Those familiar with award season movies may recognize the name Celine Song for her directorial debut, Past Lives, which garnered nominations in 2024 for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Song’s sophomore project, Materialists, was just released back in June and similarly examines contemporary love.
Song’s newest film follows Lucy Mason (Dakota Johnson), a former aspiring actor turned matchmaker at a New York City-based firm who has grown jaded with romance despite making nine pairings that have resulted in marriages. Granted, Lucy’s approach to modern love comes from a point of deep cynicism, seeing marriage more as a business arrangement than one of romance. Although she is a self-professed “eternal bachelorette,” Lucy finds herself being courted by wealthy financier Harry Castillo (Pedro Pascal) after finding a match for his brother. At the same time, she unexpectedly reunites with her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor who has taken a catering job to make ends meet. Lucy reconnects with John, ultimately revealing that their past relationship fell apart due, in part, to financial difficulties. All the while, Lucy has a crisis of identity as she deals with clients’ unrealistic standards and idiosyncrasies. As Lucy navigates her work as a matchmaker, she finds herself in a position of choosing between two partners.
Critical response to Materialists has been more mixed than Song’s first film. Granted, poor marketing may have played a role in how this movie has been received. Materialists was sold to audiences as a fairly straightforward romance, a genre that has fallen off considerably in film. Yet, Song’s sophomore project is simultaneously darker and sillier than the trailers would have you believe. Without revealing too much, the film tackles issues outside the realm of dating and explores the vulnerabilities you open yourself up to in relationships.
While Song demonstrated similar mastery of restraint, storytelling, and character-building that made Past Lives so successful with wider audiences, there are definite flaws to her sophomore piece. Unfortunately, Johnson struggles as a lead actress to convey the depth of her character. I have found that some criticism of Johnson has, in the past, verged on overt sexism and had more to do with her familiar ties than her merit as an actor. I waffled throughout the film because Johnson’s standoffish, aloof performance almost fit the character of a materialistic matchmaker, but she struggled to carry the character’s emotional core and convey deeper nuances when the script called for it. It is hard to believe Johnson as a character whose relationship to past poverty or economic struggle is so integral to her identity.
Granted, the accompanying performances by Pascal and Evans do a lot of heavy lifting. Pascal walks a fine line between being overtly charming and decisive, and Evans’ portrayal of a struggling New York actor is well done. Both actors have to balance appearing overly confident in places and deeply insecure in others, a challenge that they rose to. There were times when the film felt like it was cutting around its lead in favor of its accompanying performances. It’s a testament to both Pascal and Song’s storytelling ability that they can get an audience invested in the feelings of an aging multi-millionaire.
In spite of struggles with a possibly miscast lead, Materialists still speaks to what makes romance an appealing genre. It takes a lot to convey a deep emotional connection between characters with minimal physical interaction, but Song does. The film explores how our perceptions of love can be warped by money and wealth. Song has an eye for cinematography and complements the film’s pacing with a lush, lived-in version of modern New York.
Although there are criticisms that can be made of the film, Song still brings a unique approach to portraying modern love and does so in a way that challenges the audience to consider their own relationship to romance.
Rating 80/100
Materialists is being distributed by A24 and was released on June 13.
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