Fair Play
Chloe Domont’s directorial debut is a slick navigation through the psychological warfare to play the game of corporate America.
Fair Play is set in the cutthroat bubble of New York’s financial industry. Domont builds the world of finance through the inclusion of numbers vocab, risk analysis, and bro dynamics. She doesn’t try to Hollywoodify for the sake of her audience but throws them into the inner workings with fast dialogue around investments to absorb the logic behind the profession. The simple breakdown is surrounding how decisions to buy and sell are based on what the analysts uncover about each company. They are constantly tracking changing profiles.
Even with the recent era of #Metoo, this specific company has lengths to go to in order to meet the cultural conversation, but that is not a priority here. The only way happiness is experienced in this office is through the gamble on the next deal. This is not a welcoming culture and everyone is aware of it, but they aren’t serving each other, they are serving the market. Fair Play is not a film that sets out to take down this mentality, but to depict how one works through it and in this case a couple.
Zooming into a microscopic look at this lifestyle is Luke and Emily, a recently engaged couple who are revealed to be co-workers in a secret two-year relationship. Their company policy forbids romantic relationships, so the two act as strangers in public communicating through financial jargon and fake small talk. Their dynamic is thrown off when an opening for a Portfolio Manager becomes available and Emily hears a rumor that it is Luke’s job. Unexpectedly Emily receives a late-night call to meet the boss and owner of the company for a drink. During this rendezvous, he reveals the job is hers. Luke’s power breaks when she tells him, resulting in the masking of his disappointment covered with a painful, sincere smile.
Like many corporate jobs, the lifecycle at Crest Capital is short. Employees stay around two years and if they can’t break out into their next career move internally they jump ship. Emily has managed to propel herself as a winner, but it is Luke who is unable to accept this reality. The nature of their relationship is quickly laid out, she is the shark and he is submissive. There is nothing negative about their flip in gender expectations, but for Luke, it is something that he can’t comprehend. It is ruthless but that is the reality of how most companies work, you can get in but not everyone is promised to move up. Especially in the case of Luke, if every power that can elevate you is against you, you can play this game as many times as you want, but the outcome will always be the same: you will lose.
Domont is smart and uses the couple to simultaneously explore female empowerment and the frail male ego. For Luke, this is something he has aspired to his entire life. He can’t think of having a career outside of this and has tried to do everything he can to succeed, but he will always be a loser within the game. He starts to unravel with Emily’s promotion and can’t fathom a world where he lost out to her causing him to justify it by assuming their boss tried a move on her. Even though they are in a committed relationship and he obviously cares for her, this question is not posed for her well-being but to stick a knife in her confidence. His paranoia causes a twisted perception as he picks up small interactions between Emily and those around her to fit his delusion. Domont highlights the pain inside Luke throughout this revelation as everything he has mediocrely worked for has been pulled out underneath him.
A studio film would have used Emily’s elevated position to make a positive change in this toxic environment but Domont sticks to the harsh reality. Even though Emily has gained leverage in her career she still has to play the game within this male-dominated space. Female empowerment is explored in her narrative but not in the typical commercial sense often seen. She can never fully enjoy reaching her goal due to the constant sympathy she has to have for her partner. When she is around the boys she has to play into their egos while keeping her own defense up from her appearance to her mannerisms. In her head, she knows Luke can never have a path to succeed, but she has a chance to flourish and reclaim the confidence Luke has stolen from her.
Domont’s filmmaking mirrors the work of the 90s as she uses ferocious sound design attuned to each character's journey clocking down the moments to implosion and cold cinematography that heightens the destructive nature of this relationship. The steamy script flows the explosive narrative juxtaposing the cruel corporate mentality of space. Domont has recreated the perception of the finance drama by throwing emasculation and women into the mix. In their attempt to be “healthy,” they attach their natural impulses. Similar to Barbie she is not trying to lean into the whole “men are awful” ideology, but to explore unrealistic general expectations put on by society.
By the end, redemption isn’t an option as Crest Capital's boss explicitly states that people in this world sweep the messiness under the rug and return to their religion of the market.