Writer-director Celine Song got Hollywood's attention with her feature debut, "Past Lives." The indie film earned a surprising but well-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Now, Song moves up from indie to A-list with her new film, "Materialists."
As I have stated before, modern rom-coms are generally not my cup of tea. But since "Materialists" came from Song and is being distributed by the iconoclastic A24, I decided to give it a try.
Song’s "Past Lives" was a gracefully nuanced and poignant romantic triangle in which you cared deeply for all the characters. With "Materialists," she gives us another romantic triangle — but this time a professional matchmaker is at the center: Lucy (Dakota Johnson).
Lucy has a knack for pairing up total strangers but doesn’t know how to manage her own relationships. She has a hot, lovable ex named John (Chris Evans), who’s still broke, waiting tables and living with roommates. But she also has a perfect 10 suitor named Harry (Pedro Pascal), who checks all her boxes: wealth, looks and dining choices. He's what the matchmaking industry calls a "unicorn" because he's an impossible fantasy.
"Materialists" is Song’s take on Hollywood rom-coms. That means she uses the formula but eschews the hysteria and sitcom shenanigans to create something a little richer and more thoughtful — yet still entertaining.
Lucy's job allows Song to have a lot of fun exploring modern dating and what people may mean when they talk of love. Lucy's clients allow us to see what people are looking for in a partner — their often unreasonable demands, unrealistic self-image and hopeful expectations. These people are easy to make fun of, but Song also allows us to see into a few of them to better understand them as people. She doesn't shy away from showing that sometimes dating can be a dangerous game, especially if you misread one of the players.
"Materialists" is never about giddy, swooning romance. Lucy is clear in defining her job as one of just doing the math and creating a good merger or business arrangement. At one point, she suggests she will likely die alone — or marry someone who is ridiculously rich. Yet she also hints at having thought about what it truly means to love someone, and whether there's more than just checking off boxes. The film sweetly suggests that maybe it's about picturing the end of your life and thinking about who you want to be with, and who you trust to be there for you. That's not a typical angle romantic films take.
"Materialists" does cave into some of the Hollywood tropes. For one, everyone is gorgeous. I mean, someone has to choose Pedro Pascal’s millionaire or settle for Chris Evans’ struggling actor? That’s a choice you only find in Hollywood. And besides appearances, John isn't in unattractive poverty, like someone who has to clean toilets or live in shelters. He has the attractive, artsy poverty of an underemployed stage actor in New York. So that takes the edge off his circumstances.
Pascal and Evans are thoroughly engaging as two sides of the triangle. Usually in this type of scenario, the film makes one of men definitively stupider than the other to make the heroine's choice easy. But Song puts the two men on somewhat equal footing (if you ignore their finances). The male stars are decidedly better actors than Johnson, but she checks the box for attractive. She's not a bad actress, just a little bland and low energy.
"Materialists" is no "Past Lives" but it is a classy, well-written rom-com — and it's a rare occasion when I leave a modern romance smiling. Thank you, Celine Song, for showing us how you can make a smart, sincere and sweet film about finding Mr. Right.
