“Love” is a big word and an even bigger concept. Its abstractness has provided a rich soil for history’s most enduring art. Its definition is arguable, so some might not even find the movies on this list romantic at all, but, like it or not, it is also comprehensive, so that even the wildest movie that you can think of right now can somehow also be labeled as a love story. u7k

Just like love, the range of this list is quite broad, ranging from genuine attempts at providing a more realistic look at true love to grim psychological thrillers that question its very existence. There is, however, a guarantee that whatever title you decide to dedicate your time to will gift you with a thought-provoking watching experience that could, unexpectedly, complement your favorite optimistic romantic movie.

Take This Waltz (2012) 6a6f5a

Sarah Polley is one of the great underappreciated directors making movies today. She has a very unique style of handling love stories, capturing both aspects of the excitement of new feelings and the heartbreak of the inevitable end of all relationships. She seems convinced—and if you see Stories We Tell, her documentary from 2012, maybe it’s clear why she thinks this way—that all romantic relationships are essentially sad, that despite how it appears at the outset, all romance is actually tragedy. This is kind of the idea of Romeo and Juliet, but it’s an idea that movies don’t express very often, and maybe they’re not particularly well suited to.

Take This Waltz is just a marvelous little film about the way relationships can and often do end: unceremoniously, untidily, unfortunately, unavoidably. Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen are pretty fantastic in their portrayal of a romance that is over for one of them before the other even realizes it. Williams especially does some incredible work as Margot, who seems far younger than the actress usually plays, or perhaps is only meant to seem naive. Her disillusionment with the fresh-faced suitor she picks up with is the kicker here, revealing the certain level of dissatisfaction that accompanies every relationship. It’s a romance that ends in the tragedy of finding out your perceived “special connection” is just like anything else.

500 Days of Summer (2009) 6s3qs

This may seem like an unusual choice to list among cynical romance movies. It tends to be listed among the most romantic movies of the past few decades. And this is appropriate, but maybe not in the way most people seem to think. For those of us who think romance is heavily steeped in BS (not always in a bad way), 500 Days of Summer is so, so brilliant for its ability to expose the amount of delusion that goes along with romantic interest in another person. It’s done with more subtlety than people realize or give it credit here, though. The clearest moment is the famous split-screen scene depicting “Expectations” and “Reality,” and how little they aligned for the Joseph Gordon-Levitt character.

It’s from there that we begin to realize the highly subjective perspective we’ve been watching from is Tom’s (if the dance number didn’t give it away), and the big reveal that’s done almost indistinguishably at the end is that he has basically sugar-coated their entire relationship, seeing it through the prism of his own rose-colored viewpoint and at the movie’s end we see those glasses come off.

Summer was always sort of cold and indifferent towards him. The romance was never what he thought it was. And so while we’ve witnessed so many sweet little moments between the two of them, it’s unclear how many of them actually happened, or were as sweet as Tom thought. The lesson that romance is largely delusional is pretty cynical, but at least when Tom meets Autumn the movie ends on a slightly hopeful note. Or maybe it’s that he’s still hopelessly deluded.

Blue Valentine (2010) 5u1n3o

This is one of the most devastatingly sad movies I’ve ever seen. It’s not to be watched if you’re looking for something light, to harbor good feelings. It’s downright depressing. But that’s just because it’s more brutally honest than most films allow themselves to be when it comes to romance and the fallout that so commonly occurs but is seldom represented this candidly on screen.

It’s a tough bit of cinema to capture in words, but there’s something about the way this movie represents just the progression of the dynamics of a relationship that seems to capture so much truth to it. Michelle Williams — yeah, her again — is incredible. Her character is sort of an emotional wreck and doesn’t exactly get a lot of from her partner played by Ryan Gosling. They’re doomed from the beginning, drawn to one another for mysterious reasons but incapable of communicating with each other in a meaningful way, leading to inevitable tensions, distance, and sadness. They speak different love languages, it would seem. Gary Chapman would recognize this from the start. The other tragedy of stories like these is that long after the romance is gone, the relationship is drawn out longer and longer, stretching so far that it has to reach a breaking point. God, this is some bleak stuff. But devastatingly true.

Closer (2004) 5y433n

Closer is a sharp, smooth, sleek sort of film that features four fairly awful people falling in and out of love with one another. The dialogue is shocking at times and has a flow that feels like it comes from a theater play, which it does. It’s incredibly smart and smartly made, each scene building in intensity carried by the stellar cast.

Ultimately it seems to be about the lies we tell ourselves and one another in matters of romance. There are three characters that seem to operate exclusively in lies, only using truth when it is most hurtful to their partner. Then there’s one character that is honest, but really only honest about how much she lies. It’s fascinating, brutal, and hugely pessimistic about the way relationships are conducted by most people who seem to have everything put together.

Away From Her (2006) 6y6i3m

So you know how The Notebook has this following that hails it as the greatest movie of all time? Yeah, I don’t really care much for it. That may come as a shock. However, what I did find incredibly compelling about it was the story featuring the elderly couple dealing with Alzheimer’s which served as the premise for the romance story between the Gosling/McAdams characters. I thought that if the whole movie had been about those two adorable old folks I would have really enjoyed it, or found it tragically interesting. Then I saw Away From Her and had these wishes granted.

It’s the debut from director Sarah Polley, who, if you haven’t heard of her before, is pretty awesome at making movies. If we accept her premise that all romance is actually tragedy, then this is one of those cases, described by Louis CK, wherein we have a best-case romantic scenario. Two people were able to find each other and come together in love and marriage, live many happy years together, and then what do they gain from all this good fortune? Heartbreak. Gordon Pinsent has to deal with the loss of his partner played by Julie Christie, not in death at this point but in a tragic disease that has robbed her of the person she once was, and the life they once had together. Makes you think maybe there really is no such thing as happily ever after.

Scenes from a Marriage (1974) 6w143p

Scenes from a Marriage is perhaps the archetypal cynical romance film. Initially conceived as a television series that aired from April to May of 1973 in Sweden, the six episodes were eventually condensed into a 167-minute-long theatrical cut. In 2021, HBO released an American remake of the original series starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain, which provides a more modern, updated perspective on a timeless subject matter: marriage.

Following the lives and relationship of Marianne (Liv Ullmann), a divorce lawyer, and Johan (Erland Josephson), a psychology professor, over ten years, this Ingmar Bergman masterwork looks closely at the trials and tribulations of a time-worn marriage. Its striking and realistic approach to the small cracks that develop over time and eventually threaten the foundation of a relationship was linked to both an uptick in divorces and couple therapy appointments in Sweden in the year following its release. While Bergman is, nevertheless, empathetic to his characters and their flaws throughout, never trapping them in any pre-set archetypes and always making sure to provide context and emotional complexity, the film is still an unrelenting depiction of the hopelessness of long-lasting love (or at least a big enough amount of it to overcome the much uglier emotions that had been hidden by it during the honeymoon phase).

Before Midnight (2013) 1k181u

If you’re looking for something more recent, Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight, co-written by the two lead actors Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, was highly influenced by Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage — the minimalistic production, character and dialogue-focused script, and complicated, borderline hateful marriage are all there. What is it about time that chips away at everything we once loved about a person? This is a terrifying question for anyone still in a happy relationship who decides to watch either of these movies. Thankfully, though, they also offer a lot of answers by almost clinically analyzing the toxic behaviors that kill the spark and build resentment between two people.

The Before series has it all. The opener, Before Sunrise, featuring Delpy and Hawke in their 20s as Céline and Jesse, is one of the most sweep-you-off-your-feet butterflies-in-belly romantic movies of all time. Before Sunset is the ionate, mature companion that depicts the couple’s reunion ten years later. And Before Midnight kind of ruins everything by shedding any kind of idealistic, movie-like perspective on love, to offer a deeply cynical, bitter depiction of marriage. It does leave a bad taste in the mouths of anyone tuning into these films hoping for a grand love story, but the final chapter has been hailed exactly for its “realistic” (I would argue it’s more “pessimistic”) outlook on marriage.

Fair Play (2023) 716v2j

While Fair Play is the furthest thing from a romance on this list, when we meet Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) they’re deeply in love, engaged to be married, and mad about one another. The actors’ chemistry is so strong and convincing that we’re quickly lulled into a false sense of security about their relationship. What follows is a brutal descent into the darkest corners of their souls and the implosion of their apparently perfect love story all because of one little trigger: Emily gets promoted at the big-shot investment company they both work for, and Luke doesn’t.

While Fair Play wavers in the precision and subtlety of its dialogue and narrative, threading the line between a David Fincher-esque psychological thriller the likes of Gone Girl and the gratuitous salaciousness of a Colleen Hoover novel, the premise of the film and its fascinating execution, up to a point, are enough to justify giving it a watch. Director Chloe Domont examines the effects that a tilt in the power dynamics of a heterosexual couple in favor of the woman can have on a seemingly ionate and happy relationship. What makes it all the more disturbing to watch is that all of Luke’s increasingly deranged behavior feels so incredibly realistic, especially for a female audience trained to manage the fragile egos of men they both work and live with, in whatever capacity. It’s not perfect, but it’s surely refreshing.

Happy Together (1997) 191c53

What’s more cynical than loving someone about as much as you hate them? What if you’re crazy about this person while simultaneously going insane over their less ideal traits and quirks? Wong Kar-wai’s 1997 jewel Happy Together tries to imagine a love like that, in the process creating one of the most heartwrenching romance movies you’ll ever watch. Less cynical than it is hopelessly romantic (emphasizing the hopelessness over the romance), the film is considered one of the greatest LGBT+ movies of all time, influencing countless others who succeeded it.

Hong Kong acting legends Tony Leung and the late great Leslie Cheung play tragic lovers Lai Yiu-Fai and Ho Po-Wing on a trip to Argentina in the hopes it’ll save their decaying relationship. When they get lost and run out of money, ending up stuck in the foreign country and forced to get jobs to earn enough to go back home, their romance is put to the limit, sometimes reaching extremes that are hard to come back from. Wong, who is the recognized master of putting longing and loneliness into film, creates an emotional roller coaster of a romance movie that tests the limits of love in the most grounded intimate way possible.

Le Bonheur (1965) 2a431g

I read Le Bonheur more like a dark comedy than anything else, almost like director Agnès Varda is mocking, even if not at all explicitly, men’s conception of an ideal life with a dream, submissive wife. The title literally means “Happiness” in English, which is a faithful description of the tone of the film up until a tragedy strikes in the final act, if only for a brief second before the image of the idyllic marriage is restored.

In it, Jean-Claude Drouot plays husband and father François, Claire Drouot plays his wife and the mother of his children Thérèse, and Marie- Boyer plays his mistress Émilie Savignac. Visually, stylistically, and tonally, the movie is pastel-colored, serene, and radiant. Both women perfectly comply with François’s expectations and he’s the happiest man alive to have both a loving family and a fulfilling sexual affair. Explaining what it is that makes Le Bonheur such a strikingly cynical takedown of heterosexual marriage would ruin all the fun of watching it, so we invite you to go into this movie as blind as possible and draw your own conclusions. Varda refrains from giving anyone any obvious answers, but the legendary filmmaker’s tongue-in-cheek sarcasm can still be found hidden under the picturesque countryside views and beautifully harmonious mise-en-scène of her third feature film.

Being compared to a high-profile erotic thriller that cost Netflix $20 million to acquire before becoming the number one most-watched movie on the entire streaming service doesn’t necessarily sound like a bad thing on paper, but Cat Person director Susanna Fogel doesn’t see the similarities.

In her defense, there isn’t much direct DNA between the two other than a strong focus on the complex dynamics between men and women in personal and professional settings, but it would appear that lines are being drawn regardless after the filmmaker addressed the apparent connections between her movie and Fair Play in an interview with The Wrap.

“We’re overdue to have these stories. We’re overdue to have many of them. No one movie is judged for having to speak for all men. There’s this desire to put so much pressure on the minority storyteller to represent a thing for everybody.”

Fair Play finds Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor’s relationship fracturing at the seams when their personal and professional lives intertwine in the cutthroat financial world, whereas Cat Person sees CODA breakout Emilia Jones and Succession scene-stealer Nicholas Braun embark on a fledgling relationship with the potential to get real ugly real quick.

The downside is that the former has fared significantly better among critics than the latter, with Netflix’s smash hit holding an 88 percent Rotten Tomatoes score compared to Cat Person‘s rather more muted 45 percent, but it’s easy to see why Fogel has made a point of questioning why two disparate titles with vaguely shared strands of thematic DNA need to be lumped into the same conversation.

The sky is blue, water is wet, death is inevitable along with taxes, and any erotic thriller that gets added to the Netflix library is going to become one of its biggest hits. It’s been a whole 24 hours since the phenomenon was last proven true, and yet here we are again with Fair Play off to the races in style.

Per FlixPatrol, writer and director Chloe Domont’s searing look at what happens when Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor’s couple end up being pitted against each other in the cutthroat world of financial management has arrived on the Top 10 in 91 countries around the world since premiering yesterday, which still hasn’t been enough to dislodge Spanish-language thriller Nowhere from its week-long reign.

The streaming service paid a princely $20 million to secure the distribution rights for the movie following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and a Certified Fresh approval rating of 87 percent from 180 reviews indicates that it could be a dark horse awards season contender, with the two leads in particular delivering astounding work.

Domont said “I’m here to slap people in the face, strangle them a little bit, choke them out,” and the widespread acclaim coupled with instant viewership success would appear to show that she’s managed to accomplish her lofty goal in no time at all, metaphorically speaking of course. We’ll be curious to see if Fair Play can rise to the very summit of Netflix’s worldwide watch-list by this time tomorrow, but because it’s an erotic thriller, you wouldn’t bet against it.

The Netflix charts are always a fascinating place to explore. There’s always at least one entry that makes no sense at all — like, why is The Grinch the second-most-watched movie in the world right now? — but, it’s safe to say, this week’s viewer Olympics are especially peculiar.

One Piece should be the biggest show in the world right now, but it’s still taken a backseat to a German crime thriller called Dear Girl, which has seemingly gone undetected in the realm of public/online discourse. Likewise, we regret to inform you that the platform’s most popular movie of the moment is none other than Fifty Shades Freed, AKA the trilogy-completing movie that came out when everyone was already over the Fifty Shades fever. In better news, we will get to watch Chloe Domont’s critically acclaimed Fair Play sooner than expected.

One Piece enthusiasts are granted a privilege Netflix reserves for few 4a5r34

It’s official — One Piece is returning for a second season! The anime live-action adaptation which follows the adventures of a group of pirates called the Straw Hats has been greenlit for a return only two weeks after the premiere of its first outing. To put it into perspective, that’s quicker than Wednesday, Stranger Things or Sex Education. Creator Eiichiro Oda delivered the news in true One Piece style, using a mustachioed transponder snail to address fans, and teasing Chopper’s big arrival. Considering the adorable doctor of the team is literally 90cm tall in the source material, bringing him to the world of live-action will be interesting, to say the least.

Unusual activity and haste for Netflix standards, which usually opts for leaving fans hanging for ages or distraught after unlogical cancelations. One Piece, however, is as sure a bet as any, what with being the highest-selling comic and one of the most-watched animes in the world. The fandom was already there, so all that was left to do was meet their understandably high standards with a worthy adaptation. Thankfully, Netflix seems to have risen to the task this time, with critics praising the show and subscribers showing up with two weeks of over 140 million hours watched.

A German crime thriller continues to hold the charts hostage 292567

The number one Netflix show in the world right now is an unsuspecting crime thriller hailing from the country that gave the platform one of its biggest hits in 2017’s Dark and an Oscar darling in 2022’s All Quiet on The Westen Front. Now, is soaring high again with Dear Child, or Liebes Kind, which is the most-watched show in a whopping 51 countries and made the top 10 in virtually every place where the platform is available.

This addicting mini-series begins when a woman and a child are found following a car accident and it’s revealed they’ve been held captive for 13 years. It’s based on the acclaimed homonymous 2020 novel by Romy Hausmann and runs for 6 episodes. The adaptation, like the book, keeps spectators hooked with perplexing cliffhangers, twists, and turns, resulting in an indisputable new addition to German Netflix’s already crowded hall of fame.

A five-year-old erotic film has everyone glued to the screen again right before the arrival of a superior successor 223nt

Fifty Shades Freed has taken over Netflix the same way the trilogy it stems from took over the world between 2015 and 2018. It looks like the BDSM erotic drama has aged well enough to be revisited by the subscribers after recently being added to the platform, shooting all the way to number one on the movie chart. According to FlixPatrol, it made the top 10 in 58 countries, suring the likes of Jack Reacher, The Grinch, and You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.

The steamy genre is always a surefire hit for Netflix, even when the specimens are as bad as the 365 Days or the Fifty Shades movies. It’s only natural, then, that the streamer is rushing to bring one of the buzziest titles of the year’s festival circuit into the fold. Fair Play, an erotic thriller by Chloe Domont, about a hedge fund firm, starring Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich, conquered critics at Sundance and TIFF, leading Netflix to secure its distribution rights for $20 million. Initially scheduled for an Oct. 13 release, the film is now dropping on the platform a week earlier, on Oct. 6, just in time to end the Fifty Shades dominance and, if critics are to be believed, return the sophistication to the genre.

After scoring rave reactions on the festival circuit, Netflix decided that shelling out $20 million for erotic thriller Fair Play was an investment worth making, and it could end up parlaying into potential awards season recognition for a movie that currently holds a 90 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Elden Ahrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor star as a couple who slowly begin to see their love turn sour as the cutthroat world of finance threatens to drive them apart and irrevocably damage their power dynamic. It hardly sounds like the sort of thing to get s hot under the collar, but writer and director Chloe Domont has been giving it the hard sell after itting she wanted audiences to feel as though they’ve been slapped, strangled, and choked.

Initially scheduled to premiere on Netflix on Oct. 13, Fair Play has ended up coming quicker than expected after being shifted forward to the 6th of the month. That pits it against the theatrical debut of The Exorcist: Believer, but as we’ve seen innumerable times in the past, cinematic eroticism is impossible for subscribers to ignore.

Expect this one to be a massive hit in its first weekend, then, especially when it comes bearing a stellar critical reception that’s already intimated that it’ll be a cut above the usual skin-showing titles that land on Netflix with reckless abandon and invariably find themselves rocketing right to the very top of the worldwide watch-list in short order.

Obviously, that’ll be the case once again, except this time it’ll be because of a good film.

The battle on the picket line rages on — with nary an end to the striking in sight for either the WGA or SAG-AFTRA — and the straits only get more dire for everyone as time goes on; not only have Hollywood producers kept their heinous promise of withholding negotiations up until and beyond when creatives started losing their homes, but the already sour reputations of Netflix and so many other entertainment entities are getting their shady practices revealed more and more with every ing day (rightfully so, perhaps, but the point remains).

Although, if there’s one area that the streamer has a worse grasp on than business ethics, it has to be its woefully substandard approach to the action genre; from picking projects to getting the ball rolling, it just can’t seem to crack the code despite finding accidental success every other day.

It’s nice that everyone suddenly loves Gilmore Girls; it would be even nicer if the people who made it were compensated appropriately 9463g

Gilmore Girls alum Sean Gunn has been one of the most vocal champions for writers and actors alike ever since the strikes began, and with the aforementioned sitcom having made some impressively lucrative viewership rounds on Netflix since it first landed on the streamer, you can bet that that Guardians of the Galaxy star has some comments on the laughable residuals that have come from it.

Indeed, the younger brother of James Gunn is still rightfully displeased with the relatively non-existent payments that have come to him and the rest of the cast despite the show raking in substantial revenue for the streamer. There’s satisfaction to be had in landing a brand-new generation of fans for your work, to be sure, but work is still work, and it’s high time that that little nuance got the respect it deserves.

And if you think that’s bad, wait until you hear how Korean creatives are treated 5l2859

For those of you not in the know, because Netflix is a streaming service rather than a broadcaster – it is under no contractual obligation to pay any residuals at all to the overseas creatives behind South Korean hits such as Squid Game, Hellbound, The Silent Sea, or countless other originals that shore up a sizable amount of Netflix’s international library. And — as you can imagine — Netflix is quite happy to not pay when it doesn’t have to.

An unnamed Korean industry executive described Netflix’s relationship with Korean entertainment as having given up “profit for exposure,” with another noting that the streamer’s overwhelming budgets and star power have cleanly divided Korea’s history of television and film into “before Netflix” and “after Netflix.”

It’s a disgustingly predatory arrangement that needs to change, but with even domestic creatives having trouble strongarming Netflix and its contemporaries into paying them fairly – that’s one hill that Korean creatives might have a bit too much trouble climbing.

It may have turned the Top 20 into its stomping ground, but Peppermint is notorious for leaving a sour taste in the mouths of moviegoers 2he6y

With Jennifer Garner set to make her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut next year (she’ll be reprising her role of Elektra from the 2005 film of the same name in Deadpool 3), some folks may find themselves wanting to acquaint themselves with her filmography.

Peppermint is one such film that you’ll be better off avoiding, which is a piece of clearly unheeded advice considering how its recent viewership numbers have brought it as far as the Netflix global Top 20 charts.

Nevertheless, a 13 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes is all you need to know about this particularly shoddy revenge thriller; how you decide to use that information is entirely up to you — of course — but don’t say we didn’t warn you.

But whether a movie is good or bad, Netflix knows their audience like no other 5g48d

Action movies both great and terrible are arguably the streamer’s greatest boon, and that statement is especially true when the action in question isn’t always about guns and backflips, if you catch our drift.

Indeed, snapping up content on the spicier side has consistently lined the pockets of Netflix executives over the years, and that seems to be the ethos surrounding their decision to shell out $20 million for Fair Play, an erotic thriller film set to land on the streamer shortly after a two-week theatrical run beginning on Sept. 29.

Its 90 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes certainly sets it apart from the drivel that Netflix usually seems to count on, but we’re certainly not complaining, especially with first-time director Chloe Domont gushing about it the way she is.

Dev Patel pulled quadruple duty for “John Wick in Mumbai,” and Netflix still hasn’t given it a release date nearly three years on 1so1x

When Academy Award nominee and general critical darling Dev Patel writes, produces, directs, and stars in an action movie that could allegedly rival such juggernauts as John Wick, one might think it would be near the top of Netflix’s pipeline priorities.

But somehow, Monkey Man still doesn’t have a release date in sight, which wouldn’t be a problem if the film’s existence was fresh news, but the streamer bought the distribution rights for $30 million back in March 2021.

Exactly what’s preventing Netflix from getting Monkey Man out the door is anyone’s guess, but considering most of its recent free time has consisted of cracking down on sharing and rolling out more seasons of Emily in Paris, we reckon it has to do with having a ludicrously backward sense of precedence.

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 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.

Netflix boss Ted Sarandos lit a fire under an already-furious subscriber base when he claimed that he’d never canceled a successful show during his entire tenure, in spite of the dozens upon dozens of proven Top 10 hits to have been mercilessly culled in the last several years alone.

Even though the streaming giant doesn’t seem interested in spending the money to renew shows people have made it abundantly clear they’d love to see return, the company was more than happy to stump up a reported $20 million to secure the rights to incendiary drama Fair Play on the back of its acclaimed Sundance debut.

As a general rule of thumb, Netflix will only give its in-house exclusives a very limited theatrical release, with Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery being the exception. Even then, the outfit literally left hundreds of millions of dollars on the table after the whodunnit sequel nabbed $15 million in three days, but Fair Play director Chloe Domont nonetheless itted to IndieWire that she’s hoping for the big screen treatment.

“Given the audience reactions to this movie and how people audibly respond to this film, it’s looking like everyone wants to have a theatrical run, so we’re working on that element. It really depends on the film and the kinds of reactions the audience have coming out the film that determines that.”

Ironically, one of Fair Play‘s executive producers is none other than Rian Johnson, but if he can’t score a wide release for a sequel that cost Netflix upwards of $450 million to acquire in the first place, then we’re inclined to think that the red carpet won’t be rolled out for a significantly smaller title, regardless of how phenomenal it is.

From writer and director Claire Domont, Fair Play is a hedge fund rom-com, which takes elements of J C Chandor’s Margin Call and pits Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) against boyfriend Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) on the trading floor of One Crest Capital.  

Living together against company policy, analysts Emily and Luke are blissfully happy crunching numbers and planning their wedding. Enjoying the heady atmosphere of a wedding reception when this film opens, the happy couple are hardworking, career- driven, and affluent. On bended knee in the bathroom Adam proposes, which concludes with them both sneaking out of a side window and off into the night.  

In the early morning they both get up, brush it off, and head into One Crest Capital – a brokerage firm overseen by cutthroat head honcho Campbell (Eddie Marsan). Following the public meltdown of a top tier associate an opening comes up, which soon leads to whispers of a promotional opportunity, which Luke wants so badly he can taste it. Following a late-night phone call and subsequent meeting with Campbell over drinks, Fair Play kicks things up a notch when it goes to Emily instead and dynamics change. 

From that moment on, any professional equality which existed between this couple disintegrates, as disgruntlement, and jealousy slowly starts to creep into their conversations. Engagement plans which had been discussed never get ed on to Luke’s parents, while Emily’s mother only makes things worse through some well meaning engagement party planning.  

On the trading floor Emily remains hungry, delivers some solid results, and gradually professional pressures start to supersede personal needs. Adam is now more concerned by matching his high-flying other half, working longer hours, and prioritizing advancement over quality time. A situation which only worsens as she continues to excel in the new role, and chooses to socialize with upper management, rather than spend time with Luke and mend the breach.  

Dramatically that is where Fair Play lives and breathes from this point on, as Dynevor (Bridgerton) and Ehrenreich (Brave New World) turn this into a taut two-hander. Aided by a furiously understated turn from Marsan, the former really works hard to cast off her period drama fame, and give Emily some genuine backbone.  

As their relationship continues to nosedive and a domino effect ensues, Ehrenreich intentionally chews some scenery as Luke implodes threatening to take Emily with him. Although the latter half might become formulaic and lean into bombast in an attempt to keep audiences engaged, Fair Play offers up some stand out moments of genuine dread towards the tail end, which prove extremely satisfying. 

This may not be elevating the genre, but it does have some interesting things to say about the emasculating power of success in relationships. The notes that Ehrenreich gets to play here might feel conventional, but both actors are all in when it comes to making those exchanges pack a punch. That being said, although Dynevor does her best to give Emily enough hard edges as she climbs up the corporate ladder, it is Marsan who really impresses. 

Steely-eyed and expressionless, Campbell is the alpha male trader in any room, who strikes terror into his underlings. For a character actor who excels in portraying soft-centered people who inherently follow rather than lead, this performance is a revelation. As instigator, orchestrator, and shark suited trading floor supremo – Campbell is a masterful turn by any measure you care to mention.  

Unfortunately, what that does is overshadow certain elements of this story whenever Marsan is onscreen. In fact, his presence is felt throughout in the shadows, almost surreptitiously pulling strings like some Wall Street Svengali. Influencing the outcome of a relationship which was irrevocably undermined through his intervention, even though he was never directly responsible for the savage emasculation metered out behind closed doors. 

Beyond that, Fair Play may benefit from its alternate take on gender empowerment, which subjugates expectations by seeing all the femininity drained from Emily as she takes on the masculine traits of her colleagues. However, as the only means for Luke to re-assert his dominance is both demeaning and ineffectual, this ultimately closes out proceedings on an emotional stalemate where everyone nobody wins.  

At this point, we’ve all resigned ourselves to the fact there’s no point in becoming too emotionally invested in any Netflix series, when the evidence is there for all to see that there’s an alarmingly high possibility it’ll bite the dust sooner rather than later.

Since the beginning of 2020 alone, the streaming service has canned at least 25 episodic originals, and that’s in the fantasy genre alone. Warrior Nun, which we should remind you gave the platform its single best-reviewed season of television of all-time before being given the boot, was given a non-existing marketing budget with which to promote its return.

And yet, because financial decisions that don’t make any sense appear to be part and parcel of the boardroom strategy, Netflix is closing in on a deal worth at least $20 million to secure the worldwide distribution rights to drama Fair Play. ittedly, the film has been winning rave reviews, but you’ve got to question who’s g off on these deals.

After all, is an intimate character study really going to blow a hole in the most-watched charts and drive up subscriber numbers? Maybe, but also very much maybe not. On the other hand, it could simply be another transparent ploy to help establish Netflix as a prestige-friendly conglomerate, given that the outfit is desperate to snag as many Academy Awards as possible to boost both its ego and reputation.

Warrior Nun season 3? Get the f*ck outta here. Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor working through relationship struggles? Sure, $20 million seems fair.