It’s impossible to count the how many movies are on Netflix (and I’ve tried), but most estimates put it at around 7,000 at any given time. Some are obviously more worth watching than others. In this new weekly feature, I’ll put on my cinephile cap and recommend a few for the week, using a variety of metrics like popularity, IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes ratings, and personal preference. This week, gambling drama Ballad of a Small Player has us feeling lucky.
Ballad Of A Small Player
At fourth place in Netflix’s popularity ratings heading into the weekend, Ballad of a Small Player is a cunningly crafted gambling noir set at the tables and back alleys of Macau. Colin Farrell plays a gambling addict posing as an English lord, drifting from casino to casino on his ill-earned reputation. But when things start to catch up with him (as they always do), he encounters an enigmatic woman who turns his luck around, but at what cost?
Casino
For something a little more sprawling, Martin Scorsese’s 1995 epic Casino takes you through decades of organized crime in Sin City. Robert De Niro plays “Ace” Rothstein, a Jewish gangster tasked with overseeing the Tangiers casino on the Las Vegas Strip. His success quickly draws attention from both sides of the law, and the rise and fall of his fortunes is fascinating enough that you won’t notice the film is nearly 3 hours long.
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Director: Martin Scorsese
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Cast: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci
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Genre: Drama
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Rating: R
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IMDb Rating: 8.2/10
It’s What’s Inside
I just caught this 2024 flick, and I’m not quite sure how to categorize it. High-concept sci-fi comedy with a dark underbelly? In It’s What’s Inside, a group of old friends gather together for a party before one of them gets married. One, whom the rest of the group hasn’t seen since college, shows up with a device inside a briefcase that lets people switch bodies. Needless to say, things get confusing, upsetting, and violent really quickly.
Kill Boksoon
For something a little more propulsive, you can’t go wrong with Kill Boksoon, the wildly inventive action thriller from 2023. Jeon Do-yeon stars as Gil Bok-soon, the top-rated contract killer in Korea. When she intentionally botches a job because she refuses to kill a child, her organization puts a bounty out on her, and she must battle old friends while protecting her daughter, who naturally has no idea what Mom does for work.
Recommended by Our Editors
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About Our Expert
K. Thor Jensen
Contributing Writer
Experience
K. Thor Jensen is a writer and cartoonist living in the Pacific Northwest. He has contributed to dozens of prestigious outlets, including PCMag, Tested, Clickhole, and Newsweek. His second graphic novel, Cloud Stories, was released in 2017.
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