Ink, Danny Boyle’s origin story of Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of British tabloid The Sun, opened the 83rd Venice Film Festival on September 2 to a charged and largely positive critical response. Adapted by James Graham from his Tony-nominated play of the same name, the film stars Jack O’Connell as The Sun editor Larry Lamb, Guy Pearce as Murdoch, and Claire Foy as Jules Davies, a rare voice of moral hesitation inside the newsroom.
The film releases in select theatres on December 11, 2026, before streaming on Netflix from January 8, 2027. Critics have broadly agreed that Ink is electrifying filmmaking applied to deeply uncomfortable material, though several have questioned whether Boyle’s style can fully outrun the film’s structural repetition.
The story begins on a night in October 1969 when Rupert Murdoch, not yet the media titan the world would come to know, purchases a failing London newspaper called The Sun and appoints an unknown Yorkshireman named Larry Lamb as its editor. Together, they set about reinventing the paper from the ground up, combining far-right political positioning, working-class populism and a ruthless instinct for sensation that would turn The Sun into the most-read newspaper in Britain. That reinvention comes at a moral, ethical and human cost, which the film traces across a timeline extending from 1969 to the present day, where a final montage connects The Sun’s DNA directly to Fox News, Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Deadline’s Pete Hammond was among the most enthusiastic, calling it “thrilling stuff” and describing Boyle’s whip-smart, in-your-face style as the perfect directorial voice for a world built on noise, shock and provocation. He called the film a brilliant origin story, comparing it to the kind of prestige historical drama that reminds audiences exactly how we arrived at today’s media landscape.
Variety’s Guy Lodge gave the film one of its warmest notices, calling it a “gripping, sizzling” Venice opener and describing O’Connell as “superb” as the trailblazing tabloid editor Larry Lamb, both in cahoots and at odds with Guy Pearce’s Murdoch. Lodge called it a propulsive, can’t-look-away account of Lamb’s simultaneously triumphant and regrettable career zenith, adding that the writing captures how “people need stories” in a way that feels contemporary rather than merely historical.
Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri delivered the most rapturous response, describing Boyle as taking a tale steeped in the minutiae of the English newspaper business and turning it into something anthemic and fearsome. He likened the film to Citizen Kane by way of Trainspotting. Ebiri acknowledged that some viewers may take issue with the film going easy on the man who would eventually give the world Fox News, particularly through the casting of the “still-hunky Guy Pearce” as Murdoch, but ultimately concluded that it could infuriate many while also potentially being a masterpiece.
Next Best Picture’s Josh Parham rated the film 7 out of 10, praising Pearce specifically and noting that every moment he appears onscreen becomes a highlight, injecting devilish delight into a twisted character.
One of the most fascinating observations to emerge from the reviews is how the film handles Murdoch himself. The Wrap’s Ben Croll, who gave the film a warm but measured response, noted that despite Pearce’s “rakish charm,” Murdoch ends up as the partnership’s more sympathetic figure, left staring into the camera with a forlorn look that suggests regret over what he has created. It is a genuinely surprising creative choice, and one that has divided critics between those who find it provocative and those who consider it too generous to a man whose legacy is deeply damaging.
Pearce himself told The Hollywood Reporter that Murdoch was “very happy” with his casting, a detail that adds another layer of irony to a film designed to scrutinise the media mogul’s choices.
Jack O’Connell’s performance as Larry Lamb has drawn consistent praise. Variety called him superb, while The Hollywood Reporter noted that his boyish features give new meaning to the word “tyke” and that his transformation from ambitious outsider to morally compromised insider is the film’s true engine. The Wrap described him as carrying a classic devil’s bargain with full conviction.
Claire Foy’s Jules Davies, the newsroom’s reluctant conscience, has also attracted praise, with The Wrap calling her “terrific.” The Guardian, however, noted that her character functions primarily as the “sole, ever-so-slight voice of moral dissent” rather than as a fully developed character in her own right.
The most common criticism concerns the film’s repetitive second act. The Wrap described the relentless, episodic one-upmanship of the tabloid escalation as authentic to the news business, where every day is frenetic yet essentially the same, but argued that the repetition begins to drag over the course of a feature.
IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio, who gave the film a B, described it as “stylistically overcooked,” arguing that the lessons Boyle wants to deliver by the end are predictable. He nevertheless acknowledged that the actors elevate material populated by characters who are never particularly likable but remain constantly fascinating.
The Guardian gave Ink three stars, praising O’Connell while describing the film as a lurid, violent and unsubtle work filled with Dutch angles, cartoony shocks and gargoyle close-ups. Its criticism centres on the lack of restraint, suggesting that the film’s stylistic maximalism occasionally overwhelms the human story underneath.
Boyle himself has been candid about his intentions at Venice press conferences. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he was “not as interested in making a period piece,” arguing that Ink is about the modern world and is designed to show how the trends at The Sun in 1969 directly shaped today’s media landscape. That ambition to use a historical story as a mirror for the present is both the film’s greatest strength and the element that occasionally tips it into didacticism.
Ink opened Venice with the kind of electricity the festival needed: a major British director, a story about power and the press, and a finale that draws a direct line from a failing 1969 newspaper to the information crisis of the present moment. Whether it is a masterpiece or a very good film that tries too hard to be one will likely depend on the individual viewer. What it undeniably is, as Deadline put it, is “thrilling stuff.”
Film Details: Ink
Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: James Graham
Based on: Ink (play) by James Graham
Cast: Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce, Claire Foy, Jonathan Hyde, Lucy Russell, Bertie Carvel, Brian Gleeson, Georgie Henley
Rating: TBD
Runtime: 1 hour 56 minutes
Producers: Danny Boyle, Tessa Ross, Michael Ellenberg
Distributor: Netflix
Theatrical Release: December 11, 2026
Streaming: January 8, 2027
Festival: Venice Film Festival 2026 (Opening Film)
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