Ink

Speaking of movies that are unlike all other movies...
Ink is awesome. I don't mean that in a slangy way. I'm being quite literal. I'm in awe of this movie. It's one of those movies that's so good it made me pretty much give up on ever making my own movie. I could never make something this powerful. (Although I guess that was never my goal. Nevermind, everybody, maybe I will make a movie someday.)
The premise is basically that, when you're sleeping, if you have good dreams they're given to you by a Storyteller and if you have bad dreams they're given to you by an Incubus. A little girl is taken into the dreamworld by a sort of an Incubus-In-Training and a bunch of Storytellers are trying to save her, but they need her dad in order to do so.
That's all I can tell you. Hell, I feel like I've already said too much.
One of the reasons this movie is incredible is the fact that I loved it. It's extremely serious, it's very deep and meaningful, there's pretty much no humor in it at all and it's really artsy. Those tend to be the sort of thing that make me hate a movie. I guess I just hadn't seen serious, deep, artsy movies made by talented filmmakers before. (Sorry, Steve Balderson; I liked your casting but Firecracker kinda blows.)
And I cried through the whole thing. Not even five minutes in I was choked up and the closer it got to the end the weepier I got, to the point where I was sobbing and punching myself in the leg and begging the movie to have a happy ending. (I'm not going to tell you whether or not I got one.)
It's the only movie I've ever seen where I felt like all that emotional turmoil I went through was worth it. Generally if a movie wrecks me like that I hold a grudge forever. "Fuck you, you made me cry!" I don't feel that way about Ink.
My one complaint is really minor, and it's the design of the Storytellers. The Incubi are fucking terrifying. They're definitely human but they're also complete monsters and if I ever saw one in real life I'd lose my mind from fear. The Storytellers, on the other hand, are like a bunch of college students whose natural habitat is an audition for a community theater production of Rent. That's not a good thing. We're supposed to be rooting for these people, you couldn't do anything to make them at least a little bit more interesting?
But overall that complaint is tiny because I did root for the Storytellers. It took me a minute to get used to them, but they didn't really detract from the movie.
I wish I could better describe what impressed me about Ink, but I don't know how.
I've seen movies that have tried, on a very base level, to do what this movie has done. It's shown out of order, sort of, and it's artistically and plotfully dense. However, it never made the mistakes that other movies I've seen of that style make: it never made me feel stupid, it never made me feel like it thought it was better than me. If anyone else had made this movie I'd probably be verbally ripping it to shreds right now.
And, the most amazing part is I understood it. Usually with a movie of this scope, with this much plot, it takes me a day or two to figure out what I saw and what happened, but I didn't have a problem with Ink. It's a rich, intelligent movie that even a ding dong like me actually understood without having to sleep on it.
Much as I loved it, I think I'll only ever watch it again to show it to other people who have never seen it. It's a beautiful movie but it isn't something you watch for fun. I'll never get rid of it but I'll almost never watch it, either.
And I don't say this very often, especially not about movies that break all the rules of what I usually like about movies, but I think everyone should see Ink.
Or not. Whatever. I'm not the boss of you.

End of line.
-Sally