she has a formative memory of watching 1981's Oscar-winning Reds co-written and directed by and starring Warren Beatty But that's one of those classics I feel like will never I knew that I wanted to be a screenwriter at a pretty early age because I grew up on movies," she reflects "I was making short films by the end of high school That's where I transitioned more into directing Fair Play ignited a bidding war before being bought up by Netflix it unlocked something for me as a writer and a filmmaker," Domont explains "I got very clear about the kinds of films I want to make: I want to make films that take people on a ride I want to keep people on the edge of their seat I want to explore provocative shades of gray and I want to make films that shock people and ultimately have something really piercing to say at the end." the writer-director shares with A.frame the five films that made the biggest impact on her "I think everything has to build to that last line Icon_Audio-Video_-PlayCreated with Sketch.Where to watchDirected by: Sidney Lumet | Written by: Paddy Chayefsky Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay is unbelievable It's explosive and provocative and has some profound things to say and it's entertaining and it's funny and it's heartbreaking I always believe there's not much you can do if you don't have something on the page and I think — the best movies — it all starts with the script it's no surprise that the performances are insane most complicated female characters that you've seen on-screen And I would just say it's a master class in tone The scene when they're backstage in the newsroom and no one's paying attention to Howard Beale and he announces that he's going to kill himself and then the scripty that's looking at the script notices that wasn't a line 'Howard just said he is going to kill himself,' but the producer's flirting with an assistant 'Howard just said he was going to kill himself.' That scene blew my mind He's my number one in terms of directors Icon_Audio-Video_-PlayCreated with Sketch.Where to watchDirected by: Stanley Kubrick | Written by: Stanley Kubrick and Frederic Raphael Eyes Wide Shut is my favorite Kubrick movie and it's also a film that you can't completely figure out That's exciting and I think also important I'm drawn to films centered around a relationship or the unraveling of a relationship but what he does with the mystery elements of it and everything that's surrounding the unraveling of this marriage it's definitely by far my favorite of his I feel like it has the greatest ending line of any movie They're in FAO Schwartz and the kid's shopping we have to do something really important.' He goes It's the greatest last line of a film ever and how that speaks to people in relationships and merit Icon_Audio-Video_-PlayCreated with Sketch.Where to watchDirected by: Peter Bogdanovich | Written by: Alvin Sargent I think Paper Moon is one of the greatest heist movies of that genre And a father-daughter story will always gut me the last scene just absolutely breaks my heart And the way you slowly see her run up the hill and they reunite The way that that's shot and the way the tension builds to that final moment Icon_Audio-Video_-PlayCreated with Sketch.Where to watchWritten and Directed by: Maren Ade because there aren't that many good ones but you rarely have father-daughter stories It is so hilarious in such an uncomfortable way and that to me is entertainment — when you're laughing because you're so uncomfortable The characters are so extraordinary and complicated and ugly and what they are doing to each other — you have no idea where it's going to go The scene where he comes in in the big f**king costume is one of the greatest scenes of physical comedy I've ever seen And when characters are pushed emotionally to the brink when she's pushed to the place where she decides to host her party without any clothes because she can't find something to wear that verge of emotional breakdown is just so inspiring Icon_Audio-Video_-PlayCreated with Sketch.Where to watchWritten and Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson And I feel like if it was any year other than the year of No Country It is epic on every single level: The way it is shot That film is electric on every level — on a filmmaking level but also as an audience and a fan just watching that film I love watching two people try and destroy each other I love watching people go after each other on every single level — emotional abuse The Community Fund of Darien welcomes Darien resident — an announcement from The Community Fund of Darien Maggie has a deep connection to the community and a strong commitment to humanitarian work both of which align with the mission of The Community Fund of Darien Maggie Domont will be the new executive director of The Community Fund of Darien Maggie attended Deerfield Academy in Western Massachusetts before earning her Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University She brings experience to The Community Fund of Darien from her previous roles at St where she successfully ran seven years of annual appeals as the director of stewardship served as the communications director and hosted parish-wide events Maggie held positions at both Christie’s and Sotheby’s “I am honored to be carrying the torch of success passed on by my predecessor King is retiring after six years at the helm of the organization “The Community Fund of Darien recently celebrated a record-breaking year of grant allocations to benefit our community fueled by the community’s generous philanthropy popular fundraising events and a corps of dedicated volunteers focused on the well-being of our neighbors.” With three daughters in the Darien school system Maggie is passionate about initiatives that support youth development and well being “I am eager to continue to expand programs that help our youth thrive by addressing mental health “The addition of a TeenTalk counselor at Middlesex Middle School and the collaborative work behind the scenes with our youth groups and other dedicated organizations in town are just a few examples of the programs we need to spotlight.” Maggie hopes to inspire the community to invest in its future through contributions to The Community Fund “I want to share the message that The Community Fund of Darien is one donation that every resident should consider Our thorough vetting process ensures support for over 35 top-performing local nonprofits delivering essential life-changing services to neighbors and friends It’s an investment in the future of our town has granted over $28 million to local nonprofits and community initiatives impacting thousands of lives in our community The Community Fund’s local investments target basic needs Community initiatives include the Thriving Youth Task Force The Human Service Planning Council (HSPC) and the Touch-a-Life program and TeenTalk Counselors in Darien High School and Middlesex Middle School The Community Fund of Darien granted over $790,500 to 36 vetted local nonprofits providing our neighbors access to basic needs The organization prides itself on its extensive volunteer base of residents who guide grant-making and annual prioritization of local needs meriting support Visit the Community Fund website for more information about volunteering or donating A Twitter List by TheDarienite Dog Licenses are available beginning June 1 and it will cost dog owners more if they don't get a new license by June 30 according to an announcement on the Darien government website a dog researcher and author of "The Year of the Puppy: How Dogs Become Themselves," will share her knowledge and insights in a presentation at New Canaan Library on Thursday evening and it comes at a time when animal shelters and rescue groups across the country are overflowing with dogs of all breeds Journey below the surface of the ocean and experience life through the eyes of a sea turtle in the awe-inspiring “Turtle Odyssey 4D” now playing at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk along with “OCTOPUS: Blue Planet II 4D Experience.” (more…) Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News Indiana as more than 3,300 of the country’s top youth runners competed for their shot at a national title at the USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships Anticipated rain was nowhere to be seen as cloud cover lifted halfway through the day and the sun stayed out through the final race of the day as a dozen individual champions were crowned.  A website dedicated to all things film-related This year’s 12th edition of the Scary Movies festival at Film at Lincoln Center premiered Ari Aster’s extended version of “Midsommar” this past Saturday Netflix had a chart-topping hit with Chloe Domont’s “Fair Play,” starring Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor an erotic wall-street thriller that premiered at Sundance to raves but was soon picked up by the streamer for $20 million Let’s see if Domont goes back to Netflix for her next film, titled “A Place in Hell,” starring Michelle Williams and Daisy Edgar Jones. It’s the latest hot package being put together by MRC and T-Street (via Deadline) Described as a thriller following two women at a high profile criminal law firm Domont’s latest seems is rumored to be keeping the high-stakes setting and power dynamics of “Fair Play.” Bidding on the project is set to begin next week Advertise Donate Privacy Policy ‘Caine’: Rina Sawayama Returns As Badass Akira In ‘John Wick’ Spinoff Directed By Donnie Yen Rian Johnson Counters Netflix CEO’s Comments On “Outdated” Theatrical Model: “Theatrical Is Not Going Anywhere” ‘Together’ Trailer: NEON’s Buzzy Horror Flick Heads To Theaters July 30 Marvel Officially Announces ‘Thunderbolts*’ Real Title Is ‘The New Avengers’ ‘American Psycho’: Chloë Sevigny & Patrick Schwarzenegger Want In On Luca Guadagnino Remake 16 Must-See Films To Watch In May:  ‘Thunderbolts*,’ ‘Phoenician Scheme,’ ‘Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning’ & More 10 Must-Watch TV Shows In May: ‘Poker Face,’ ‘Dept. Q,’ ‘Murderbot’ & More ‘Thunderbolts*’ Review: Marvel’s Shamed Misfits Defeat Self-Doubt & Find Their Heroic Purpose ‘Andor’ Season 2: Tony Gilroy Talks Emotional Consequences, Expanding Rebellion & Why He’s Done With ‘Star Wars’ [The Rogue Ones Podcast] ‘The Pitt’ Review: Max’s Engrossing Medical Drama Is ‘ER’ Meets ‘24’ With A Little ‘Industry’ ‘Poker Face’ Season 2 Review: Natasha Lyonne’s Detective Series Takes Big Swings With Absurdist Mysteries ‘The Gilded Age’ Trailer: Love Conquers All or Costs Everything In Season 3 ‘Shogun,’ ‘Baby Reindeer,’ ‘Fantasmas’ Top 2025 Peabody Awards Winners Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo Will Start The ‘Wicked For Good’ Promo Campaign On ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ ‘Havoc’: Gareth Evans Talks Tom Hardy, Virtual Cameras, Christmas Violence & The Possibility Of ‘The Raid 3’ [The Discourse Podcast] Patti LuPone Revisits An Emotional ‘Agatha All Along’ Journey And, Yes, She Really Does Love The New ‘Sunset Boulevard’ Exclusive: Lydia B. Kollins On Her “Automatic Yes” To ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ ‘Salvable’ Review: Toby Kebbell & Shia LaBeouf Can’t Help This Boxing Drama To Feel Original ‘Electra’ ‘Review: Maria Bakalova, Daryl Wein Star In A Genre-Confused Romp With Little To Say ‘Havoc’ Review: Tom Hardy & Director Gareth Evans Deliver Maximum Sicko Mode Chaos In Slight, But Entertaining Cop Thriller ‘MobLand’: Tom Hardy On Shakespearean Gangsters, ‘Havoc,’ & Why The Spider-Man/Venom Team-Up Never Happened [Bingeworthy Podcast] ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Teaser Trailer: Spike Lee’s A24 Cannes-Bound Ransom Thriller Stars Denzel Washington ‘Sally’ Trailer: Acclaimed Sundance Doc About Trailblazing First Woman To Blast Into Space [Ned] ‘Everything’s Going To Be Great’ Trailer: Bryan Cranston & Allison Janney Star In A Show Business Dramedy Premiering At Tribeca Tony Awards 2025: George Clooney, Cole Escola, Sarah Snook, Nicole Scherzinger, Sadie Sink Land Nominations ‘Adolescence,’ ‘The Pitt’ & ‘Dying For Sex’ Top 2025 Gotham Television Awards Nominations Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, Alba Rohrwacher Join 2025 Cannes Film Festival Jury Here’s some buzzy casting news for your Friday afternoon. Deadline reports that “Fair Play” director Chloe Domont has lined up her leading ladies for her sophomore effort entitled “A Place In Hell.” So who’s Domont working with next READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2025 Michelle Williams and Daisy Edgar-Jones will star in Domont’s next thriller as two women working in a high-profile criminal law firm Domont writes and directs the pic with MRC and T-Street producing and they’ll also handle the film as it hits the market for studios like there were with 2023 Sundance favorite “Fair Play?” Count on it Williams’ recent work includes Steven Spielberg‘s”The Fabelmans” and Kelly Reichardt‘s “Showing Up,” both from 2022 part of FX On Hulu‘s limited series “Dying For Sex.”   she’s fresh off her introduction into blockbusters in last year’s “Twisters.” Up next for the actress “On Swift Horses” with Jacob Elordi which had its world premiere last year at TIFF and hits theaters on April 25 Stay tuned for more info on “A Place In Hell” as it comes The Playlist is a leading film and television website critical takes and more for the film community at large from moviegoers to entertainment industry players to the modern-day binge-happy viewer Growing in reach over the last eight years in all forms of destination traffic and social media our loyal audience looks to The Playlist as an ahead-of-the-curve tastemaker for celebrating both contemporary and new cinematic voices Contact us: [email protected] © Copyright - ThePlaylist.net All Rights Reserved Jean-Pierre will be sadly missed and remembered with love by his family, his son Anthony and partner Samia, his daughter Diane and partner Jean-Marie, his grandsons Armand and Niall, his brothers-in-law and sisters-in-laws, his nieces and nephews, his cousins, relatives and extended family and a wide circle of friends. If you wish to leave a message of sympathy , please do so via the condolence section below. Funeral Service.css-h76uj{display:inherit;margin-right:-4px;margin-left:8px;}Cremation / BurialDate Published: CondolencesDonate to CharityWould you like to mark a birthday memorial mass or anniversary for a Loved One?You can now create a family notice on RIP.ie to remember your loved one Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page *It’s our annual “Best of the Year” look back at some of our favorite interviews from the year writer/director Chloe Domont‘s feature debut is somehow both an old-school erotic thriller and a shrewd scalpel-sharp dissection of how far we have and have not come with gender equality in the workplace and in the headspace of men The film is largely set at the hedge fund One Crest Capitol where Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) are low-level but promising analysts trying to take the next step in their careers The vibes at One Crest Capitol are deeply dog-eat-dog with the only trappings of a more enlightened age evidenced by a policy against intra-office romance This is why Emily and Luke keep their engagement a secret and all seems to be going to plan until one of the firm’s PMs (portfolio manager) is unceremoniously fired—he takes his rage out on a couple of computer monitors—and a promotion for Luke to fill the role seems nigh turning the erotics depicted between the couple in the film’s early going into the thriller Fair Play becomes While Luke plays at being both supportive and excited about Emily’s promotion things between them go from tense to terrifying Domont explains how she crafted one of the finest erotic thrillers in years by setting out not to make a female revenge fantasy but rather an exploration of that most exquisitely fragile of constructs—the male ego Can you tell me about researching the hedge fund world and they put me in touch with some hedge fund guys it started with me taking them out for drinks and getting some of them drunk and asking basic questions take me through your day from the moment you get up to the moment you go to bed I wanted a full picture of what the day-to-day is like I asked about tensions and dynamics between an analyst and a PM What are the most frustrating moments you’ve experienced with your superior How do you treat someone who’s beneath you then I shared it with them and got some notes on authenticity as does the poisoned relationships between all the men at One Crest Captial I felt like the finance jargon was the easy part; the harder part was ‘Do I have a story that people will care about watching?’ [Laughs] The harder part was crafting the drama and how the conflict would escalate and create this ballooning tension that you don’t know when it’s going to pop the most challenging part of writing it was figuring out the pace Was the pacing pretty well baked into the script or did you find it while in the production and editing process Everything was pretty much there in the script I even put camera directions in the script I really worked on trying to fully realize every element of filmmaking before we went into shooting because I thought Working in television was an amazing boot camp experience for me leading up to my first feature; you always have to cut shots and you have to know what you have to protect at all costs and what you’re willing to sacrifice I think the most exciting thing about filmmaking is that you can rehearse it in a certain way and know exactly where your camera is going to be but then the magic of filmmaking is something unexpected always comes up Your script is so tight that I’m sure there are lots of actors who could have done it justice but I’m curious what you think about why they seemed so perfectly tailored to Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor versatile actors that I think they can do anything The film really lives and dies off their chemistry you’re a little bit nervous if that chemistry is going to come through on camera But I remember we shot the bathroom scene where they’re recently engaged There are such subtle moments where Luke is trying to do right by Emily and applaud her promotion but there’s this simmering resentment that we can feel growing inside him What I tried to do with the character and what Alden brought to Luke is he represents a certain generation of men who are caught in the middle between wanting to adhere to a modern feminist society but still having been raised on traditional ideas of masculinity because she’s a killer; that’s why he’s attracted to her you know he was raised under more traditional ideas of gender roles It’s that conflict that he starts to internalize and doesn’t know how to deal with and that’s something I wanted to show—how problematic it becomes when someone doesn’t know how to deal with something but he’s hurt because he thought [the promotion] was his He has this idea of who he’s supposed to be This sudden flip throws him for a loop in a way he’s not prepared for I think it’s tough for anyone to think you’re up for a job and your partner gets it what I’m exploring here are some of these ingrained power dynamics that I think we still haven’t quite figured out yet Your film is set in the aftermath of #MeToo in one of the most male-dominated savages Emily in a brutally sexist way that I was hoping you could unpack I think the #MeToo movement never hit the finance world There’s a certain level of power and money that you can’t touch I think people definitely treat each other with more respect what I wanted to show with Eddie’s character when he finally lashes out at Emily is that this is someone who hired her because he sees her value regardless of her gender and genuinely thinks she’s the best person for the job then her failure is through the lens of gender And I think that’s a double standard that a lot of women face in every industry there are these male champions out there that believe in you and support you I wanted to show that in the most cutting way And she absorbs it after some initial shock and keeps pressing on at Crest Capital Can you explain how you set up Luke’s spectacular flameout at the office when he attempts to undermine Emily to his final In the scene with Campbell when she has to choose how to deal with [Luke’s treachery] and save face at that company because Luke throws her under the bus Campbell gives her his thirty thousand view of the world which is this— ‘It doesn’t f**king matter just do it on your time.’ So she’s sitting on that idea that accountability doesn’t matter and Emily’s on the other side of what she’s experienced and she knows everything this young woman is going to go through that’s what’s in her head when she’s faced with Luke for one final confrontation What did you want to bring across in that final confrontation between Emily and Luke the ending was always about Emily reclaiming the power that Luke takes away from her The film always had to escalate to the sexual assault scene in the bathroom because the only way for Luke to reclaim the power in the relationship at that point is through physical dominance The only way for Emily to reclaim the power again is through physical force as well because this is a man who refuses to be held accountable it had to go to these places for me because I set out to make a thriller about power dynamics on the ugliest level Sexual assault is not about sex; it’s about power She tries to confront him on his inability to face who he is He’s a man who cannot own up to his own weakness and cannot face his own failures the last scene is not about female revenge; it’s a scene about holding a man accountable The whole movie builds up to the line where Luke finally mutters the words once he’s finally the man who acknowledges his own inferiority this is not a film about female empowerment; this is a film about male fragility Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali & Co Seek Refuge at the End of the World in “Leave The World Behind” Trailer “Reptile” Director Grant Singer on His Slithery Mystery Feature With Benicio Del Toro “May December” Trailer Reveals Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore in Todd Haynes’ Twisty New Film (L to R) Alden Ehrenreich as Luke and Phoebe Dynevor as Emily in Fair Play Keep up with The Credits for the latest in film By 2023-01-22T22:53:00+00:00 star of Bridgerton, and Alden Ehrenreich known for Solo: A Star Wars Story, star as newly engaged couple Emily and Luke who work at a New York hedge fund and whose relationship unravels when Emily gets an unexpected promotion The cast includes Eddie Marsan and Rich Sommer Fair Play is produced by the partnership between MRC and Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman’s T-Street to support emerging storytellers MRC and T-Street are selling Fair Play and it screens again on Tuesday who graduated from Tisch School of the Arts of NYU and has directed shorts and TV What attracts you to ultra-intense storytelling environments?I’m definitely attracted to high-stakes environments What I love about the world of high finance for this story is that these kinds of people fluctuate between high highs and low lows: on any given day they’re losing millions or billions of dollars or they’re making millions or billions of dollars I was interested in what that does to a person In the film and TV industry it’s a similar kind of high and low and I felt I could organically tap into that I’ve heard you say this film is personal and political What did you mean by that?On the personal side I wanted to reckon with some unresolved feelings from my past specifically dating men who were threatened by me and who I was The only way I felt I could protect those relationships was by undermining myself I spent several years repeating the same dynamics with different partners and different shades of the same kind of thing At certain points I became something that I accepted and it was never anything that we could talk about I wanted to write a movie that that finally reckoned with that silence I wanted to show the unsettling link between female empowerment and male fragility I wanted to show how much hold these ingrained dynamics still have over us especially today in a world where roles are changing faster than humans can realistically adapt How did you write Emily and what were some of the pitfalls you were keen to avoid?I didn’t want to portray her as supporting this box of victimisation women are often put in What was important was leaning into the greys leaning into human behaviour as it unfolds which sometimes can be ugly and volatile and impulsive and wrong For the most part Emily’s reacting to what’s going on and she does the best she can I wanted to stay true to the humanity of her and fighting against how I feel women have been portrayed in film before especially when it gets to certain levels of ugliness like this Audiences are used to seeing women portrayed as victims and that’s not who she is as a person and that’s not who she is as a character He’s not two-dimensional either.I wanted to lean into the duality of what he’s experiencing and what he’s struggling with He’s struggling with a lot: he wants to support her he genuinely wants to champion her for most of their relationship He loves her and adores her because of her intelligence and her ambition and her talent But he also can’t help but feel threatened by the same things that he adores in her because of the way he was raised and what was instilled in him as a kid My intention was to show that there’s a certain generation of men that are caught in the middle of where we’re at as a society and how they were raised on traditional ideas of masculinity Where and when did you shoot?We built the interior sets in Serbia and shot all the exteriors in New York The cast look and sound authentic in the world of high finance How did you prepare them?I put my two leads in touch with consultants that I was working with on the film that were great for the authenticity of the lingo I was obviously there to answer any questions they had In pre-production they’d have long chats with the consultants and just try to get into the headspace of what the day-to-day is like. The finance jargon is kind of irrelevant; it’s white noise in the movie I didn’t want the audience to get caught up and confused by it We know that we don’t have to know everything that’s specifically happening and we understand the stakes of what they’re talking about How did you get together with the partnership MRC and T-Street set up to support emerging voices?My agent sent them the script and Ben LeClair They aggressively championed and pursued this movie and have just been the greatest support in getting it off the ground How would you like audiences to see the film?Mostly I’m just very grateful for the reactions people are having and I’m just looking forward to seeing how it’s all going to shake out What’s next for you?I’m working on another movie I’m very excited to move on to another story and another chapter Monday’s statement to reporters follows Truth Social Company’s latest foray into genre will open theatrically on October 10 Bookmark this page to keep track of all the latest festival dates The updating list includes titles’ sales agents and key deals The Barcelona producer’s credits include Carlos Marqués-Marcet’s They Will Be Dust Warner Bros./Legendary video game smash passed $720m at the global box office through April 20 Screen International is the essential resource for the international film industry access to the Screen International archive and supplements including Stars of Tomorrow and World of Locations Site powered by Webvision Cloud hailed it as "the kind of twisted erotic thriller for grown-ups that we all need more of." Others have argued it is actually more of a romantic drama and others still claim it's best classified as a workplace melodrama "I've always said this is a thriller about power dynamics within a relationship," Domont say for her part "It definitely has crossovers into the erotic thriller genre It has crossovers into the psychological thriller genre But I never set out to make a film that stays within the confines of one particular genre." Fair Play centers on ambitious financial analysts Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) who are happily engaged to be married — although no one at the high-power hedge fund where they both work knows it as their relationship is a violation of company police and their relationship is pushed to the brink our job is to twist genre," says the first-time filmmaker you want to break that to some degree to serve a story that you need to tell it was always about using the genre to shine a light on an emotional terror that I think we all experience in some way The problem is that this emotional terror has become very normalized and what I was trying to do with this movie is say They're terrorizing on many levels.'" A.frame: There is a lot at play in this movie What was the first kernel of an idea that eventually became Fair Play I think it was a reckoning of sorts with experiences I had in the past It was this feeling I was having in a certain period of my life and it was this feeling that my success didn't feel like a total win — it felt like a loss on some level And it was because of the relationships I was in but there was still this unspoken feeling that me being big made them feel small I started to undermine myself in little ways to try and protect them and protect the relationships and it was something that I normalized for years in different relationships And I think after years of experiencing this on different levels it made me realize how much hold these ingrained dynamics still have over us why is this some unspoken off-limits thing that we can't talk about Why is it something that's just pushed down Neither party in any of the relationships was able to acknowledge it what would that say about me and my choice of partner If I were to acknowledge that I was with someone who was threatened by me I felt like it was a poor reflection of me It just got to a point where I was just like Was it always going to be set in the world of hedge fund or did you venture down any other roads of where this could be taking place Was there ever a version that was even more autobiographical but I'm sure there's still plenty of men threatened by an ambitious female filmmaker I gravitated towards the finance world pretty quickly and then I landed on the hedge fund sector because I just feel like very few women make their way up in that world It was important to me to show what she has to do to keep her seat at the table to stay in the boys' club — how in many ways she has to play ugly to survive I also felt like it was something that I could relate to in many ways just that kind of a high stakes work environment I don't think my experience in TV feels so dissimilar than what it would be to work in finance There's a lot of money on the table if you don't make your day it's like you make your day and you're a hero and on the next day you don't make your day and you're a piece of s**t I think that's very similar to how people feel in finance It's what those high highs and low lows do to a person and do to a relationship and how the toxicity of that feeds into the toxicity of a relationship How did Phoebe and Alden come to the project Was this a case of you thinking of them for the roles and sending out the script or did you find them through a more traditional casting process She had a lot of buzz coming off of Bridgerton Because the character of Emily is a rising star in the world of finance That was much more exciting to me than someone who was already established in the feature space and then I honed in on her performance and I felt like there was a warmth and a vulnerability but also fierceness I could just tell she was an incredibly strong actor and she was super dialed in and super present and the way that distress reads in her eyes I felt like was really an important characteristic for Emily and was excited when he responded to the script it was very clear he's a director's actor And I knew that he was going to be able to bring a sense of humanity to the role and a duality of mixed emotions in a way that would give this character a lot more depth and a lot more empathy When chemistry is as essential to a movie as it is to this one we did get them in the same room before shooting But it is true: You either have chemistry or you don't You can build up chemistry if it's already there but you can't create it if it's not And the couple of scenes that we shot early on were some of the more loving scenes they're the lighter scenes of the film and there weren't that many light scenes in the movie which arguably should have maybe been shot towards the end because they would've gone through something together and there would've been more of that bond But I'm really happy with the order in which we shot the film and I knew the way he looked at her and the way she looked at him that I had a movie [The remainder of the conversation features spoilers for the ending of the movie.] And the movie does go to much more demanding places what did you need from Phoebe and Alden and what did you feel they needed from you in order to get through the day and get the performances you needed I would say the most demanding scene was the final scene of the movie what they needed from me was a way to shoot it where it wouldn't interrupt the performance where they could just fly through it and build up to it because if you break it up with too many setups then you're breaking up them getting into it we brought a crane in to be able to track with them uninterrupted to track with her as she comes into the apartment and then she picks up the knife and then she moves towards him I think that really allowed her to unleash all of what she brings without a start and stop system I think that was I think invaluable for the day And also we rehearsed what I needed from them and they needed from me We needed to rehearse the beats to make sure we knew what we were going into and if we didn't rehearse this ahead of time At Sundance, you said you "wanted to be as ruthless with the execution of this as the nature of the subject matter itself." What did that ruthlessness look like for you I wanted to show this on the ugliest level with the way that he reclaims power from her in the bathroom through physical dominance and the way that she reclaims power from him that also meant being uncompromising with the direction of it and the filmmaking Every choice was about how f**king slick and sharp it could be as much experience as you had directing TV what is something you could only learn from directing your first movie I would say the biggest thing I learned was what to do when I lose perspective Or if you're in the edit and you're losing perspective Because the biggest thing for me is I started to question myself at times I kept wanting to push the scene and push the scene and push the scene and I was reminded by my producers and by the people that I trust that it was there It's only because I was numb to what was happening that I felt like it wasn't there I can trust myself more going into the next one Top 5 With 'Fair Play' Director Chloe Domont 'Reptile' Director Grant Singer on Making the Leap From Music Videos to His First Movie (Exclusive) Anna Kendrick Took a Break From Acting and Found Herself: 'That Was Really Exciting but Really Scary' (Exclusive) 10% off products and services for Chapman University students and faculty with school ID Chloe Domont’s erotic new thriller depicts the trope we all know and hate: sexism in the workplace and men becoming insecure in their masculinity when a woman steps into a position of power over them Spoiler alert: This article contains minor spoilers for the erotic thriller “Fair Play.” The film follows Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) as ruthless financial analysts at a New York financial firm they spend their time in the office crunching numbers on their computer screens and ignoring each other they make love to each other in their tiny apartment their sexual tension and need to be in each other's pants is at an all-time high they have successfully kept their relationship a secret from the human resources department and the men at the office No one has noticed their goo-goo eyes across the bullpen The drama begins when a portfolio manager at the company quits Both Emily and Luke are dying to be the replacement They love each other… but they love their careers a tiny bit more Emily initially hears a rumor that it will be Luke filling the empty desk but when she is called at two in the morning to meet her boss The change in power dynamics sends her relationship with Luke off into the deep end and the cracks in their engagement begin to creep to the surface.  This is their first time leading a character-driven project where they get to shine in the spotlight and show off their acting chops Was I glazing over the fact that Dynevor’s American accent was unbelievable Or maybe ignoring that Ehrenreich’s face makes me think of a coked-out bear lying on top of him but my niche Letterboxd following doesn’t need to know that While some minor characters like Campbell and the copy-and-paste finance bros contribute to the disgusting office culture in which our film takes place their performances don’t hold a candle to the chemistry of our toxic lovebirds Audiences should know this relationship is doomed from the start everything points to a not-so-fairytale ending The proposal to your girlfriend in the bathroom of your brother's wedding after you accidentally make a mess during her special womanly time of the month and the ring you bought falls out of your pocket (quite the traumatizing first five minutes) Have we not learned from our past mistakes about what happens when people start dating in the workplace What makes “Fair Play” a story worth watching is not where our characters land at the end of the film how they destroy each other's careers and sanity to get to that point Contributing to the insanity that Emily goes through over two hours is the abundance of typical alpha-male sex-driven men surrounding her (Luke being the worst of them all) There were multiple scenes where I wanted to slam my computer screen down and bang my head against a table If Domot’s goal was to make the audience's blood boil every time a man showed up on the screen (every scene of the film) When Luke finds out Emily got the job over him he clings to this idea that he is entitled to the position over her because he believes he has wanted it longer It’s this deep insecurity that a woman in this case can be better at something than a man that subconsciously sets him off It is not about the fact that she has better instincts and works harder than him but his need to be the breadwinner in the relationship and that his masculinity is in jeopardy if not.  What puts this film in the thriller genre is not the monsters in the closet but the monsters you fall in love with in everyday life The ones who turn on you because they are jealous of your success This film perfectly portrayed men’s resentfulness to let women succeed in an industry that has favored them for all of history For so long, movies about finance have been told from the male perspective. It's refreshing to see something new thrown into the mix next to “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Big Short.” While I appreciate putting female narratives in worlds that haven’t seen them before this story isn’t as empowering as it sets out to be There is no long-lasting win here for women and no progress made to the toxic male-centered workplace by the message in this film If you have two hours to spare listening to hot actors sitting at desks If you're looking for "I Spys," dating or LTRs Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival last year, Fair Play garnered a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize and sparked a bidding war among studios and streamers. Netflix emerged victorious with a $20 million bid, bringing the film to their platform for streaming. When writing the script, Domont drew inspiration from her experiences in the workforce, including being the lone woman in the Ballers writing room. Her observations, such as the impact of her success on the men she dated and the pressure to assimilate with the male-dominated group to maintain her standing, formed the basis of Fair Play. Casting the pivotal roles of Emily and Luke was a departure from her work in television, where the casts she directed were already established. Speaking with Casting Networks, Domont expressed her initial unfamiliarity with Phoebe Dynevor’s work, namely that of Daphne Bridgerton in Bridgerton. However, upon watching the pilot episode after a recommendation from a casting director, she became “enamored” with Dynevor’s performance. “Phoebe was super present, super dialed in and had qualities that I was looking for in terms of Emily,” Domont explained. “There was such a nuanced sense of vulnerability and warmth, but also a fierceness. Honestly, it was a gut reaction. As a filmmaker and an artist, if you don’t have your gut, I don’t know what you have.” For her part, Dynevor was interested in taking on the character and the story. She told Casting Networks that she loved how “fully dimensional” Emily was and how the couple’s relationship developed in the script. “Almost immediately, I wanted to do it,” Dynevor admitted. “It was the first script I’d read in a long time where I didn’t know what would happen next and where the story was going. That’s always so thrilling.” Having the story set in the world of finance also intrigued her. “It felt like a world that I wanted to explore,” she added. Casting Luke had different requirements because in the script, as Emily’s star rises, Luke’s spirals downward, giving the character an “arguably much more complicated arc from where he starts and where he goes,” Domont explained. best known for the title character of Solo: A Star Wars Story and this year’s ensemble films Cocaine Bear and Oppenheimer talented actor to go to those places and I knew Alden could do it from watching his previous work,” explained Domont “The character needed to be charming and lovable in the beginning and yet he needed to go to those insecure ugly places while also giving me shades in between with conflicting emotions and conflicting wants I was very confident Alden could dive into that headfirst.” the actor told Casting Networks it was an exciting opportunity to take on the character of Luke “It was so clear this was written by somebody who had lived an experience like this and was writing from a deeply personal place,” observed Ehrenreich “Chloe had a real understanding of Luke’s psyche in a very intimate way The deeper the connection the writer has (to the story) the more exciting it is to go to that place.” Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role with the American Hustle and The Fighter director lining up Jenna Ortega (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Scream) and Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon Ali Afshar’s ESX Entertainment has added Lou Diamond Phillips to the cast of Casa Grande: The Movie a feature to the original 2023 Prime Video series The Ozark and Inventing Anna star is in talks to play Caroline Ellison in a series about the rise and fall of cryptocurrency exchange FTX SAG-AFTRA chief Duncan Crabtree-Ireland has laid out some of the guild’s plans ahead of its contract with the studios expiring in June 2026 Casting Networks is a registered trademark of Casting Networks Crash at Race Torquay in Australia in January was yet another setback Domont rode in Bardet's service at both the 2017 and 2018 Tours de France, but crashed out of the latter with a broken collarbone on stage 4 He was then unable to ride the Tour last year due to breaking both his hip and collarbone at the Volta a Catalunya in March 2019 and the Frenchman already knows that he's not set to ride this year's Tour Domont had travelled to Australia with his wife and teammates Bardet and Clément Chevrier a month ahead of the Tour Down Under to train and enjoy some sunshine in Adelaide. "We had a great start to the year in the sun, and I felt really strong," said Domont, who finished 67th overall at the Tour Down Under, and then travelled to Torquay, near Melbourne, for the Race Torquay – a new one-day race that took place three days before the start of the WorldTour-level Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in nearby Geelong, which Domont was also set to race. A crash on a descent on a bend that was apparently covered with diesel left Domont with a broken pelvis, a long and uncomfortable trip back home to France, and three months' rest, confined to a wheelchair, with the rehabilitation to undergo that came with it once more. It was yet another setback for Domont, who said he felt like his luck had changed for the worse after his 2018 Tour crash, and joked that in recent years he's spent "more time in the hospital than on a bicycle", and believes that he's now broken his collarbone seven times during his career. The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox! "The rehabilitation has been difficult, and I've spent a long time in my wheelchair," the 29-year-old said of his latest injury. "But at the same time, I was well aware that I was doing better than after last year's crash in Catalonia. That was very bad; I had to stay in bed for more than a month. Twice, I'd thought about stopping my career completely, and yet I returned at a high level, and so I told myself that there was no reason why I couldn't do it again. "At the start of my two months at the rehabilitation centre, I really felt like the most miserable guy on earth," he continued. "Then, I realised – in a place like that – that there were people with far more serious problems, so then you have to kick yourself up the arse and tell yourself that it will be fine. Still, it did make me think about my future. "I'm going to try to do a good Giro, but without thinking too much about it," said Domont. "But if this has to be my last season, I want to leave with my head held high. The nightmare would be to end my career because of injury; I would then have regrets for the rest of my life. I want to finish with good feelings, with real goals, while still enjoying what I do. I love my job, but I won't keep doing it at any cost." Cyclingnews is the world's leader in English-language coverage of professional cycling Started in 1995 by University of Newcastle professor Bill Mitchell the site was one of the first to provide breaking news and results over the internet in English The site was purchased by Knapp Communications in 1999 and owner Gerard Knapp built it into the definitive voice of pro cycling major publishing house Future PLC has owned the site and expanded it to include top features The site continues to be the most comprehensive and authoritative English voice in professional cycling Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich are terrific in this gritty The first sound you hear in the extraordinary relationship thriller/psychodrama “Fair Play” It’s the lingering roar of the rocket writer-director Chloe Domont is about to launch into space to tear through gendered power dynamics male-dominated beats of a high-wired workplace and masculine fragility from none other than Donna Summer at the start of her sultry song “Love to Love You.” Yes you’re supposed to feel a subtle erotic vibe—the song choice is anything but subtle to kickstart seasoned TV director Domont’s simmering and gradually explosive feature debut Emily and Luke find themselves in the bathroom of a wedding party following in the song’s footsteps Played with volatile precision by Phoebe Dynevor (“Bridgerton”) and Alden Ehrenreich (“Oppenheimer”) the two are desperately into each other’s sexuality we spot Emily’s period blood all over Luke’s mouth a crimson clue for the bloodbath that is about to erupt elsewhere he puts a ring on it to make it official: they are now an ambitious and engaged power couple in finance and madly in love The visual coherence and warm color palette choices Domont favors in the film’s arresting opening sequence continue throughout “Fair Play.” This is a purposely dimly lit but crystal-clear film And there is a mounting claustrophobia to it giving the sense of a cozily candlelit room that becomes a touch too hot around you after that second glass of wine that you perhaps should have reconsidered And that’s not far off from what Emily experiences throughout Domont’s story after she lands the promotion that Luke has been going for at the firm they both work for What’s Luke to do if not genuinely support Emily for getting ahead in the painfully male-dominated world of finance the truth proves to be several shades darker throughout “Fair Play,” that draws both from gritty ‘70s urban thrillers with its pace and a touch from the ‘90s erotic thrillers with Domont’s sensual camera choices that pierce through undercurrents of power plays between men and women not knowing what to do with his newfound male insecurities in an environment and society that expects the impossible from his kind and Emily can do nothing but tiptoe around it Both Dynevor and Ehrenreich are superb in their characters’ respective fights Dynevor especially crafts a towering performance calibrating and recalibrating Emily’s inner world anger and heartbreak against Luke’s constantly shifting attitudes consisting of the likes of Eddie Marsan as a very convincing finance tycoon Rich Sommer of “Mad Men” in a very different office setting Sia Alipour and Sebastian De Souza also make for a stellar ensemble through which Emily has to learn how to fake an image like she’s one of the boys When “Fair Play” premiered in Sundance (and instantly became one of the most confident debuts of the indie festival’s recent history) there was an exasperating debate around it with some deeming Emily and Luke as equally problematic in their behavior partly because it misunderstood Domont’s intentions towards crafting a thriller around the deeply flawed humanity of people in tough situations But it was mostly frustrating because it failed to grasp that while Domont’s screenplay shows Luke enough grace to understand his feelings it never once excuses his devastatingly poor behavior or holds Emily responsible for wanting to survive in her life and job as a woman who’s fairly earned what she’s got That’s the genius of “Fair Play”—having its principles and morals straight without pandering to the audience through cheapened toxic masculinity tropes Aiding Domont’s thematic unassailability on the page is a boundlessly well-realized production design—the couple’s dingy apartment is almost its own character—and Emily’s refined costuming that splits the difference between traditionally feminine and authoritative What’s perhaps most miraculous about this tight and taut film is Domont’s unforgiving economy There isn’t a single expendable moment in Domont’s gradually escalating fiery ride that eventually explodes at Luke and Emily’s engagement party—a truly painful sequence of sexual assault Domont films with utmost dexterity and sensitivity—and ends on an emotional scream Netflix releases “Fair Play” will play in limited release September 29 and stream on October 6 by James Mottram at the Zurich Film Festival Working in TV writers’ rooms on shows like HBO’s Ballers writer-director Chloe Domont knows exactly what it means to find your voice in a largely all-male environment Now she’s done just that with her feature debut the film stars Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) as Emily Secretly dating her colleague Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) With the film a huge hit when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where Netflix bought the global rights for a cool $20 million FilmInk met with Domont at the Zurich Film Festival where she dived into the sexism that’s rife in the world of high finance That actually happened when I was in preproduction on my movie But I’ve always been interested in high stakes environments The high stakes nature of that environment Have you spoken to a lot of people who’ve worked in those worlds And I felt like their experience in finance was very similar to my experience in film and television I felt like I could organically understand that world “Every show that I’ve worked on has been predominantly male.” Was it those experiences you transposed to this And I just think any woman in those kind of male dominated spaces has had the same experience.” Is Phoebe’s character close to you in some capacity But I would say the personal element for me was more of the relationships that I had And those experiences were dating men who supported me I think that’s more of the personal experience that I put into the film There’s still this idea that me going off doing my own thing Or the idea that me being big on any level made him feel small.” I don’t personally blame men for having these feelings.” And I also don’t think women handle it well systemic thing that raises boys to believe that masculinity is an identity And I think that that’s really where it starts What I was trying to show with the male character here is that he represents a certain generation of men caught in the middle between genuinely wanting to adhere and believe in a modern society And there’s certain things instilled in them and the way that they’re raised and I don’t think that makes them bad people at all because I also feel like men have never had a platform to express themselves This is the first time in society that women are surpassing men in education and surpassing them in the workforce It’s like a subject matter that’s just off limits That’s what I think the biggest problem is.” Is it amplified in this testosterone-like universe And I think that there was a reason for setting [it] in that world I wanted to show how women are forced to play ugly to survive in that kind of world Have you met women who have succeeded in this world And that’s what I tried to show with Emily a little bit if you don’t project that alpha-male energy And I think that there is a fear that women have that they have to hide their femininity in ways Because they feel like men will see it as a weakness they have to learn how to project that testosterone to be seen as equal and respected.” How will people from the world of finance react to the film “I’ve had some women come up to me and say Because I think I tend to push the envelope Are you glad that you didn’t overstate the case I think there are certain situations… I was trying to depict a post-MeToo environment it is a bit tapered down; on the other hand there’s certain level of power [and] money that you can’t touch Do you think abuse in the finance world might one day be exposed She had never done anything like this before And I just thought that she was an incredibly strong actor and I was just enamoured by her and her performance There was a warmth and a vulnerability to her “I’ve been a huge fan of his for a long time I was excited when he responded to the script what was important for the role of Luke is that you love him he has to be an actor that can go to these insecure and dark places And I knew that Alden would be able to do and bring a lot of humanity and empathy at the same time showing that he’s struggling between these two between wanting to support her but also feeling like he needs to get there first And you see that that pains him; he doesn’t want to be feeling this way And what I was trying to show is that it’s a bit tragic because he can’t see any other way out of his pain than through a destructive path.” What was it like when Netflix bought the film at Sundance The altitude and the adrenaline rush of showing your movie for the first time to an audience the biggest thing out of that weekend is people’s reactions feeling the energy of the crowd… the crowd was on the edge of their seat And they were wooing and booing and cheering and also watching the film like it was a horror film Do you think couples will argue over this film Are you expecting wildly differing opinions “I think that that’s crucial and important for conversation and debate No one is going to walk out of this movie feeling the same way as anyone else Everyone’s going to have a different opinion based on who they are and their own experience and the way that they were brought up Do you feel like you’ve been treated differently in the industry now by men “I think people recognise me as a filmmaker and a voice I think the world is finally saying that I’m a filmmaker That’s what I’m feeling… that kind of response and energy Fair Play is available on Netflix from October 6 Netflix’s Fair Play is an interesting Rorschach test A couple might press “Play” on the sexual thriller and subsequently go from “Netflix and Chill” to “Netflix and Grill” for the divisive responses it elicits which is a testament to Domont’s first-rate script and astute direction “It’s not enough to just make a good movie,” said Domont but they’re not necessarily films that I’m going to think about five minutes later I killed myself trying to make a film that would cause a conversation and debate over these subject matters that are not talked about and that’s why I set out to make this film to show how much these ingrained power dynamics still have over us in a post-#MeToo world.” I had a great conversation with Domont about her first feature-length film including how the idea for the story came about what she set out to protect in the script as a director and whether she considers it an erotic thriller in the same vein as Fatal Attraction and others from the late ’80s/early ’90s A24 has dropped a teaser for the latest Spike Lee Joint https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ2V8znYMSk Also starring:.. © 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme © 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme. marking the first feature outing of writer-director Chloe Domont whose sharply written and darkly comedic film will have your heart racing from beginning to end just as it had Sundance audiences at the edge of their seats (“It was amazing to get the reaction from the crowd; we got a standing ovation,” star Phoebe Dynevor tells me after attending a screening.) With this tense and sleek psychosexual corporate thriller Domont—who previously helmed episodes of Ballers and Billions—tackles all the ways gender and power operate within the highly intense industry Starring Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich—who both deliver electrifying performances unlike anything we’ve seen them do before—Fair Play follows Emily and Luke a newly engaged couple whose romance is largely kept a secret due to the fact that they both work as analysts at the same cutthroat hedge fund in New York City where office relationships are strictly verboten When Emily unexpectedly gets the promotion Luke anticipated he would receive their passionate and twisted relationship starts to unravel Tensions rise as the film unpacks toxic masculinity and puts female rage on display in a whole new way Following Fair Play’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival—where it was quickly purchased by Netflix for $20 million—I caught up with Domont and Dynevor who chatted with me over the phone about their ruthlessly brilliant film that’s bound to provoke discourse Finance is a male-dominated and hyper-masculine field where women are forced to carve their own space within the boys’ club What made this landscape the perfect backdrop for an exploration of romance Chloe Domont: I picked the finance world for a number of reasons and showing how that can feed into the toxicity of relationships and vice versa I wanted to show the toll it takes on women in that world and what they have to do to survive I personally would never judge a woman for doing what she has to do to make her way up in that kind of world how did you get involved in Fair Play and what appealed to you about Chloe’s script Phoebe Dynevor: It all came around quite quick I read the script a couple of months before we started shooting; I thought the writing was so brilliant and I’d never seen an arc like this in terms of what Emily is battling against I immediately wanted to meet Chloe and hear her take so I was all in from the get-go—pretty much from the first page What conversations did you both have about the gender and power dynamics at play in the film—which are deeply ingrained within the finance world CD: The conversations we’ve been having really speak to the intention of the film I wanted to show how these ingrained gender dynamics still have a hold over us today especially in a world where the roles are changing faster than people can keep up We’re caught between men who are raised with traditional ideas of masculinity but are trying and wanting to keep up with the times—but there’s still so much instilled in them and the way they’re wired and conditioned There is this duality to the way that men like Luke feel and behave and that’s what I tried to put into the movie and many of the experiences I’ve been through in a male-dominated environment The thing that interested me was how Emily is so isolated by her success—she can’t really enjoy it She has to diminish herself and make herself smaller in order to please the men around her Phoebe Dynevor and Chloe Domont attend the 2023 Sundance Film Festival Fair Play Premiere on January 20 Fair Play also feels reminiscent of erotic thrillers from around the 1990s and many people at the festival have been associating the film with the genre was it your intention to make a film with these kinds of undertones CD: I did not set out to make an erotic thriller of that era—what I did set out to do was make a thriller about gender power dynamics within a relationship that is highly sexual I think that the execution of that intention ended up flipping the erotic thriller genre on its head What was the rehearsal process for this movie like CD: We spent a lot of time rehearsing beforehand I would always like more [laughs] but we got a comfortable amount of time to get on the same page [and] speak the same language before we started shooting Because it was essential for the two actors to form that bond and that chemistry PD: It was really important that we had those hours and days just to establish a dynamic We workshopped some scenes to make us feel like we had a real relationship We also had time with an intimacy coordinator which makes us all feel safe so that we can go to the really dark places that we go to in this film Emily feels like such a departure from any of your previous roles How did you approach playing the nuances of this character—who’s very fierce Emily was a character that I’ve always wanted to play without being totally aware of it She embodies everything I feel a modern woman is she’s in some ways a heightened version of that but it was such an actor’s dream to be able to go to those places and let out some deep-rooted feelings in that way [laughs] I have felt how women can feel crippled and isolated by their success This role was about accessing feelings from the past that I think a lot of women will be able to relate to: making yourself smaller and suppressing your strengths to avoid the rage of an insecure man This article was originally published on Jan UTAH – JANUARY 20: (L-R) Phoebe Dynevor Director Chloe Domont and Alden Ehrenreich attend the 2023 Sundance Film Festival “Fair Play” Premiere at Library Center Theatre on January 20 this movie started with wanting to reckon with some personal experiences that I had in the past specifically when I was in relationships with men who were threatened by me and what I wanted to do with my life,” says writer-director Chloe Domont as she describes the inspiration behind her feature debut “And the only way I felt like I could deal with it It wasn’t something that we ever talked about it was just under the rug and it became a pattern that was really normalized.”  The crowd at the Library Center Theatre after the project’s Festival premiere buzzes with recognition of feeling seen within these all-too-familiar encounters “This cycle repeated itself with other partners and it was never anything too explicit just passive aggression and undermining comments and it became this vicious cycle,” she continues connecting the personal and universal themes of her film “I just wanted to tell this story and say these things should not be normalized I just wanted to talk about something that had become unspeakable to me.” The tension between public-facing pleasantries and unspeakable feelings and internal struggles is what is gnawing at the central relationship in Fair Play Luke (an unnervingly excellent Alden Ehrenreich) and Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) have got their lives figured out: They’re both promising up-and-comers at a powerful New York financial firm and they’re in a secret relationship that’s going so well they just got engaged you aren’t quite sure if you should be yearning for the couple’s lifestyle with glass offices allowing for all to gawk at (or ignore) every power broker’s meltdown And with each of these dramatic and very public terminations comes an opening for one of the rank and file to move up — and this is where the pressure in Fair Play really starts “It’s more tense to stay on [their] faces,” Domont explains about the film’s striking shots “It’s about the looks and the tension between them.” It’s clear that both Luke and Emily will go to extreme lengths for their jobs (4:30 a.m but when Emily nabs a promotion over her fiancé Luke is questioning how Emily actually got this promotion over him His supportive partner façade gives way to offensive stereotypes that are very familiar to any working woman in the world climbing the corporate ladder today But Domont isn’t ready to call Luke a villain just a conflicted product of the way he was raised with traditional ideals of masculinity at his core “Luke is a man that has been conditioned in a certain way and that masculinity means one thing,” she explains “He is a progressive man: He loves and adores [Emily] because she’s a killer [and] because she’s intelligent looking for more validation of his fragile masculinity in the YouTube teachings of a shady character Emily hardens herself for the boys’ club nature of the finance world “You see [Luke] struggling… and you see him wanting to do the right thing but there’s something inside of him and it becomes a poison in him,” explains Domont as she turns to look at her leading man “I think Alden does an incredible job showing that duality and showing that struggle and it’s something that at a certain point it overtakes him this movie is a tragedy on both sides because he can’t see any other way out of his pain.” The film’s progressively frantic pacing turns the slow-burn psychological drama into a full-blown thriller that comes to a head in a way that neither character is prepared for it was always veering toward mutual destruction according to the filmmaker: “I wanted to escalate the conflict and I wanted to use the genre to keep the tension going I just like to push it more than anyone else might.” Shari Sebbens attends the 2024 Sundance Film Festival “The Moogai” premiere at The Ray Theatre in Park City (Photo by Donayle West/Shutterstock for Sundance Film The 46th annual News & Documentary Emmys are just around the corner Sundance Institute–supported projects have gained impressive recognition The 85th annual Peabody Awards were a special moment for Sundance Institute–supported films with six powerful documentaries earning the prestigious award Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy© 2025 Sundance.org Chloe Domont walks us through the surprising conclusion to her feature debut Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry she's written for Turner Classic Movies She's worked at EW for six years covering film The author of EW's quarterly romance review column "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood The fire emoji was a common sight in tweets about the new corporate thriller "Fair Play," which debuted Friday (1/20) at the Sundance Film Festival The movie follows two ambitious analysts at a cutthroat hedge fund played by "Bridgerton's" Phoebe Dynevor and "Solo's" Alden Ehrenreich who are also in a passionate and secret relationship Several steamy scenes had some declaring the return of the erotic thriller whose podcast "You Must Remember This" recently delved into the erotic thriller moment of the 1980s tweeted that "It does for the 2020s what 'Fatal Attraction' did for the late 80s." said she didn't set out to make an erotic thriller But "I did set out to make a thriller about gender power dynamics within a relationship that happens to be highly sexual," Domont said on Saturday in Park City "I think the execution of that intention ended up flipping the erotic thriller genre on its head." said that when she read Domont's script she saw herself and a lot of women she knows in her character who seems to be the sole female at the company She's made even more aware of this when she gets promoted over Ehrenreich's Luke "How she navigates work life in a very male-dominated industry and how she navigates her relationship and in many ways has to make herself smaller in order to make other people feel comfortable I could relate to that," Dynevor said Ehrenreich's character comes from a more privileged background than Emily He's Ivy League-educated and expects a certain amount of success But he also rolls his eyes at the casual misogyny of his co-workers and "I think he's a little at remove from the rest of the office He's not quite in that boy's club," Ehrenreich said "One of the things that I really liked about the movie that I think sometimes is lacking from stories that take on issues like this is understanding the background and the system and the culture that all of that is taking place in," he continued "It's not on one individual being a good person or a bad person We're all highly influenced by our environment and the ambitions that we have within that environment." The film has already stirred up a gender debate among those who have seen it as Domont makes sure to never go the cliche route with her characters Audience sympathies may even shift between Luke and Emily from scene to scene Dynevor was firmly on Emily's side in reading the script and during filming "I kind of saw it more as him and her being a culprit of the society and a victim of the society like anyone was a baddie or a goodie," she said "Fair Play," which is up for acquisition at the festival is Domont's directorial debut on the large screen But high-finance drama is not new for her: She's helmed episodes of Showtime's "Billions" too "My interest in that world starts from 'Wall Street' and 'Working Girl' and like those movies," Domont said … You're either living on a high high and you think you're the (expletive) or the next day you think you're a worthless piece of (expletive)," Domont added the fluctuating between those highs and lows … I related to what that environment does to a person." but the three key players made sure to carve out time to establish an authentic intimacy between Ehrenreich and Dynevor "We did a few days of rehearsal that I thought were really valuable and it's so rare you get to do that," Ehrenreich said if two people have been together and so much of the movie is their relationship and the details of that." That involved improvisations of Emily's first day at the office and the first time Luke tells her he loves her "It really felt like it really kind of locked something in," Ehrenreich said "That's a magical thing that is worth fighting for on almost every movie They also worked with an intimacy coordinator to stage the sex scenes "Chloe is such a phenomenal director and was always pushing us to go farther and farther which was such a thrill as an actor," Dynevor said "And we both felt really safe to do so." The Sundance Film Festival runs through Jan ArtClass has added filmmaker Luke Jaden to its talent roster for U.S representation spanning commercials and branded content Jaden earned a place in the 2023 SHOOT New Directors Showcase for his remarkable work for Ford and was also named Best New Filmmaker by Filmsupply His autobiographical short Hemingway—a tender depiction of his son’s birth—was recognized on the Cannes YDA Shortlist and the 1.4 Longlist Jaden blends visually arresting imagery with a meditative visceral tone that resonates deeply with audiences including King Ripple starring LaKeith Stanfield as well as his forthcoming feature film Animals of the Land Jaden had most recently been repped in the U.S His brand collaborations include “Sisters” for ZARA Kids and “Exhaust” for Carhartt Jaden’s docu-short Aya was made in partnership with the Heroic Hearts Project (HHP) and highlights the benefits of psychedelic therapy for recovering veterans Additional commercial credits include work for Dove as well as meaningful cause-driven projects for Sandy Hook Promise and Moms Demand Action is raising awareness about the extreme dangers microplastics pose to… Entertainment Production & Post Since 1960 ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " Chloe Domont’s erotic thriller is the first film made out of Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman’s new incubator program Consider this: you’ve made an acclaimed “Star Wars” sequel, reinvigorated the whodunit genre, scored an Oscar nomination and spawned an unlikely franchise. What do you do next? If you’re Rian Johnson, you turn around and offer a helping hand to young filmmakers coming up behind you, nurturing one of the buzziest movies of the fall in the process: “Fair Play.” Writer/director Chloe Domont’s debut feature a steamy erotic thriller about the power dynamics between two young people (Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor) who both work as financial analysts for the same cutthroat hedge fund the film was snatched up by Netflix for a cool $20 million and it’s now currently one of the most-watched new titles on the platform following its release earlier this month “I had been trying to get my first movie ‘Brick’ made for eight years and failing at it,” Johnson told TheWrap “took pity on me and agreed to produce it.” Together it’s about being able to “work with good people that we think are talented and singular and just support them and guide them and just have fun making it.” This feels quaint by today’s standards with production shingles talking about interconnected storytelling and the value of consumer-facing IP “We’re not trying to build an empire,” Bergman added But what they are trying to do is encourage young filmmakers like Domont as the “Looper” filmmaker said “been very content with just making our own stuff.” He’d been wary of wanting to build “some bigger thing,” as he’d seen how that ambition can “swallow you.” “But the notion of this actually being something where we can support people but also learn from them That was exciting for me,” Johnson — who is currently working on a third “Knives Out” movie for Netflix and a second season of the Peacock series “Poker Face” — told TheWrap “I think we’re definitely looking for voices and filmmakers that punch above their weight budgetarily and are open-minded to more popular storytelling,” T-Street producer Ben LeClair said “One of the only rules at T-Street is that we never do anything down the middle.” And “Fair Play,” a modern twist on the erotic thriller genre that tackles gender dynamics and sexual politics head-on Dynevor and Ehrenreich play Emily and Luke young professionals jockeying for career advancement at a vicious hedge fund in Manhattan When the promotion Luke thinks he is going to get instead goes to Emily the applecart is upended and the equilibrium of their relationship (intellectually This leads to one of the more unforgettable climaxes in recent memory one that will have every couple who watches the movie arguing long after the credits have rolled Bergman said the goal was to find first-time filmmakers with promise that they could guide through their debut feature and beyond “I just feel super grateful that for my first film I got to make it with the right people and do it the right way I feel like that rarely happens,” Domont said “They understood the kind of movie I was making and they were behind my vision from day one.” “If you read a script that’s written by somebody that has a solid storytelling sense immediately you feel like you’re in good hands Bergman wanted to ensure that there were producers on each project from the incubator program “24/7 from the first day that we start working all the way until the movie comes out.” He said that oftentimes a producer is involved in development but not the production or that they are flitting between different sets for different movies without being focused on one project all the way through Johnson and Bergman would advise throughout but T-Street producers Leopold Hughes and LeClair were on hand for the whole process The shoot took place during the height of COVID-19 and in Serbia (standing in for New York City) “in the heart of winter.” “That had its own challenges,” LeClair said At the time that Domont was making “Fair Play,” Johnson was working on “Glass Onion,” his follow-up to “Knives Out,” but was still clued into how “Fair Play” was turning out Chloe really is locked in and knows what she wants There seems to be a kinship in Domont’s willingness to resurrect a genre that you don’t hear so much about these days in the same way that Johnson brought back the whodunit mystery with “Knives Out.” Not that “Fair Play” is explicitly an erotic thriller “I set out to make a thriller about power dynamics within a relationship it just so happens to be highly sexual,” Domont said “There are definitely crossovers to the erotic thriller genre There are crossovers to the psychological thriller genre or crossovers just to relationship drama But I feel like our jobs as new filmmakers is to twist genre and manipulate it to service stories that we have to tell now So I don’t think it’s a film that you can really put a particular label on or put in a box.” the trickiest aspect of the film wasn’t the sexual politics but maintaining the proper level of suspense “I set out to make a pressure cooker kind of ticking time bomb thriller,” Domont said She kept an eye on moments that “got too big too quickly” and adjusted “I’ve been calling it the date movie from hell considering how the film played at Sundance “You have no idea how people are going to respond,” Bergman said of the anticipation ahead of the film’s festival premiere “But we knew this woman is a real filmmaker And I had no doubt that people would recognize it.” “It was almost like waiting for Christmas as a parent,” Johnson said I can’t wait for them see to see this amazing thing Chloe’s made.” Domont said that the entire weekend was a “blur” but she does remember the very first time the movie played (the phrase “like gangbusters” comes to mind) “The best part for me was the audience reactions of that first screening To have 350 people in a room gasp and cringe and woo and boo and feel the movie in a way that you always intended I think is the best thing as a filmmaker,” Domont said Domont was taken with the platform’s “global reach.” The film received a limited theatrical release in October before its worldwide debut on the streaming platform “I want as many people to see this movie as possible because I think more people see it the more conversations it’ll start,” Domont said “I’m just excited to open this up globally and see what people from different cultures think “There’s a real sticky conversation there that really craves mass amplification,” LeClair added Much in the same way couples would go out to the theater to see “Fatal Attraction” or “Disclosure” on a Saturday night they’ll spend a Saturday night at home watching “Fair Play.” And afterwards they might have an uncomfortable chat “I’ve been calling it the date movie from hell,” Domont said More miraculous than the out-of-the-gate success of “Fair Play” was that T-Street did it again at another festival in the fall “American Fiction,” the feature directorial debut of Emmy-winning “Succession” and “Watchmen” writer Cord Jefferson premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival at the beginning of September which stars a never-better Jeffrey Wright as persnickety college professor who deals with his very complicated family a harbinger for awards season success to come (“Argo,” “American Beauty,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The King’s Speech” and “Nomadland” picked up the People’s Choice Award at Toronto before bringing home the Academy Award) will release the film theatrically this December Jefferson said he didn’t even known about the incubator program until he was in production “We took out the script to various producers and the reason I decided to go with T-Street is because they greenlit the film in the meeting I met with them and we chatted for about 15 or 20 minutes ‘We want to make this movie.’ I immediately decided to go with them because they were the only ones who said ‘We’re going to make this film,’” Jefferson said “Then I found out afterwards that I was part of this program that they had with MRC the second film made after “Fair Play” in the program is “The Snack Shack” from director Adam Carter Rehmeier LeClair called it “the best version of a nostalgic trip to Nebraska in 1991.”) Part of why Jefferson didn’t know about the program until later is because he didn’t feel separate from everything else that was going on at T-Street “I think that sometimes when people establish these kinds of programs for new filmmaker voices or underrepresented voices there’s a very clear delineation between sort of like and then you’re over here in this kind of charitable space,’ and it feels like it’s very much separate but equal,” Jefferson said It never felt like we were the JV and then these were our varsity projects I never felt like my much smaller movie was any less important to anybody in the office Jefferson — whose esteemed writing resume also includes episodes of “The Good Place” and “Station Eleven” — was clear about his inexperience in directing but that was far from a deterrent in T-Street’s eyes I think that they really do believe in their mission which is to help people who might not otherwise get to make movies As for Bergman’s goal that filmmakers will make their first film with T-Street as part of this program and come back to make more he doesn’t have to worry about that with Jefferson “I’d work with T-Street on anything and everything for the rest of my career as long as they’ll have me,” he said And it’s not like T-Street will only be making movies by first-time directors; Johnson said that they would welcome more established talents with bigger budgets “learning from watching other filmmakers work.” There is also the matter of the third movie in the trilogy that began with “Knives Out” and continued with “Glass Onion.” Johnson joked that it was Bergman who had put me up to asking the question I obviously couldn’t work during the strike I’ve got what the movie is in my head It’s just a matter of writing the damn thing,” Johnson said Johnson confessed that the name T-Street comes from a beach in San Clemente where he would hang out as a teenager and where he would later shoot his debut feature “Brick” (the same movie that began his relationship with Bergman) it just evokes a place that I want to be and hang out with my friends at You just meet me at T-Street and spend the whole day down there,” Johnson said The T-Street from Johnson’s youth has now become the T-Street of Johnson’s future – a nurturing place where he can make the very coolest things with the very coolest people Photography by Jeff VespaChloe Domont Hair & Makeup: Kerrie UrbanStylist for Rian Johnson: Mark HolmesGroomer for Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman: Su Naeem by September 26, 2023Source: YouTube after watching the audience burst into huge applause at the end: "I absolutely loved this film I felt the exhilaration build inside of me I immediately joined in the rapturous standing ovation at the end." Yep watch it any way you can - it will grab you Here's the second official trailer for Chloe Domont's Fair Play, direct from Netflix's YouTube: You can rewatch the first official trailer for Chloe Domont's Fair Play right here Find more posts in: To Watch, Trailer Add our RSS to your Feedly +click here+ Latest posts now available on Bluesky: Get the latest posts sent on Telegram Want emails instead?Subscribe to our dailynewsletter updates: When it comes to sound, Fair Play starts with a banger and ends with a bang opening with "Love to Love You Baby" isn't just a way to establish the romance between Emily and Luke — it's a way to hint at the darker side of their love it's also haunting and taunting," Domont told Mashable in a video interview "I think there's an element of that in the tone of the song to me The Summer classic is just one of many auditory tactics Domont uses to create tension throughout Fair Play which sees Emily and Luke's relationship fester when Emily receives a promotion Luke believed he was getting "I wanted to create a sound design that keeps you on edge," Domont explained "The cityscapes are quite piercing and violating and assaulting on some level which I think creates this anxiety-inducing feeling." Fair Play sound designers Ugo Derouard and John Warrin work with a soundscape that would feel at home in a horror movie with creaking pipes and floorboards becoming more prominent as Emily and Luke grow further and further apart "We start to feel the cracks in their building as the cracks in their relationship form," said Domont Brian McOmber's score also fuels the increasing strain between Luke and Emily "The idea is that if we used resolved notes then you think that the story will resolve "Brian and I talked about wanting to create this feeling that [the score] is never releasing any tension." Dissonance also became crucial to the score "When you pair two notes that don't belong together it creates this feeling of unease," Domont said "So that's what we did with the score quite a bit and I think it helps with that ballooning tension and that feeling of anxiety." These tension-building tools don't let up until Fair Play's very last scene in which Emily retaliates against Luke for raping her and then pretending like what he did didn't matter This is just about holding a man accountable," Domont said The scene reaches a fever pitch when Emily slashes Luke's arm with a kitchen knife When he finally apologizes and admits he's nothing she demands he wipe the blood off her floor and leave Her final demands are punctuated by a quick exhale of relief followed by the thud of the knife hitting the floor This one-two punch of sound is the final resolution of a film that has denied us any up to this point it's all a result of Emily reclaiming the power and agency Luke has taken from her this film is more than being a film about female empowerment: It's really a film about male fragility So once [Emily] gets [Luke] to mutter the words 'I'm nothing,' that's when the movie resolves," Domont explained She continued: "In terms of the last shot and the last exhale and knife drop that's her final release of the whole experience that's the first time throughout the film that Emily can actually breathe." Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction