Fair Play

What a movie! "Fair Play" is the kind of flick that used to play in the theatre, that opened to some intriguing reviews and then grew week by week by word of mouth until everybody you knew had seen it. And everybody you knew... Had been to college, wanted to make something of themselves, thought the world was their oyster until sometime in their life they realized they never reached the destination, or no longer believed in the destination, or accepted where they were, or ended up broken down on the side of the road and wondered what happened to them.

Now I seem to have established a dividing line, between the educated and the uneducated, between the hoi polloi and the elite. You've got it right there.

Used to be there was a continuum. The red state person might see an indie flick, might capture the Friedmans, but now everyone is on their own path, building their resumé, and they want to be damn sure they don't look like the people they hate. This is the problem with DeSantis and Cruz and the rest of them who were educated at Ivy League institutions and now want you to believe they've rejected all they've learned, all the values of the elite, and are down in the pit with the great unwashed. What a bunch of b.s.

But "Fair Play" is on Netflix. Available to all. That's one thing we can all afford, Netflix. So whatever end of the economic spectrum you are on you can press play and...

You'll find a somewhat boring, somewhat slow movie. Yes, I'm looking for something that rivets me, that has me glued to the screen, that excludes all other thoughts. And that wasn't "Fair Play" until...

You don't know where the film is going. It takes a while to reveal the elements, to establish context, and then you're fully engrossed.

What we've got here is the financial world. When I went to college the goal was to become a professional, a doctor, lawyer or maybe even an accountant. To rise above. To make a good upper middle class living. But then Reagan legitimized greed and that was not enough. Now you had to be a world-beater, you had to set the world on fire. Nerds inherited the earth. But they were not the only ones. You could drop out of college and make bank and put a dent in the universe in Silicon Valley, or you could finish your degree and get recruited by a consulting firm, or go straight to the bank and try to climb the ladder.

They work at a bank. Not really, they work at a fund. Which turns out to be highly respected. You see the rich have to park their money somewhere, and they've got to trust the people they invest with, because they're busy making more money. So you vet different outfits, look at the numbers, lay down some cash and... Of course you're diversified, you own real estate, but you're in the market, and you need a firm to help you there. And that's where Luke and Emily work, at the firm.

As you watch this movie you'll scratch your head and wonder why anybody would take this path. It's simple, the money. You'll learn this as the film unspools. Yes, you can make so much money that you can blow thousands meaninglessly.

Don't confuse these financial people with celebrities. Celebrities make it rain in bars, are all about the exterior, their image, whereas these financial titans are all about the interior, the money. Well, within the club you want to possess the accoutrements. A house in the Hamptons, a place in Aspen, a NetJet account. But you don't care what the great unwashed think of you. And you don't want them to pay attention to you. Because if they knew how much money you were really making, creating nothing, there'd be revolution in the streets. Scratch that, if the gutting of the abortion laws didn't cause riots in the street, income inequality won't either. Those at the bottom believe they can make it to the top. But ask yourself if you fit the paradigm of those in this movie, whether you've got the bona fides, the CV.

And you are working for the man, 'round the clock, all you've got is the money. It's just like working a service job, you're counting the hours until you get off, so you can spend your cash on what really interests you, but you can't give up the game, because the money is just too good.

Now I'm past this point in my life. The script has been written. I am who I am. But there's a time in your late twenties and thirties when you're laying pipe, when you're figuring it out. All the people you knew, where are they, what became of them... Did they go home and never risk, never take a chance in the big city? Did they get married right away and become slaves to their responsibilities or are they still in the hunt. You think everybody's part of your cohort. But ultimately you wake up one day and realize the journey is yours alone, no one else really cares about you.

But for a while there...

And you've got a relationship. Maybe established in college or graduate school, maybe in your job. And you're so connected while disconnected at the same time. You're in it together, but that's nearly impossible. One person ascends the ladder before the other, there is tension...

All the elements of the late twenties/early thirties relationship are here. The quickie, the need to do it anywhere and everywhere. The carnality is palpable, it drives you, you're firing on all cylinders, walking a wire only you can see, and it's thrilling and depressing and confounding all at the same time.

I'm not going to tell you the plot points of "Fair Play." I'd never even heard of "Fair Play" until I saw an article in the paper, how it was a hit at Sundance, how it was sold for double digit millions, and it was on Netflix.

In other words, there was no friction. It was in my mind and I could act.

I'm not going to the theatre, never ever. What a rip-off. But even worse is the amount of time involved. But the bottom line is oftentimes I'm not in the mood and when I am in the mood it's between screenings or...

But to turn on the TV and the Roku, push the button on Netflix, that required little effort. I wanted to see "Fair Play." Because the article said people had visceral reactions to it, not all the same, and they wanted to talk about it, and that's my kind of movie.

Actually, while the film was running, I was playing my own life in parallel. Thinking about events and feeling emotions that I hadn't been in touch with in years. The movie evoked them. That's one of the elements of great art.

And "Fair Play" is not perfect. I'm not sure I completely accept the ending. But the stops along the way, I recognize so many of them. And you might too.

This film is true to life in a way that the tentpole movies are not. Its focus is narrow, and therefore it resonates even more. It gets the intimate truth right, the truth you feel inside that no one else is exposed to.

And relationships at this age have ups and downs, and makeup sex and...

You want to watch this movie.

Trailer (only watch this if you need convincing, better to start the film cold): https://tinyurl.com/3u3re5fh


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