Vocabulary and Expressions - 7 Oct 2023

Something Else

The National-Day Vacation in China just concluded yesterday with record-high number of tourists but lower-than-expected total per-capita consumption. Honestly speaking, it is hard to find a tranquil tourist destination to truly get unwind for ordinary people, considering how much the price for accommodation and dining has been raised; Additionally, the overwhelming crowds only added to the frustration experienced by both locals and visitors. In this regard, the end of the vacation could be seen as a relief for those who endured the hassles of travel.

What Did I Read Today?

• Li, Shirley. “This Movie Plot Is the Stuff of HR Nightmares.” Atlantic Monthly (Boston, Mass.: 1993), Oct. 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2023/10/fair-play-movie-review-netflix/675489/.

Hollywood has long been seduced by the world of high finance. All that money! All that power! The glossy skyscrapers that house hedge funds and investment banks look too polished to contain American psychos and Wall Street wolves. And yet, there they are—an assortment of memorable monsters, backstabbing and clawing their way to the top.

• High finance: the activities of lending, investing, and borrowing very large amounts of money
  • Mr Erdman was an expert on high finance who once was the CEO of a Swiss bank
• Glossy: smooth and shiny
• Assortment: a group of different types of something
  • an assortment of vegetables
• Backstabbing: the act of saying harmful or unpleasant things about a person when they are not present
  • He accused his boss of dirty tricks and backstabbing.

In Fair Play, a Sundance hit Netflix acquired for $20 million that begins streaming tomorrow, the writer-director Chloe Domont contrasts the coldness of the conference room with the steaminess of the bedroom.

• She contrast the coldness of the conference room with the steaminess of the bedroom.

Their romance is against HR policy, and their effort to hide it—exchanging pleasantries in front of their colleagues, making sure they arrive separately at the office—is also a titillating game. At work, they’re the picture of buttoned-up efficiency. At home, they have sex on the floor. But when Emily gets promoted above Luke shortly after they get engaged, the tenuous line between their professional and personal lives blurs, threatening their forthcoming marriage.

• Pleasantry: an inconsequential remark made as part of a polite conversation
  • An exchange of pleasantries
  • after an exchange of pleasantries, I proceeded to outline a plan.
• Buttoned-up: formal or serious, and not willing to reveal your feelings or personal opinions
  • She was cast as a buttoned-up lawyer with a secret inner life.
  • He is less buttoned-up, more emotional than his rival.
• Tenuous: very weak or slight
  • the tenuous link between interest rates and investment.

That’s a tantalising setup, but not much about Fair Play works beyond it. Domont valiantly attempts to examine how gender affects power dynamics; her script deconstructs corporate culture through a female perspective, and doubles as a treatise on the turmoil of ambition for women. Yet the shaky character development, melodramatic dialogue, and mismanaged tone result in a sloppy misfire. Fair Play positions itself as a psychosexual thriller, but it’s neither truly provocative nor all that sexy.

• Tantalise: to make someone feel excited or attracted by an offer or a suggestion of something that is, in fact, unlikely to happen
• Melodramatic: showing much stronger emotions than are necessary or usual for a situation
• Sloppy: very wet or liquid, often in a way that is unpleasant
• Provocative: causing thought about interesting subjects
  • The programme will take a detailed and provocative look at the problem of homelessness.