Celine Song, fresh off the quiet brilliance of Past Lives, returns with Materialists—a sharp, satirical look at modern love dressed in rom-com clothing. But don’t let the glossy trailer fool you. This isn’t your average “will-they-won’t-they.” Instead, it’s a character study of transactional dating, intimacy as performance, and what we really mean when we say we want “the total package.”
Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a top-tier NYC matchmaker whose ninth successful pairing is about to walk down the aisle. Her formula? It’s all metrics: height, income, weight, career—love as logistics. But while she’s professionally undefeated, Lucy remains voluntarily celibate, convinced she’ll marry the next man she dates… as long as he’s rich.
At the wedding of this client, she meets Harry (played by Pedro Pascal), the tall, dark, handsome, and wealthy brother of the groom. He immediately takes a liking to Lucy, and expresses his interest in her, but she spurns him and instead suggests that he become a client. On the same night, she unexpectedly reunites with her ex-boyfriend John (played by Chris Evans), a struggling actor who is working as a caterer for the wedding reception. While she still has feelings for John deep down, the allure of Harry and her view of him as a “unicorn” (matchmaker lingo which basically means “the total package”) starts becoming too much to resist.
The sophomore effort of director Celine Song, whose debut film PAST LIVES in 2023 saw enormous critical acclaim and success (culminating in two Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture), MATERIALISTS continues her examination of love and intimacy through the perspective of modern dating and relationships. While it may look like a typical rom-com on the surface (and based on its trailer), it really can be described more accurately as a satirical drama. As we get to know the characters involved in this perceived love triangle, Song makes the effort – through her writing and direction – to not fall into familiar rom-com tropes. Instead, she gives us characters that feel like real people, who aren’t perfect, who have their own flaws and insecurities, but otherwise try to lead genuine lives.
Throughout the first half of the film, Song does a tremendous job in trying to break down the modern dating scene and satirize it in a way that highlights the inherent flaws (moral or otherwise) of the current environment while not coming off as preachy or judgmental. The main question becomes, “can love alone ever be enough?” This is relevant because, as anyone in today’s dating scene will tell you, people are looking for love…as long as he/she checks off all of their other preferred boxes (the satirical song/TikTok trend “Looking for a Man in Finance” is the perfect illustration of this predicament). Unfortunately, the film ends up collapsing under the weight of its own ambition in the second half, as the story suddenly starts to revert back into typical rom-com territory whilst forgetting the concepts and questions that separated the film from that category in the first place. The spirit of what came before is still there, but just feels too watered down and too safe, almost to the point where the film really doesn’t know what it’s trying to be anymore.
As for the acting, the three leads (Johnson, Pascal, and Evans) have tremendous chemistry with one another and deliver fantastic performances. Chris Evans in particular delivers what could possibly be the best performance of his career, as his portrayal of John is played with such care and sensitivity, to the point where the audience can’t help but root for him in spite of his inherent flaws. Pedro Pascal delivers a very nuanced performance as Harry, someone who on the surface seems to have it all, but has his own secrets that burden him. And Dakota Johnson’s portrayal of Lucy is the cherry on top, someone whose entire worldview of dating, which has given her great career success, becomes shattered in ways that she didn’t expect.
Celine Song’s MATERIALISTS attempts to place today’s dating world under a microscope and expose the shallowness, superficiality, and unrealistic expectations that dominate the landscape. For the first half of the film, she succeeds in satirizing the environment while perfectly treading the line between exposure and preachiness. She doesn’t judge the inhabitants of the dating scene, but instead points out how their expectations can actually hinder their attempts to find love. The film doesn’t quite stick the landing in the second half as it seems to lose itself in its aspirations, becoming the very rom-com it initially sought to satirize. In spite of its ending, the otherwise-solid writing and incredible acting from its leads makes MATERIALISTS a worthy successor to PAST LIVES, proving that Celine Song is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with in the industry.
4 cups of coffee/5
