Movie Review #3

Ink by Jamin Winans

1) Provide a description of the film. Discuss the plot and characters and how they influenced the film. Was the plot line or character development more important? Why?
In the film "Ink", directed by Jamin Winans, we see a war.  A war between two forces, fighting over our souls.  One fights for good, by providing good dreams, feelings, and images in an attempt to thwart the their opponents, the Incubus.  The Incubus are a group of people who attempt to steal souls human beings through nightmares and feelings of maliciousness.  The movie follows a little girl, Emma, who was kidnapped by a cloaked, grotesque man named Ink.  Ink wants to give her to the Incubus so he can join their group.  The only way to save her from losing her soul forever to the Incubus is a group of storytellers, who's job is to disrupt the incubi that are trying to corrupt the father John by making him do business instead of caring for his daughter.  At the hospital is where Emma's earthly body is held, John must confront himself with who he has become since the passing of his wife and remember who he once was when his wife was still alive, more than once.

The character development was the most important.  The plot was set in stone from the beginning and never really changed.  The whole film is about character development.  We even see sinister forces like Ink go through a major character change, good or bad, that effectively changes the entire supposed outcome.  Other characters, like the band of storytellers tasked with getting the girl back and rescuing John from the Incubus that are slowly corrupting his mind, go through emotional gauntlets that rarely let up, leaving them to bond closely with each other, strengthening their relationship while they desperately fight for the lives and souls of a man and his young daughter.


2) Think critically about how the film was shot, directed, use of lighting, etc. What do you think was effective in the making of the film? What took away or could have been done differently to enhance the film?
The film was shot in two ways.  One for the real world, and one for the spiritual.  The real world just uses more lighter colors, and everything seems bland and everyone is boring.  The spiritual world is used in a couple ways.  When the incubus are nearby, the screen goes greenish and highlights glowing lights, such as the incubus' glasses.  When the storytellers are in control, the light goes heavenly, and the colors are cool.  This is relaxing, especially for the viewer as the incubus and their darkening aura around them can leave the viewer feeling suffocated.

3) What is you overall opinion of the film? Would you recommend it? Why/why not?

Overall, I highly reccomend this film to anyone who is a fan of cult classics like "Donnie Darko", "The Matrix", or "Pan's Labyrinth".  It provides a story with iconic characters like Ink, Liev, and even insignificant characters like the ugly bride stuck in the spiritual world, obsessed with vanity and treats any women with more beauty than her cruelly, are rememberable.  The film is also a good metaphor for the battle between evil and good on different levels, such inner thoughts like depression and denial, two of which John experiences consistently.

Good Will Hunting Review

1) Describe the Film

The film is about a trouble young man who works as a janitor at M.I.T.  He then gets involved with one of the teachers when Will, the protagonist, solvs a very difficult problem on a chalk board in a hallway. Professor Lambeau hunts down Will after catching him solving another one of his problems, and finds him in a jail cell, where he has been charged with assault, for a fight he had with a group of other locals.  The professor takes him out of jail and his rough life and teaches him, and brings him to multiple therapists, where, an old friend of Lambeau, who is also from the same rough neighborhood as Will, works with him.  Sean Maguire, played by Robin Williams, works with Will on his issues with other people and using his talented gift of solving mathematical equations that others could barely comprehend to get out of his violent neighborhood.

2) What did you notice about the writing in the film.

The writing was simple.  It was short lines, with little words.  The diction was simple, as it should be because some characters in the film were clearly uneducated after high school.  The cussing, in my opinion, is necessary.  Everyone cusses now and then, and not putting it in the movie, especially for people from Boston, is a crime.  It also adds another part of the "rough life" factor that Will has.

3) What was a favorite line from the film?  Why?

My favorite line is when Sean, Robin Williams' character, after being verbally ripped apart by Will the first time they met, gives it right back to Will, and shows his dominance over Will.  Showing Will his not unlike others, and the he himself, Sean, lived a very similar life as Will.

4) This film won an Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay).  Do you think it deserved this award? Why or Why not?

Yes, it deserved the award.  It's a great screenplay that accurately shows gifted youth with troubled lives.  Furthermore, it shows people who have had to live with not even a respectable father or mother.  And why people like Will, end up with people like Chuckie Sullivan, played by Ben Affleck, who is a friend of Will Hunting in the film.  It's also a different take on boy genius, done in an urban setting.