Wondering what to stream on Netflix this week? Look no further than Ballad of a Small Player, coming to the small screen on October 29.
Starring Colin Farrell, Fala Chen and Tilda Swinton in its lead roles, and directed by Conclave and All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger, the new movie transports us to Macau on the south coast of China.
There, we find Lord Doyle (Farrell), a man with a gambling addiction so bad that it’s driven him to the brink of losing everything after borrowing money wherever he can to maintain the illusion of being a Lord (spoiler: he’s not). When investigator Cynthia Blithe (Swinton) confronts Doyle about stealing nearly £1 million from an elderly woman, he goes on the run.
Doyle turns to kind-hearted Dao Ming (Chen), a worker at a local casino, for help, taking him to a safe house where he’s faced with the moral dilemma of finally trying to put things right. But there’s another element of the story at play… how much of what’s happening is merely in Doyle’s head?
Ballad of a Small Player is a wild ride from start to finish, and a well-crafted one at that. But if you are going to stream the new movie this week – and I highly recommend that you do – heed Colin Farrell’s advice that it’s a complete “sensory overload”.
Ballad of a Small Player isn’t just a “sensory overload” on screen, says Colin Farrell
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“It was a mad shoot, it was an insane time in Macau,” Farrell said at an BAFTA Q&A screening. “It’s a very interesting city, full of really extreme contradictions, tons of culture, tons of architectural beauty – from the colonial years to the more garish architectures of the casino strip.
“It’s all as real as the film and script is, and the experience of being there was a real sensory overload. That fed into the work for everyone, both in front of and behind the camera.”
If you’ve not heard of Macau before, I don’t blame you. It exists as an autonomous region across the Pearl River Delta from Hong Kong, and now has the nickname of ‘the Las Vegas of Asia’. You’d be forgiven for thinking Ballad of a Small Player was actually in Vegas for the first few minutes (there’s a pretty accurate replica of The Venetian hotel, for example), but it’s the fusion of worlds in the movie that really elevates the storytelling.
“There’s this lovely, sleepy parts of Macau called Coloane, which is an old fishing town with small, windy streets and small coffee shops and mopeds and Macanese people and very few tourists around,” Farrell adds. The location counts for much of the middle section of the movie, offering up an astonishing U-turn for Doyle.
It’s the only place that allows him to be confronted with his true self without any distractions, and he can hardly handle it. Add this to the overwhelming casino strip and the go-between holding space of Hong Kong (you’ll see what I mean when you watch), and “sensory overload” is the most fitting description you can think of.
Farrell also adds that Ballad of a Small Player is “visually loud,” and it really is the cinematography, location and risk-taking that sets it apart from anything else you’re going to stream on Netflix over the next few weeks. If that’s not enough, just wait for the jaw-dropping score accompanying Doyle’s inner turmoil.
Not convinced to watch it yet? For me, the mid-credits dance scene between Farrell and Swinton is enough reason to stream the new movie alone. They’re not going to be contestants on Strictly Come Dancing anytime soon, but it’s the most unexpectedly perfect way to cap off such a mad-dash adventure.
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