Film reviews: Colin Farrell impresses in Ballad of a Small Player, Gerry Adams speaks

Plus: Roofman stars Channing Tatum as Jeffrey Manchester, an ex-military screw-up estranged from his family and young daughters.

Ballad of a Small Player starring Colin Farrell is released in Irish cinemas on Friday, October 17 and on Netflix on Wednesday, October 29.

• Ballad of a Small Player 
• ★★★★☆
• Cinematic release

You've got to know how to hold ’em, as the song goes, and know when to fold ’em, but Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) is a long way past the gambler’s logic as Ballad of a Small Player (15A) begins.

“A high roller on a slippery slope”, Lord Doyle is every bit as aristocratic as his name suggests, strolling around the gambler’s mecca of Macau in a green crushed-velvet suit with matching cravat, his clipped vowels and stiff upper lip very much that of the English blueblood gone to seed.

Behind the facade, however, Doyle is a working-class Irish chancer guilty of fraud, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and only half a step ahead of the relentless private detective Blithe (Tilda Swinton). 

Scraping rock bottom, Doyle meets the casino fixer Dao Ming (Fala Chen), who sees something worth salvaging in the conniving addict.

But can Doyle prove himself worthy of Dao Ming’s faith? 

Adapted from Lawrence Osborne’s novel by Rowan Joffe, and directed by Edward Berger, Ballad of a Small Player is an hallucinatory fever-dream of a film, one in which Doyle is a self-described “ghost” drifting through the garishly neon-lit streets of Macau encountering all manner of exotic and grotesque characters, including the ruthless gambler Grandma, played by Deanie Ip, and his fellow ex-pat Lippett (Alex Jennings).

There’s always something a little tenderly raw about Farrell’s performances that render them authentic, and here his portrayal of Lord Doyle is that of a repellently parasitic character who is also disarmingly vulnerable and charming as he craves the genuine human warmth he believes he senses in Dao Ming.

Swinton, meanwhile, is terrific comic value as the dedicated but delightfully dotty private eye.

An absorbing drama that engages with addiction, self-delusion and the desire to purge oneself and begin again, Ballad of a Small Player is a strong addition to Farrell’s increasingly impressive body of work.

Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst star in Paramount Pictures' "ROOFMAN."

• Roofman
• ★★★★☆
• Cinematic release

Based on a true story, Roofman (15A) stars Channing Tatum as Jeffrey Manchester, an ex-military screw-up estranged from his family and young daughters.

Determined to make things right, Jeffery hatches a plan to rob a series of fast-food restaurants by entering through the buildings’ roofs; but when his latest robbery is interrupted, Jeffrey finds himself holed up in a Toys ‘R’ Us with no way out.

Making a home in the toy store, and only emerging from his hiding place at night, Jeffrey finds himself drawn to one of the employees, Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), a single mom with a strong Christian faith.

Derek Cianfrance’s comedy noir leans into Channing Tatum’s charisma to create a loveable, goofy anti-hero (“Doing the right thing is not your superpower,” his buddy Steve (LaKeith Stanfield) tells him). 

Whether Jeffrey Manchester was as pleasant and well- intentioned in real life is another matter, but for the most part this is a charmingly improbable yarn.

Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man

• Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man
• ★★★☆☆
• Cinematic release

Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man (12A) is a documentary by Trisha Ziff that charts Adams’ life as “an activist, peacemaker, author” against the backdrop of Northern Ireland’s civil rights movement, the Troubles, and the subsequent peace process.

Essentially, Adams narrates his life story to camera, from his politicisation in the 1960s to his central role in negotiating a peace settlement.

The precise nature of that role is not examined in depth, although Adams does state that he would “never disassociate” himself from the IRA; instead we get his personal experience of discrimination and loyalist pogroms, of internment and the community-led fightback against State-sponsored violence.

There’s no doubting his courage, sincerity, and commitment to that cause, but much of what we see and hear (including the file footage Ziff employs) will already be familiar to those most likely to watch the film, which offers some interesting personal nuggets but little by way of fresh insights of a complex man.