Fair Play: Battle of the sexes in high finance

FAIR Play (2023) is perhaps the most unsettling movie set in Wall Street since, well, Wall Street (1997). Whereas the older film made people uncomfortable for glorifying greed above all else, the newer one has made many hot under the collar for its honest exploration of gender dynamics in the male-dominated world of high finance. 

It’s a post-#MeToo Molotov cocktail of a movie that neither men nor women would cheer about – and yet it requests to be seen, because it reminds us that the struggle for gender equality in the boardroom, bedroom and everywhere else is so very far from over. 

Written and directed by Chloe Domont, Fair Play tells the story of two junior financial analysts working in a ruthless hedge fund firm where profit is the only god. When we first meet them, Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich), are smart, sexy, madly in love and making love any chance they get. Because company policy prohibits employees from being romantically involved, the two keep their relationship a secret.