If you’ve been paying attention, then you’ll be readily aware that wanton eroticism is one of Netflix’s most reliable draws, so on the surface the streaming service’s decision to shell out a hefty $20 million for the privilege of screening acclaimed psychosexual thriller Fair Play makes a decent amount of sense.
It’s still an awful lot of money, though, but it could turn out to be a shrewd investment if writer and director Chloe Domont’s feature ends up making a splash on the viewership charts and earning any awards season recognition, which it might very well do on account of two powerhouse performances from Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor in the lead roles.
Of course, Domont feels it’s slightly reductive to broadly label Fair Play as a boilerplate “erotic thriller,” with the filmmaker opining on the many elements it brings to the table in an interview with Vanity Fair.
“The thing about this film is that no one person is going to walk out of this movie feeling the same way as someone else. I’m here to slap people in the face, strangle them a little bit, choke them out…. I’m excited to open it up because I think it’ll stir even more conversation and debate. I don’t think that it’s a film that you can really put into a box. Our job as new filmmakers is to use genre and twist it and manipulate it to serve as stories that need to be told, but to try and break those conventions and bring our own voice to it.”
Regardless of how it ends up being categorized, it’s safe to say that when Fair Play lands on Netflix in October, it’s destined to become appointment viewing for reasons that won’t even have anything to do with its steamy and salacious nature, which makes a change for the platform’s raunchier content.
