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Ballad of a Small Player (2025) is a British psychological thriller directed by Edward Berger and starring Colin Farrell and Fala Chen. Based on Lawrence Osborne’s novel, it follows Brendan Reilly, a disgraced financier hiding in Macau under the alias “Lord Doyle.”
Addicted to gambling and superstition, he spirals through casinos and luxury hotels while growing obsessed with Dao Ming, a mysterious credit broker he meets during the Ghost Festival.
As Reilly’s debts close in, he’s hunted by investigator Cynthia Blithe and betrayed by fellow con man Adrian Lippett. His descent into delirium blurs reality and fantasy when Dao reappears, leading him toward what seems like redemption.
But when he learns Dao has been dead all along, Reilly sacrifices his fortune and burns his winnings, consumed by guilt and the ghosts of his past.
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If viewers enjoyed watching Ballad of a Small Player for its themes of guilt and obsession, then here are seven other psychological thrillers that explore the fragile boundaries between truth and illusion, identity and deception.
Disclaimer: The following list is ranked in no particular order, and the opinions expressed belong solely to the author.
The Machinist, Predestination, and 5 other psychological thrillers to watch if you loved Netflix’s Ballad of a Small Player
1) The Machinist
The Machinist (2004) is a psychological thriller directed by Brad Anderson, starring Christian Bale as Trevor Reznik, a machinist suffering from extreme insomnia and paranoia. His alarming weight loss and detachment from reality blur the line between truth and hallucination.
The film gained attention for Bale’s drastic physical transformation and has since achieved cult status for its eerie atmosphere and psychological depth.
As Trevor’s sleeplessness worsens, he becomes obsessed with a mysterious coworker named Ivan and a series of strange events that seem designed to unhinge him. His search for answers spirals into madness, exposing the devastating power of guilt and the fragile boundary between sanity and delusion.
Like Ballad of a Small Player, The Machinist delves into the psychological collapse of a man haunted by guilt, blurring the boundaries between reality and self-deception as his mind turns against him.
2) Memento
Memento (2000), written and directed by Christopher Nolan, stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man with short-term memory loss who relies on tattoos, photos, and notes to hunt for his wife’s killer.
The story unfolds through two interwoven timelines, one in color running backward and one in black and white running forward, mirroring Leonard’s fragmented grasp of reality and memory.
Memento mirrors Ballad of a Small Player in its exploration of memory and guilt, following a man trapped in a mental maze of his own making while chasing redemption that may not exist.
3) The Game
The Game (1997), directed by David Fincher, stars Michael Douglas as Nicholas Van Orton, a wealthy but reclusive banker whose life unravels after his brother (Sean Penn) gives him a mysterious birthday gift that begins to invade every part of his reality.
As strange events escalate, Nicholas struggles to tell what is real and what is part of the game.
Drawn into a web of paranoia and deception, Nicholas loses control over his wealth and sanity. His desperate search for answers forces him to confront his fears, his past, and the emptiness beneath his success. The Game is a tense psychological thriller about control and awakening through chaos.
Both The Game and Ballad of a Small Player depict privileged men whose illusions of control crumble as they are drawn into elaborate psychological traps that force them to confront emptiness and truth.
4) Predestination
Predestination (2014) is an Australian sci-fi thriller written and directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, starring Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook.
Based on Robert A. Heinlein’s short story All You Zombies, it follows a time-traveling agent on his final mission to stop a terrorist known as the Fizzle Bomber. While undercover as a bartender in 1970s New York, he meets a writer whose life story defies logic and identity.
Predestination shares Ballad of a Small Player’s fascination with fate and self-destruction, using time and identity twists to explore how one’s choices inevitably circle back to haunt them.
5) Coherence
Coherence (2013) is a science fiction psychological thriller written and directed by James Ward Byrkit in his feature debut. The film follows eight friends at a dinner party on the night a comet passes close to Earth.
When a power outage strikes and only one house on the street remains lit, the group ventures out to investigate, triggering a series of bizarre events that expose the existence of parallel worlds.
Like Ballad of a Small Player, Coherence explores shifting realities and identities, trapping its characters in a night that reveals how fragile the concept of self truly is.
6) Moon
Moon (2009) is a science fiction film directed by Duncan Jones and written by Nathan Parker, starring Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell, a lone worker nearing the end of his three-year mission mining helium-3 on the Moon.
Isolated from Earth with only an AI assistant named GERTY for company, Sam begins to experience strange visions and suffers an accident that leads him to discover another version of himself.
Together, the two Sams uncover Lunar Industries’ secret that they are both clones, created to keep the operation running endlessly.
Moon echoes Ballad of a Small Player through its meditation on isolation and moral decay, following a man forced to confront his own copies and the emptiness beneath his purpose.
7) Surveillance
Surveillance (2008) is a crime-horror thriller directed by Jennifer Lynch, starring Julia Ormond, Bill Pullman, and Pell James.
Set in rural Nebraska, it follows two FBI agents investigating a series of brutal murders through the testimonies of three survivors: a young girl, a drug user, and a corrupt cop, each revealing a darker layer of the events that led to a roadside massacre.
Surveillance parallels Ballad of a Small Player in its themes of deception and moral corruption, revealing that those who appear to seek truth may themselves be the architects of horror.
Interested viewers can watch Ballad of a Small Player on Netflix.
