‘Fair Play’ Is the Workplace Erotic Thriller You Didn’t Know You Needed. Here’s How to Watch It.
Spotted! Daphne Bridgerton without her petticoat. Netflix’s royal darling is on our screens once again, this time in her erotic thriller era. Fair Play, a new thriller starring Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich, landed on Netflix on October 6, holding firm among the streamer’s top 10 most popular titles in the days since. The film follows a hedge fund power pairing whose secret office relationship is shaken when the unthinkable happens. She—a driven, intelligent, talented employee with a vagina—gets a coveted promotion over him—a man.
Passive aggression fueled by centuries of gender-based dismissal aside, Fair Play offers a sharp and hot look at workplace power dynamics—in 2023’s hottest setting, no less. In the hot shadows of Succession and Industry, corporate America, and more specifically the finance sector, has become New York’s hottest club. Maybe it’s the years of sweatpant-clad remote work that have us horned up at the sight of a blazer.
Fair Play is not the first film to analyze workplace power dynamics, but it may be the first one to be honest in its portrayal. The director, Chloe Domont, has said the film is really about one thing—“male fragility.” Following Emily’s (Dynevor) promotion, Ehrenreich’s Luke begins to lose any and all sense of chill—both personally and professionally. His downward spiral becomes a total freefall as her measured success builds, seeing him fold into the only power he feels he has left—physical. We’ll stop there for the sake of spoiling your new favorite movie.
Where Can I Watch Fair Play?
Fair Play is streaming on Netflix, having been sold to the streamer for $20 million following an intense bidding war. The film made waves at Sundance Film Festival in early 2023, and continues to thrill and provoke audiences. That’s right, provoke.
Of the film’s reception, Domont told ELLE, “Couples that have come to early screenings, you see them start to fight on their way back to the car—like the man will say something, and then his girlfriend will slowly look at him like, 'That’s what you thought?' So yeah, I can’t wait to break people up. I’m here for it.”
If you ask us, Fair Play should be used as a litmus test. Watch it with your husband, your boyfriend, or your situationship. Follow up the screening with a book-club style discussion. See what you’re working with. Affirm, correct, or run as fast as you can.
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