A couple years ago, I deleted all my dating apps. Once I learned that the top 10% “good looking” people (definitively NOT me) were getting well over half of all matches, that was the last straw. Even before that, the endless feeling out dates where I felt like I was being check boxed instead of trying to form a connection was aggravating and frustrating. Celine Song clearly dealt with these feelings too, but fortunately for all of us is a better writer/director than all the other Left Swipes out there. Materialists resets the modern relationship on the big screen in the 21st Century, reminding us though that what seems new has been going on since the first cro-magnon decided to take up relations with their person they were most attracted to.
Lucy (Dakota Johnson) has been on both sides of the modern dating game. A professional matchmaker, she’s working with clients like Sophie (Zoe Winters) and Robert (Eddie Cahill) to find that under 20 BMI, over 6 ft, under 30 person that’s the ideal match in their heads. Lucy doesn’t just observe the struggle of these people, she’s in the middle of it herself. At a wedding, a “unicorn” billionaire decent man smokeshow Harry Castillo (Pedro Pascal) becomes enamored with her, and tries to start up a relationship with her. But at that same wedding, her ex John (Chris Evans) shows up working for the catering company, whom Lucy hasn’t seen in a long time. And so begins the most modern twist on the love triangle to date: some things never get old.
At least that’s how the studio is selling Materialists, very much the point of Celine Song’s movie. She’s lasered in on the 2025 version of Jane Austen’s writing: marriage is a business decision for many, but is that right? In this modern spin, men and women have equal say in who they marry. And years of movie history have made each person believe that their ideal match is somewhere out there, even if the list of “non-negotiables” is absurd and many times contradictory. But the heart knows what it wants, and that’s something that goes beyond the math game to something deeper that Lucy’s dating service is usually playing. Through Harry and John, Lucy has both ends of this tug of war, choosing between marriage as a business decision and a matter of passion. Materialists makes clear what Celine Song thinks about this choice, but there’s more nuances and complexity in there I wish she had time to think about and investigate instead of this black and white choice given to her leading lady.
Besides the great Celine Song, I was very curious to see how 3 “Internet boyfriend/girlfriends” would do in the big A24 spotlight. To my surprise, Chris Evans comes off the best, in part because his John is written the most like a real character and in part because Evans was probably this guy at some point in his life (Song’s showcasing of his apartment is one of the highlights of the film). He gets the best speech of the movie too. Pedro Pascal has his knees cut from under him a bit with the way Harry is written, but he’s certainly got enough charm to sweep someone like Lucy off her feet. The big climactic scene with him and Dakota Johnson is the scene Song clearly wants to get to, and Pascal nails his part of it. Dakota Johnson looks the part of a romantic leading woman: beautiful and engaging as ever. But this movie is a bit outside her current skill set: she’s best reacting and listening, like an ingenue; here she has to do a lot of speechifying and lacks the emotional nuance to really drive home the struggle Lucy has choosing between the life she craves and the romance she desires. Johnson succeeds in fits and starts, but never quite feels at home in the character enough to make her work 100% of the time.
So a bit of a sophomore slump for Celine Song on this one. No shame it that though, a mild drop off from the incredible Past Lives was to be expected. And props to John Magaro: no one like playing the “are we sure about this one?” character, but he’s done it, wonderfully, twice now for Celine Song, this time in only voiceover. By the way, my non negotiables: fan of big city living, funny, trustworthy, and an encyclopedic knowledge of the TV Show Community. I know, what a catch right?