hooded figure known as Ink, leaving her in a coma in the real world. As this happened right under their noses the storytellers vow to rescue Emma with the aid of a Pathfinder – who’s blind of course. Mix in some oddball characters, some good fight scenes, plenty of imagination and a possible path to redemption/understanding.
See what I did there? I said it was hard to sum up and when I tried, I ended up making it sound formulaic. Ok I’ll try to be more general.
What’s good
Firstly the film never feels low budget, partly due to the dreamlike cinema-photography which is very effective and also wisely hides the lack of budget. What special effects it has are handled well. And what Ink lacks in budget it more than makes up for in ideas and imagination, for me this is as much art as it is entertainment.
Director/writer/music composer Jamin Winans is certainty a name to watch, to achieve this level of filmmaking on that budget is nothing sort of a miracle and his score is really great too!
The Incubi are visually inspired and make a lasting impression.
The film never provides any simple explanations (so common in most films these days), it just gradually reveals a beautiful story. It doesn’t attempt to insult your intelligence either, I had no issues with this, however perhaps the narrative may confuse some...sadly.
Jacob the Pathfinder (Jeremy Make) provides some comic relief and also is the centre of one of the films’ stand out set pieces, a scene where fully come to understand his “view” of the world and it’s beat, this is for me one of the best staged scenes I have seen in a while – a thing a beauty!
This is a real movie that defies categorization, something different and innovative.
What’s not so good (minor quibbles)
The actors are armature and while the majority of the cast are good, there are a few (small moments) when this shows.
If you like the story spoon-fed to you, like so many blockbusters do, then you might want to avoid this.
Overall
Try to see this, you won’t regret watching Jamin Winan’s vision unfold, it’s a beautiful, humanistic, existential experience. This is why indie films can be great, without the pressures of a major Hollywood studio creativity can flourish...this is, deep, inspired, genuine and doesn’t insult you like a lot of films do.
Visit the Ink Website
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Watchmen Graphic Novel Review
"This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'Save us!' And I'll look down, and whisper 'no."
I won’t put any spoilers here, in case you haven’t read it and want to see the film.
I’m afraid this will be a fairly biased review as its fair to say I am a huge fan, so I will try not to gush too much.
Alan Moore had this great idea - what would superheroes be like "in a credible, real world”. At the time DC had just acquired the rights to the old Charlton Comics characters and the original intention was to use these, however Moore eventually chose to create new characters. Indeed if superheroes really did exist, they’d have to be pretty f**ked up to put on a fancy costume and go out dealing justice, right?
The novel takes place in an alternate 1985, however it keeps its own continuality, as this alternate world it mostly different due to the arrival of Doctor Manhattan (in fact the only superhuman in the novel). To say that Watchmen is a complex multi-layered mystery story would be selling it short, it has at it’s heart a dark sense of the human condition, involving characters each with their own unique voice, it also offers some radical political ideas and heroes far removed from the normal superhero moral high ground.
The novel begins with the investigation of the death of Edward Blake along with some wonderfully dark lines narrated from a journal. Slowly we are introduced to the main characters mostly in a series of flashbacks at a funeral. In many ways the main charcaters have different but bleak views of the world. Rorschach (fan favorite and mine) is described as “paranoid and crazy” by some and he sees a “morally blank world” on which he is "free to 'scrawl [his] own design”. Doctor Manhattan is god-like and perceives time - with a non linear perspective. Nite Owl is best described as impotent and middle-aged. The Comedian is totally ruthless, cynical, almost morally blank and yet he still manages to retain some depth. Silk Spectre is a well written female character with daddy issues and although she is essentially a love interest she is never one dimensional. Ozymandias is seen as pampered and decadent while also being “one of the smartest men on the planet”. Even minor supporting characters are given some depth, like the news vendor and the psychiatrist etc. I won’t reveal the story here; however it a fast paced read with a fantastic ending, I remember first reading chapter 11 (issue 11) and thinking wow surely they won't be brave enough to end it like that....will they? Also if you don’t think that Rorschach is a work of genius, then I’d be amazed.
When I first read this one of the first things that grabbed me was the way in which Moore and Gibbons manage to skillfully link words and imagary together, this is not only true with Tales of the Black Freighter (the comic within a comic), but throughout the novel. This kind of story telling could only be achieved through the medium of comics. I guess 20 odd years later, some may feel the artwork and coloring might seem a little out of date, look again Gibbons has been clever with the art, even after multipule readings you will still notice something new.
So you might think comics are for kids, think again, within these covers are scenes of violence, rape and child abuse. The scenes are never gratuitous as they are all needed to understand the characters and the world they live in. Watchmen has the kind of depth and poignancy that most comics could only dream of.
Although I hope the film will be good, no film could ever do this justice. Some literary works live on for decades or longer and for me Watchmen is one such work, after all there is a reason why this is considered a classic...IT IS!
If you’ve never read a comic in your life and you only read one, make it this one...go on you deserve it!
"Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says "But Doctor... I am Pagliacci."
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