A new romantic thriller drops on Netflix, with an envious Sundance pedigree. And we get two more Roald Dahl film adaptations from Wes Anderson.

Fair Play (Netflix USA) - Chloe Domont directed this film that garnered great notices during this year's Sundance Festival, making the film the object of a bidding war between studios. Netflix came to bat and dominated the field, and we now get to watch what made the Sundance audience so enraptured with the film. Emily (Phoebe Dynevor, who we might remember from Bridgerton) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) are analysts in a Wall Street hedge fund, and have a covert relationship - as it's something the office frowns upon. They’re both highly driven and clearly lust for each other, with Luke even presenting Em with a bloodied (a funny bit behind this) engagement ring early on in the film.

When one of the top managers in the hedge fund firm goes ballistic and is forced to leave, rumors swirl about who will get the promotion. Em overhears two senior managers talking about how Luke may very well be up for the job. But called out of the blue at 2 a.m. to meet up with the office head Campbell (Eddie Marsan) at a bar, Emily discovers that she’s being promoted. While Luke congratulates her when she gets home, the fissures in the relationship begin to reveal themselves. The film then becomes an examination of sexual politics, the insecurity of the male ego, how toxic masculinity is still a byword in the corporate world, and the pathetic fallback men resort to when they need to establish their dominance. At times overplayed and theatrical, you’ll still admire Domont’s attack on the material and the acting of the two leads. 

Poison and Rat Catcher (Netflix USA) - The last two Wes Anderson adaptations of Ronald Dahl’s short stories have dropped, and as they both run for less than 20 minutes each, I’ve put the two together in one review. Rat Catcher is the one that plays more like a character study, and it’s Ralph Fiennes as the catcher, who puts on a British commoner/East End accent, who shines in this one. Richard Ayoade and Rupert Friend have minor roles, and they leave it to Fiennes to take this tiny ditty home. In my estimation, it’s a rather strange choice for Anderson, and I wonder what drove him to this particular story. Anderson’s touch is still evident, but even the sets are dreary and nondescript.

Poison, on the other hand, brings Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Benedict Cumberbatch back (after their wonderful team-up in Henry Sugar); and I’ll pat Anderson on the back for picking this short story and not shirking from portraying the racism that’s reflected in the original material. While there is a poisonous snake, the krait, in the narrative, both Dahl and Anderson make it very clear that with the krait just a figment of one character’s imagination, the poison of the title can best be attributed to the attitude and prejudices of the British as they occupied India. Patel’s delivery is once again top-notch. I admire how Cumberbatch expresses so much just through facial expressions, as the portrayal requires him to keep his body rigid throughout much of the story.