Walking out of Ballad of a Small Player, it's tempting to think that Colin Farrell has, over the last handful of years, entered a new chapter in his career. He stole our hearts in 2021's After Yang, and then earned a long-overdue Oscar nomination for The Banshees of Inisherin a year later.

"The Penguin" star Colin Farrell is very, very excited about Matt Reeves' script for "The Batman Part II," calling it a "masterwork"

Barry Levitt of Empire gives it 2 stars out of 5, saying that while Colin Farrell is great and the film is a visual treat, Ballad of a Small Player is “an impenetrable story of redemption that’s both too obvious and too baffling.” Levitt writes:

The actor was so fearful of the role, he thought about not getting on a plane to the Macau set. But it was a passion project for the director.