Materialists, 2025.
Written and Directed by Celine Song.
Starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal, Zoe Winters, Marin Ireland, Dasha Nekrasova, Emmy Wheeler, Louisa Jacobson, Eddie Cahill, Sawyer Spielberg, Joseph Lee, John Magaro, Nedra Marie Taylor, Sietzka Rose, Halley Feiffer, Madeline Wise, Ian Stuart, Dan Domenech, Emiliano Díez, Rachel Zeiger-Haag, Alison, Bartlett, Lindsey Broad, and Baby Rose.
SYNOPSIS:
A young, ambitious New York City matchmaker finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.
Before writer/director Celine Song skewers and satirizes modern matchmaking and dating with bluntness and honesty in her sophomore feature, the appropriately titled Materialists, the film begins with a look at the world’s first settlers and what the first-ever marriage proposal might have looked like. As one can probably imagine, it’s pure and uncorrupted by entitlement and greed, free from the endless deal breakers that plague and poison today’s prospective relationships. It’s a quiet, serene opening scene that seemingly encourages contemplation of how the hell things ended up where they are today, with present day Ney York’s Dakota Johnson’s professional matchmaker Lucy hearing it from everyone, whether it be a man crassly complaining and shaming the age and weight of the match he was given or a woman’s pickiness regarding a two inch height difference.
Having been responsible for nine marriages through matchmaking (with a somewhat shameful and devastating confession from the bride about why she’s going through with marrying this man that sums up the theme of the movie in one word), Lucy is successful at her job. However, she has to navigate some of the biggest whiners and unbelievable criteria and demands to make a match, which allows Celine Song ample room to point out these absurdities in hilarious one-on-one interviews where she assembles an understanding of what the client is searching for. Underneath that humor lies also something deeply human: everyone wants to feel valued.
The ugliness of modern dating and what Lucy does for a living is taking that value and practically transforming it into something resembling a real-life currency. As such, the sad reality is that these clients have become so accustomed to superficial compatibility, often seeking relationships that are more transactional than romantic in nature. At one point, Lucy likens her occupation to that of a mortician and a financier, observing each individual’s body part and social status, and looking to match each person up more within reason rather than something resembling love.
Then there is a brief flashback to Lucy’s previous relationship with the aspiring theater actor, perpetually broke John (Chris Evans), which failed due to financial problems that led to constant arguing, making it clear that love is missing. Or maybe arguments are a sign that something tangible is there beyond the empty prize of being able to claim one’s partner is everything they wanted physically or financially. While they remain friends and occasionally see one another (Chris works for a catering company that are sometimes hired for the weddings between Lucy’s matches), whether a spark and love remains there or not is about to be tested when the rich Harry (Pedro Pascal), who works in private equity, comes into the picture and states up front that if he does call her, it’s not going to be for a match but a date between the two.
Harry isn’t only outlandishly rich, though, with a $12,000,000 apartment; he is something the agency calls a unicorn. He is well-educated, socially well-adjusted, tidy, impossibly attractive, and generally contains every positive trait someone could want in an ideal partner. Even the way he picks up an expensive restaurant bill without flinching impresses Lucy, and understandably so, considering she grew up in a struggling family, and that financial situation did not improve during her relationship with John. Naturally, Lucy is also surprised that Harry isn’t looking for the youngest, most attractive, equally wealthy partner he can find (the route his brother took), and so the two explore a relationship.
Materialists might sound like a traditional love triangle romantic comedy, and to an extent, it is. It also approaches the nature of relationships from various perspectives, including compatibility, appearances, social class, and more, with a cutting authenticity that keeps everything off-kilter and disarmingly moving.
The three leads are all outstanding, with Dakota Johnson somewhere between self-absorbed and self-aware about Lucy’s profession (a wake-up call with one of her clients pushes her into the latter, adding some darker material to the mix about the dangers women face meeting strangers, as the film remains unapologetic about facing reality). Meanwhile, she is confused about her love life. Observing her accounting for the past and piecing it all together, while also coming to terms with the seedy nature of her job and how it often enables dangerous men to harm women who already have low self-esteem due to low success rates, is a layered, fittingly messy, and rewarding character journey.
However, Pedro Pascal, unexpectedly (or perhaps it is expectedly, given his stellar reputation as a performer), delivers a reveal and confession in gut-wrenching raw honesty and vulnerability. That the words Harry uses are coming from the mouth of Pedro Pascal (for the film spends five minutes gushing over him as the perfect man) speaks booming volumes regarding the film’s criticisms about matchmaking and modern dating. It is also worth mentioning that a beautiful score from Daniel Pemberton elevates some of the more thought-provoking and emotionally absorbing scenes. Some might scoff at the casting of Chris Evans as the average working man clinging to his faint dreams and trying to make ends meet, but that is surely intentional: if this guy’s dating life is rough, what does that say about the cutthroat landscape of dating at large?
Admittedly, Celine Song is juggling multiple threads with Materialists, which, for the most part, do still fit into a tried-and-true formula. In the moment, Lucy’s personal dating life doesn’t come across as enveloping as the laugh riot, sharp deconstruction of modern dating. When it’s all over, though, the character dynamics and several choice scenes linger. This is a film that increasingly becomes richer with every passing second, one thinks about it, and a time when love was, well, less materialistic. What Celine Song has accomplished here might even spur change in the most vain individuals. She’s a filmmaking unicorn.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
