After one of the greatest debuts of all time with “Past Lives,” achieving two nominations to the Oscars, director Celine Song went into her sophomore film with a higher budget and an A-list cast, but also a higher expectation.
When advertising “Materialists” before it released, much of the commentary mentioned was about the return of the genre of romcom, with the classical cliché of the girl choosing between the high class man who is not her true love or the lower class man who is the one meant for her, and this is what many expected of it. What shocked many was the complete angle-change the film takes, as expected from the director Celine Song. This led to people taking the film as a critique and commentary about the dating environment.
Lucy, played by Dakota Johnson, is known for being a “matchmaker,” someone who gets to know different people from the city of New York and searches for what makes them compatible in a relationship. While continuing with this job, she gets to meet Harry, played by Pedro Pascal. Harry is known as a unicorn in the dating world, someone perfect and that checks off all the marks such as height, looks, income, etc.
Our contrary side of Harry, and the third individual in this love triangle, is John, played by Chris Evans. John is Lucy’s ex-boyfriend whose relationship ended mostly because of financial difficulties as he was a struggling actor in the big city. During the film we can see how their relationship ended, as well as their reunion after many years and how there is still a connection between them.
The premise itself sounds very conventional, but Song was able to give deeper thought as seen from her previous work. “Materialists,” as the title indicates, is about the materialism we face in our everyday lives, how we perceive people who make more money or less money than us, the effects this has on our relationships and how we envision a “perfect” partner. Lucy, as a matchmaker, has all the odds of being able to meet someone flawless, like Harry. She gets to know him and slowly develops their relationship with many of the focuses being the material gifts and not as much of who he was. Comparing this to how we are introduced to John, it displays the difference in what real love and affection are and becomes a gateway for the main issue of economic status.
Added on to this commentary, we also receive a very interesting depiction of dating apps and the more non-contact ways of meeting we have in this modern environment. We see each other as a checklist, and if it’s not what we envision of our perfect candidate, we are not interested. A very intense topic is mentioned in the film as it talks about the dangers of meeting people you don’t know, and how apart from being stressful, the dating world can also be threatening.
Many viewers criticized this film, as it was mentioned how could Lucy ever fall in love again with her ex-boyfriend who did not change or improve his economic outcome? But this is one of the main points and reflections of this film, their original breakup was created from multiple moments of frustration from not being able to “provide” to their partner, and this materialist view is what ruins many of the relationships. Seeing our significant other as an ATM can not only create unhealthy relationships by creating financial dependency, but also stop relationships who struggle financially, becoming one of the main reasons for breakups and divorces in current years. While this can be a very argued topic and one that many people feel negatively about because it may make them feel greedy, Song displayed the topics very honestly and with a much clearer concept and conclusion than romcoms.
“Materialists” is now available on multiple platforms as a Video on Demand, and I recommend it to anyone reading.
