Colin Farrell’s 5 Best Movies & TV Shows, Ranked According To Rotten Tomatoes

This article contains discussion of addiction and sexual assault.

It’s been a long time coming, but the world finally knows, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Colin Farrell is one of the best actors currently working today. The Irish-born performer got his start in genuinely great projects like “Minority Report,” but when he followed that particular film with filler thrillers like “The Recruit” and “S.W.A.T.,” it became easy to overlook his talent. (His turn as Bullseye in Ben Affleck’s dud “Daredevil” didn’t help either.) In 2008, though, he starred in Martin McDonagh’s drama “In Bruges” alongside Brendan Gleeson — two collaborators he’d team up with again years later — and in recent years, Farrell’s projects have skewed more towards quality like “In Bruges” rather than, say, “Alexander.”

The point here is that Colin Farrell has appeared in some pretty excellent projects, and he’s really good in all of them — so here are the top five Colin Farrell projects on both the big and small screen based on their Rotten Tomatoes ratings.

Colin Farrell isn’t the star of the 2009 drama “Crazy Heart” — Jeff Bridges plays the film’s central figure, Otis “Bad” Blake — but his character Tommy Sweets drives a decent amount of the film’s action and he actually sings his own songs. (He’s pretty good!) Basically, Farrell’s Tommy is the young successor to Otis, an aging country music star struggling with alcoholism who now plays small gigs in bars. Throughout the movie, Otis, who is estranged from multiple ex-wives and his children, begins a romantic relationship with journalist Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and tries to collaborate with Tommy, but as it turns out, Tommy would prefer to remain a solo act and just license Otis’ original songs.

This all works out for the best — Otis basically retires and, as a result, makes a mint from Tommy performing his music as the younger man becomes a bigger star. Farrell is a perfect counterpart to Bridges, who earned most of the film’s praise, but critics generally liked the film’s portrayal of a familiar tale; as David Denby wrote in The New Yorker, “If ever a movie demonstrated how country music emerges from private sorrows, this is it.”

After playing the classic DC comics villain in Matt Reeves’ 2022 reboot “The Batman,” Colin Farrell is donning his prosthetics from that film once again for “The Penguin,” an original HBO series chronicling the kingpin’s criminal activity in Gotham and his strained relationship with the recently incarcerated crime heiress Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti). Farrell was an absolute delight in “The Batman” as Oz, a man whose demeanor and exterior mask the fact that he’s a borderline brilliant criminal mastermind willing to stop at nothing to overtake Gotham — and guess what? You’ll be pleased to know he’s also excellent in “The Penguin,” which lets him take center stage by sidelining Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader.

Even though its first season is only just getting underway, critics have soundly praised Farrell’s turn in “The Penguin” (as well as his leading lady Milioti, a welcome presence in literally any project). /Film’s own Chris Evangelista loved Farrell’s performance; though he had some misgivings about the show overall, he wrote, “Whatever the flaws of ‘The Penguin,’ the series is elevated by Farrell’s layered performance — the show and the actor aren’t afraid to make Oz one of the most unlikable main characters on TV.” Over at The Daily Beast, Nick Schager was downright effusive where Farrell was concerned, writing, “Thanks to an outright phenomenal lead performance by Colin Farrell as the iconic villain, it proves as engrossing and exciting as a Batman-adjacent show could hope to be.”

Justice for “Widows!” Steve McQueen’s heist drama — which is anchored by a murderer’s row of actors like Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, and Cynthia Erivo — was criminally underrated when it was released in 2018, and if you forgot Colin Farrell was even in this movie, I completely get where you’re coming from. (Daniel Kaluuya and Brian Tyree Henry, two other members of the supporting cast, tend to dominate any conversations about the male characters in “Widows,” which is fair to them — they’re outstanding — and unfair to Farrell at the same time.)

The gist of “Widows” is that after Davis’ Veronica Rawlings loses her husband Harry (Liam Neeson) during a botched bank heist, she decides to finish the job … and assemble other crime widows to help her. Where does Farrell come in? He plays a supporting role as Jack Mulligan, a Chicago politician whose powerful father Tom (Robert DuVall) is pressuring him to run for an alderman position against crime boss Jamal Manning (Henry). Farrell’s great as Jack, but it’s really the ensemble that makes this movie tick; as Alissa Wilkinson wrote in her review for Vox, “A cast this stacked can’t help but generate glory.”

Unfortunately, Colin Farrell’s five-episode BBC miniseries “The North Water” (directed by “All of Us Strangers” auteur Andrew Haigh) flew way under the radar when it came out in 2021 — he’s excellent in it, and the whole series is definitely worth watching. Alongside Jack O’Connell (“Godless”) as Patrick Sumner, a surgeon on the whaling ship Volunteer, Farrell plays the vessel’s coxswain and harpooner Henry Drax, who has a seriously dark past. (Honestly, “The North Water” is a really brutal show that depicts a lot of sexual violence and other upsetting things; approach it with some caution.) Farrell’s Henry is, without question, the absolute worst guy on the show. He’s violent, unstable, and routinely sexually assaults other crew members on board the Volunteer — so you certainly won’t be rooting for him if and when you watch “The North Water.”

Farrell is terrifying as Henry, and though he’s entirely unsettling on “The North Water,” critics loved his performance. Some, like John Doyle writing for Globe and Mail, singled him out: “This might be Farrell’s best work yet. His Drax is a believable monster of a man, uncivilized in thought and action, epitomizing the rawness under the surface of Victorian niceties.” Again, it’s worth noting that this project came out in 2021 … before Farrell gave yet another career-best performance in his second collaboration with Martin McDonagh and Brendan Gleeson.

What if your best friend told you he didn’t want to hang out any more and went to genuinely twisted lengths to prove it? That’s the main conflict explored in Martin McDonagh’s brilliant 2022 dark dramedy “The Banshees of Inisherin,” which begins when the simpled-minded Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell) can’t figure out why his best friend Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson) is giving him the cold shoulder. As it turns out, Colm really wants Pádraic to stop talking to him and he’ll do just about anything to make his point (including severing his own fingers). Why? Colm just thinks Pádraic is really boring, and he’s sick of him. No, really; that’s it.

“The Banshees of Inisherin” is a perfect showcase for both Gleeson and Farrell — as well as Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan, who play supporting roles as Pádraic’s sister Siobhán and downtrodden local boy Dominic Kearney — so it makes sense that Farrell earned his first-ever Oscar nod for the role. (Condon and Keoghan picked up nominations as well). His take on Pádraic — an earnest but admittedly dull Irishman — is both charming and devastating, and critics took notice as well; Peter Travers at ABC News said in his review that the movie contains “career-best” performances from Gleeson and Farrell alike and anointed it as one of 2022’s very best films.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN’s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).