Some people will do anything to move up the corporate ladder regardless of who gets hurt. In Fair Play, director/writer Chloe Domont puts a 21st century spin on classic eighties and nineties style corporate thrillers. Imagine a movie like Disclosure from a female perspective or if the Michael Douglas character happened to be a raving psychopath.
In Fair Play, an unexpected promotion at a cutthroat hedge fund pushes a young couple’s relationship to the brink, threatening to unravel far more than their recent engagement. Domont directs from a script she wrote, with Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton, Dickensian, Snatch) starring as the crumbling couple. The World’s End and 21 Grams actor Eddie Marsan also stars as a corporate puppetmaster pulling the young couple’s strings.
In Netflix‘s Fair Play trailer, Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) are a young couple in love. Shortly after getting engaged, Emily lands a promotion at the hedge fund where she and Luke work. What begins as faux-enthusiasm on Luke’s behalf steadily morphs into jealousy as Emily continues to make moves, leaving Luke, and their relationship, in her wake. As their union starts to deteriorate, the brass reveals their sinister motivations.
“It was a story that was burning inside of me and a story I couldn’t not tell,” the director told Netflix in an interview conducted earlier this year. “I wanted to reckon with some unresolved feelings I had in the past, specifically dating men who I felt were threatened by either my ambition or any little bits of accomplishments.” The film is Domont’s way of sounding the alarm. “These dynamics should no longer be normalized,” she said.
JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray was fortunate enough to attend a screening of Fair Play at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. In his 9/10 review, Chris says Fair Play is a “slick, taut drama with some thriller elements baked in. It’s probably the most entertaining film I’ve seen at Sundance this year.”
Fair Play is produced by Leopold Hughes and Ben LeClair for T-Street, Tim White, Trevor White and Allan Mandelbaum for Star Thrower. Ram Bergman and Rian Johnson for T-Street, Chloe Domont, and Anđelka Vlaisavljević executive produce.
What do you think about Netflix’s Fair Play trailer?
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Fair Play opens in select theaters on September 29, 2023, and releases globally on Netflix on October 13, 2023.