No matter how many “good little movies” are screened at Sundance, in the future this festival simply cannot be what it has been if it does not feature films that can break out of the bubble of the independent film world. And look, it's not like a movie has to be one thing or the other! “Fair play” is a perfect example. It's a financial drama, set in a cutthroat New York hedge fund, and it's also a romantic thriller that offers an astute and probing look at sexual politics in the post-#MeToo world.
To put it in vulgar terms: could it be a commercial film? You bet. It's one of the few Sundance films that could fully make its way into the real world, and in an era when movies like "Tár" and "The Fabelmans" have struggled, that makes it a special product. But the key to the film's potential success is not just that it is made in a commercial genre. The thing is, “Fair Play,” while full of sex, money, corporate backstabbing, and a lot of other things that are fun to watch, is actually a good movie.
Director: Chloe Domont
Writer: Chloe Domont
Stars: Phoebe Dynevor, Alden Ehrenreich, Eddie Marsan
It's written and directed by Chloe Domont, a television series director ("Billions," "Ballers," "Clarice") whose first feature film is this one, and Domont has created one of the few films set in the financial world that nails everything about do it (the lingo of numbers, the risk/reward systems, the camaraderie and betrayal between brothers) in a way that is authentic enough to allow us to believe that we are seeing this world as it really is, and not an oversimplified version from Hollywood. “Wall Street,” in the 1980s, was a financial drama that knew how to talk. More recently, those films include “Boiler Room” and “Margin Call.”
“Fair Play” joins its successful company, and part of what is entertaining is that the characters, when analyzing which assets to invest in or abandon, speak so quickly and densely with privileged information that the film does not ask us. to keep up with every word. It asks us to digest the underlying logic of trading: how every decision to buy or sell is based on knowledge about the companies that analysts have connected to with eerily astonishing ease. It's as if they're betting not on horses but on scary 3D holograms whose profiles constantly change.
At the center of the story are Luke and Emily, whom we meet at a wedding, where they are drunk and horny enough to sneak into the bathroom for a quickie. In the heat of the action, Luke drops a small metal object to the ground; It's the engagement ring he plans to offer Emily. He does, she agrees, and they return to her run-down but spacious apartment near Chinatown. The next morning, they leave together on the way to work, then split up and head in opposite directions. But in the next scene, they ride the elevator together, fake chatting on Monday morning, when they arrive at the offices of One Crest Capital.
They both work there as analysts, but have kept their romantic relationship a secret. As we learn, it's not because they are very private; It's because the relationship violates company policy. The film uses this post-#MeToo, all-too-real-world situation to produce scenes that tap into a new flavor of office drama, as the two have to act studiously indifferent toward each other. But after the hedge fund's “prime minister” is fired and his office is vandalized with a golf club, his position is suddenly vacant and Emily, leaning over Luke's multicolored computer screen, can't resist telling him about the story. rumor he heard: that the position is going to be for him. Instead, Emily receives a call during the early hours of the morning, summoning her downtown to have a drink with Campbell (Eddie Marsan), the boss and owner of the company. He lets Emily know that she is, in fact, the one who will be the new prime minister.
As soon as she breaks the news to Luke, he reacts in a textbook-perfect way in the form of warm congratulations and support from her. When he says, "I'm so fucking proud of you," he does so with a wrinkled smile of sincerity. But it's a sign of how subtle the movie "Fair Play" is that we don't need to see Luke's underlying disappointment; we can read it in the vibe of Alden Ehrenreich. He's an actor who I confess I've been depressed about since "Solo: A Star Wars Story," because I thought he was wildly inadequate as young Han Solo. But now I see why. There is something officious about Alden Ehrenreich. He is not a bully; he is a brain mover and shaker.
Watch Fair Play 2023 Movie Trailer
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