Colin Farrell has sneakily become one of the best modern actors in Hollywood. It seems like everything he does is critically acclaimed or becomes a cult favorite. Every week at SiftPop.com, we challenge our writers to choose what they think is the best movie under a certain topic related to a new release. So this week, with the release of Voyagers, we counted down our favorite Colin Farrell movies. Let us know @SiftPop what your ranking is!
Years after the Harry Potter film series wrapped, we got the opportunity to return to the wizarding world with the currently ongoing prequel series that is Fantastic Beasts. I absolutely adore the first movie in this series. As someone who grew up with the Harry Potter series, it’s nice to see a story in this universe that focuses on adults more than children. Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scammander is great and is such a fun main character to follow. He’s already on my list for people who’d make a perfect Doctor Who. Another thing I want to mention is the great supporting cast here. You’ve got Dan Fogler who plays as Newt’s friend Jacob, as he almost steals every scene that he’s in. Katherine Waterston plays his love interest, and Alison Sudol plays her sister. They all work perfectly together and it’s fun to watch them all interact. So if you haven’t seen the first Fantastic Beasts in a while, then I think now is a good time to revisit it. (Alex Henderson)
Frank here to talk about horrible bosses. One day, a couple of buddies and I got drunk and had a fun night fantasizing about just killing ours. The next thing I knew, one of us took it a step too far and started to actively plan their untimely deaths. We got pretty close to pulling it off. It was just all a hilarious time… my FBI guy just informed me there’s a movie about this. [Googles] Well I’ll be danged. This movie has a knock out cast (Charlie Day and Jasons Bateman and Sudeikis) wanting to kill their Horrible Bosses (Colin Farrell, Jennifer Aniston, [Redacted Creep]). Farrell knocks it out of the park in one of my favorite performances as a coked out spoiled boss who inherited the company from his father. It makes me want to see him show off his comedy chops more. (Frank Kemp)
You need to invest in some parachutes. There’s a pattern emerging here. Isn’t it the best when you find a filmmaker who has a style that’s so unique and so much fun that it’s just a blast when they come out with a new movie?! I can’t think of a better example of this kind of filmmaker than Guy Ritchie who, before doing Aladdin, King Arthur, and the Sherlock Holmes movies, made some really special films. Here’s where we get to The Gentlemen. This movie is such a treat and a true return to form that feels nearly perfect in line with Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and RocknRolla. It’s the intersecting narratives like a Tarantino film (but less violent), the comedy from a Shane Black script, the fun of a Matthew Vaughn project, and actors who are just having a blast like in an Edgar Wright movie. Put all this together and you’ve got The Gentlemen: a smart, fun, and silly crime movie that is absolutely worth a watch! (Aaron Schweitzer)
Ya know, it’s hard to believe that phone booths used to be a thing that dotted city sidewalks, what with how cell phones have become so prevalent today, so it’s oddly fitting that this week I watched Phone Booth from a cell phone. It follows our main character Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell), a sleazy character and publicist, who answers a ringing phone booth (never a good idea) and is confronted by a mysterious figure (Kiefer Sutherland) with an ultimatum: change his ways or lose his life. While some of the cinematography near the beginning of the film feels odd, something about a film that spends its entire time focused on a space of less than a square yard, a decision writer Larry Cohen and director Joel Schumacher nailed, makes it enrapturing, knowing every action that the main character takes could determine if they make it out alive. You can feel the tension weighing on Stu as time goes on, as the caller proves at every step that he is a cold, calculated, and smart man who knows everything about his quarry and is prepared for every contingency he might face. Meanwhile, as time goes on and each minute of his time in the phone booth ticks by, you see Stu coming to grips with the poor decisions he has made, including an affair that helps place him in the phone booth, as the NYPD led by Captain Ed Ramey (Forest Whittaker) attempts to diffuse the situation. With tension building minute by minute to a stunning conclusion, Phone Booth is a call you do not want to ignore. (Joseph Davis)
Some movies are made just to be good for the soul. They’re made to feed your inner nostalgic child, and just take you on a generally pleasant journey through a point in time. This is one of those films. Starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney (expert casting there) and Emma Thompson as the writer of the original Mary Poppins novels, this film takes a look at the surprisingly dramatic process for getting the world’s favorite magical nanny onto the big screen. Full of absolute heart, the thing this movie does interestingly is that in amongst the charm and nostalgia, it also shows the depths of despair from which this character was born. As with all films based on a true story, the truth is needing to be taken with a lump of salt. However, the story arc of the past, focusing on the father character played by Colin Farrell, is allowed to be the true heart of the film, which makes the magic in the rest of it so much more. A great choice for any fans of Mary Poppins, old Hollywood, or just great performances, Saving Mr Banks, is just what you need for a cozy night in. (Alice Micheli)
Martin McDonagh has only directed three feature films, but I consider each of them to be a home run. In this case, I’m talking about the 2012 film Seven Psychopaths, which McDonagh wrote and directed. This film is a dark comedy about an Irish screenwriter in L.A. (Colin Farrell) who becomes entangled in the criminal underworld when his friends (Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken) kidnap the dog of a hardened gangster (Woody Harrelson). What follows is an exploration and meditation on storytelling, violence, and to an extent, bigotry as we get deep into the psyches of all of these characters. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it seems like McDonagh only makes a film when he has something meaningful to say, and Seven Psychopaths is infused with meaning, beauty, and love beneath a rough exterior. (Robert Bouffard)
Over the last few years, director Yorgos Lanthimos has proven himself to be a bright beacon of originality when it comes to filmmaking, and a top example of that is with his 2016 sci-fi comedy-drama, The Lobster. The movie tells the story of David (Colin Farrell), who’s taken to a hotel where single people are told that they must find a romantic partner within 45 days or face being turned into an animal of their choice. Farrell delivers a terrific and heartfelt performance that invests you in David’s shyness and socially awkward nature, making you question if he will be able to overcome his nervous personality and find someone with whom he connects. And his chemistry with Rachel Weisz, who plays his potential partner, offers a tinge of hopefulness in the film’s bleak, low-key futuristic setting. Just as Lanthimos accomplished beforehand with Dogtooth and afterward with The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Favourite, he displays his mastery at presenting a story that absorbs you in its off-kilter and unpredictable narrative. If you’re looking for a movie that will introduce you to one of cinema’s modern visionaries, this couldn’t be a better route to take. (Vincent Abbatecola)
As much as Steve McQueen’s Widows is a movie about a group of women planning the heist their husbands – killed in a botched robbery – can no longer undertake, it’s also a movie about money and power in general. Who has it, what is it used for, and most importantly, what are people willing to do to get and/or keep it? Colin Farrell plays Jack Mulligan, de facto heir to the Mulligan family’s seat as alderman, and his performance oozes exactly the right amount of entitlement and false bravado that the role requires from him. His character is used terrifically to highlight the disparity in the community he’s supposed to serve, and how easily public office can become an aspiration for greed instead of service. Hopping back and forth between the desperation people with little means are pushed into and the lengths those who wield powers over others are willing to go to in order to maintain that power, Widows is a film that weaves the threads of its story together masterfully and it’s worth anyone’s time. (Chris Bakker)
If you could prevent a crime before it occurred, would you do so? Even despite the fact that said individual may not have even have thought of committing the crime yet? In 2002’s Minority Report,this question is posed to the audience and is something that Chief John Anderton has to struggle with. John is a broken man after the abduction of his son years prior and takes solace in a system that can predict crimes before they take place. Tom Cruise is excellent in the title role and has a great cat and mouse dynamic with Colin Farrell’s character, Danny Witwer. Danny is an Official of the Justice Department and is a skeptic of a system that makes those do the time without even doing the crime. It is thrilling to see him hunt down the illusive Anderton and the action set pieces are well shot and choreographed. Farrell was an excellent casting choice, as he always appears doubtful and to be questioning everything he sees with the entire PreCog process/PreCrime. He is the perfect foil to Cruise’s Anderton, a man betrayed by the very system he has helped uphold. Among so many Spielberg classics, Minority Report still holds its own among them. (Joe Vargas)
Certain films are guaranteed to send you down a rabbit hole. The first time I caught this black comedy, I immediately went searching out more Colin Farrell. He plays a hitman who is sent to hunker down in the titular town of Bruges (it’s in Belgium) alongside his colleague (played by Brendan Gleeson) to await orders from his boss (Ralph Fiennes) after a botched assignment. Everyone is having a blast with writer/director Martin McDonagh’s rapid-fire dialogue. Farrell is certainly the standout and his chemistry with Gleeson is superb. Fiennes’ filmography is full of memorable villains and this might be his most enjoyable performance—and that’s coming from a huge Potterhead. This film’s sense of humor is certainly not for everyone (it’s vulgar and politically incorrect), but it’s also immensely witty and one of my favorite comedies of the new millennium. (Jake Bourgeois)
Honorable Mentions
Tigerland
With the flak that Joel Schumacher (rightly) received for Batman and Robin, one can forget just how powerful his dramas could be (A Time to Kill and Falling Down,just to name a couple). It is all too easy for a movie like Tigerland to slip past without much notice, which is a real shame, because Tigerland has to rank up there with Three Kings as one of the better non-war, “war” movies ever made. Set in the twilight years of the Vietnam War, Tigerland takes its name from an ultra-realistic training ground that recruits and draftees go through before heading overseas. Colin Farrell, in his first headlining role as Pvt. Bozz, shines as a likeable troublemaker whose self-appointed job is to help his fellow recruits escape their service before deploying, much to the ire of those in command. Tigerland is not perfect — most of the cast follow typical military film caricatures, Farrell’s Texan twang does slip into an Irish lilt here and there, and there are some moments that strain incredulity, but some of Tigerland’s best moments are when Farrell has no choice but to perform, and he shows a very capable soldier beneath his insolent exterior. A lesser movie would have followed a standard path and had him “grown up” and accept the responsibility of an ‘American hero,’ but instead, he resolutely sticks to what he feels is right, leading up to a fairly unexpected ending. This is a sleeper of a Farrell movie that needs to be seen by anyone who considers themselves a fan. (Donald Skidmore)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Have you ever regretted taking your mother to a movie with you? I certainly have, and that movie was The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Was it because it was so bad? On the contrary. This film from Yorgos Lanthimos is an incredible, yet disturbing look at revenge and human nature. The cringe human interactions are poignant, whether it is a detached Colin Farrell (and his impressive beard) avoiding the advances of his proteges’ mother (played by Alicia Silverstone) or Nicole Kidman giving Bill Camp “a hand” for information (that was indeed the moment I could not look at my mother). The technical mastery of Lanthimos is impeccable and this film will leave you devastated while questioning if humanity is worth saving. Oh… Barry Keoghan. He gives a disturbing and evil performance that steals the whole show. (Shane Conto)
Miami Vice
As I’ve discussed in previous BECs, Michael Mann is my favorite filmmaker of all time. He captures his characters in a new light and takes an authentic look at toxic masculinity while also having some of the coolest and most realistic portrayal of gun violence ever seen on film. When people often ask me which film of his is his magnum opus, there is only one answer: Miami Vice, which is in my top five films of all time because Mann understands the assignment. The basic story of the hit television series is a cheesy detective show about two cops who will do whatever they can to save Miami, Florida, while the assignment for the film is to make a realistic portrayal of two undercover cops while also getting tangled into a bit of romance. Sure, they are two obvious sides of the spectrum but that’s what works about this film. Keep in mind this was one of the films Mann started to use his digital cinematography, which he would use for future projects. It deviates from the norm and does not follow the familiar structure the show bases itself off of. Colin Farrell plays a cop who just wants to be in the detective work for himself to feel satisfied and to feel some sort of emotion, while Jamie Foxx takes the detective work completely seriously and wants no distractions. The film shines at displaying what Mann does best — showing toxic masculinity while also intertwining a bit of romance. The structure feels familiar to his 1995 film, Heat, but with a bit of a twist. The film starts to pull for the emotional cord, as you start to feel for the relationship developed by Farrell’s James Crockett and Gong Li’s Isabella. You, as the audience, feel for that emotional longing for something more as much as Farrell does. It is a masterpiece that many overlook in the crime genre and in Mann’s filmography as a whole. (John Bizub)
Also See: The Way Back (2010), Crazy Heart, Daredevil, Epic, S.W.A.T.