Every ten years or so an independent film comes along that defines that decade and cements independent’s continued existence in cinema culture. It’s the tail end of this decade but that movie has finally been released. “Ink”, written and directed by Jamin Winans, is that film. “Ink” feels like a cross between “Pan’s Labyrinth”, “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, and “The Matrix” (but with a much better story). It is almost unfair for me to review this movie, because there is almost nothing negative that I could find while I watched it.

The story involves the people that look over and protect us while we sleep and dream. These are the people that control whether we have good dreams or nightmares. Some are good and some are evil. A little girl becomes a captive in her own dreams one night and is taken through a journey to a place known only as “The Assembly” to become some sort of sacrifice so that a mysterious figure, her captor, known only as Ink might find some piece of solace in the dream world. Along the way, another prisoner is taken who is a young woman called “The Storyteller” who calms the young child with inspirational tales to empower her as they travel through the dreamworld. While this journey is occurring, another one is happening as well. A group of warriors who travel the dreamscape protecting people from bad dreams are on Ink’s trail and are determined to find out why Ink took this particular girl. The plot stays fairly vague until the end, but gives us great visuals, dialogue, and interesting characters to follow along the way.

The visuals in this film exceed more than 90% of the Hollywood blockbuster movies that I’ve seen in the last five years. “Ink”’s editing and cinematography are what other independent film creators should strive to accomplish with their films (and not just thriller/action movies, but all movies could take a cue from how the visuals are handled in this movie). If there was a bell curve for rating independent movies, then “Ink” has totally ruined it for most others.

The acting, particularly that done by Quinn Hunchar who plays the kidnapped child Emma, is done really well and it can really be seen on screen that the actors and actresses have a passion for this project. They express wide ranges of emotions, do wonderful bouts of action which sometimes come off very dance-like, and have great timing in the small comedic parts that are interspersed throughout the film. Jamin does an excellent job of wrangling his cast and keeping the performances tight.

On that note, the movie itself is very tight, with very little in the way of extraneous footage shown. The editor (also Jamin Winans) cut this film like a Shakespearean play. He knows how to build up the suspense and tension in a scene, and also how to give the audience a quick breather in order to prepare us for the following scenes. The scenes feel like a play as well, most of them occuring on differing sets as the characters make their respective journeys. The sets match the moods and tones of the scenes perfectly and it is very difficult to spot the use of green screen versus practical sets.

There is so much more going on with this movie in the independent film world that I could be speaking about but is not relevant to this review. That being said, I’ll leave it to you to seek out more information on this movie and some of the groundbreaking things that are going on with it. I could not recommend this movie more. Not only would I recommend it to a general audience, but also as an educational and inspirational tool for other indie filmmakers. Just as Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, and Steven Soderbergh were the voice of independent film in the early 90’s, Jamin Winans should be the voice of the indie film movement going into the next decade.

“Ink” – You’ve Been Snobbed!