'Materialists' Review: The Smartest Romance of the Year
Celine Song Does It Again!!
Materialists (Directed by Celine Song)
Plot - “A young New York City matchmaker's lucrative business gets complicated as she finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.”
Noteworthy Cast - Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, & Chris Evans
My thoughts - If you have been around here for some time, you know that “Past Lives” was not only my favorite film of 2023, but probably my favorite movie of the decade (so far).
Needless to say, it was firmly cemented in the #1 slot on my “Most Anticipated Films of 2025” list.
After seeing the film twice over the weekend, I am happy to declare that Celine Song is here to stay for a long long time & I couldn’t be more happy!!!
Materialists is a throwback in a lot of ways to the great romance films of yesteryear, yet still remarkably relevant to our time & acutely aware of the pitfalls of the modern dating scene. It’s commercial with the central romance yet wicked smart in how it comments on checklist dating culture. The best of both worlds.
The star of the show is once again Song’s script. There are few people who can bring to life such authentic & lived in characters who you truly get to know the ins & outs of in under two hours. The characters even take conflict head on & work through their problems with dialogue throughout instead of resolving things off screen or in their head. It’s a rarity these days for anything in this genre to be so rich.
My favorite thing about Song’s directing style is how patient she is & how much restraint she shows. There are plenty scenes to point out, but my favorite example in this film would be a long hallway shot as two characters go into the bedroom & the camera slowly zooms in on a cellphone left in the hallway. Also love the wide shot in the scene before this one as two characters have dinner together & the camera slowly pushes in closer as the conversation becomes more intimate between the characters.
She’s remarkable behind the camera.
I also want to give due credit to the production design & the score. Both are subtle when they need to be and overwhelm when they need their presence to be felt more. Masterful additions to a great film.
I’ve been a bit bummed watching the online discourse around this over the past few days. Some criticisms are doing nothing but furthering the whole point of the film.
It’s no mistake that Song opens Materialists with images of what she imagines the first marriage looked like. In a world where survival was the primary focus & marriage didn’t even exist - the first people probably got together because genuinely loved on another.
Sure, it was partially a business deal to help with survival, but love was on the table & likely the whole reason they even chose to be together.
Throughout the rest of the film, characters remind us what marriage ultimately progressed towards as society marched forward. Marriage was used to unite kingdoms or a large dowry was involved.
In other words, marriage quickly became more of a business deal with little to no love on the table.
If you think about what happened after that, there was a whole wave of empowerment that shifted marriage from being about a business deal to marriage being about love. In fact, a whole wave of romance films through the years portrayed this very idea.
It all of a sudden wasn’t cool to marry for anything but love.
As technology has progressed and society has shifted, we are now at the point where we have come all the way back around to marrying purely for business. Sure, it doesn’t look as antiquated as a dowry or uniting kingdoms, but it really isn’t that different.
Song smartly uses matchmaking as a stand in for the dating apps and algorithms that shape modern dating. People are refined to metrics that can be filtered and boxes to be checked. The person themselves doesn’t even matter as much as how many boxes they check.
Marrying for status, money, and image is the new business deal where love is often not only off the table, but rarely even a consideration.
Which is why it’s so funny to be that people are pointing out that Pedro and Dakota have no chemistry in the film, that is entirely the point! Or that people are calling it poor man propaganda. Or that people are calling it a rom-com.
Sure there are some funny moments, but all of the laugh lines are outside of our three main characters because nothing about their lives or situations are funny.
It’s actually tragic for most of the movie.
The film is almost more of an anti-rom com than an actual rom-com. Not every movie is for everyone, but it’s bizarre to see so many incoherent takes on a genuinely great film!
Anyways, welcome to the romance film cannon, Materialists! Or at least my romance film cannon!
Rating - 4/5
How to watch - Currently in theaters
When you think about the great Actor/Director relationships currently going in Hollywood there are a few that come to mind - Martin Scorsese + De Niro, Quinten Tarantino + Samuel L. Jackson, Ryan Coogler + Michael B. Jordan, Spike Lee + Denzel Washington, or Martin Scorsese + Leonardo DiCaprio.
But it may be about time to add another duo to that list - Robert Eggers + William Dafoe. They are hot off the success of last year’s “Nosferatu” & have also previously collaborated on “The Northman” & “The Lighthouse”, but their most noteworthy collaboration may be just around the corner.
It was recently reported that Robert Eggers is set to write and direct a new adaption of “A Christmas Carol” for Warner Brothers & that William Dafoe is being eyed to star as Ebenezer Scrooge.
I can’t really say that I was clamoring for a remake of this classic story that has been adapted over 20 times for the big screen over the years, BUT this duo is perfect and makes me excited for it.
“A Christmas Story” is perfect for Eggers sensibilities as a director, his obsession with period-specific accuracy, and is draw towards darker/eerie stories. As for Dafoe, I genuinely can’t think of another actor I would rather see get their shot at the legendary Scrooge.
Pretty cool that someone who I would consider more of an arthouse director has broken into the mainstream & has become a “butts in seats” filmmaker!
See all previous Retro Recommendations here.
Love and Mercy (2014) (Directed by Bill Pohlad)
Premise - “In the late 1960s, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson stops touring, produces "Pet Sounds" and begins to lose his grip on reality. By the 1980s, Wilson (John Cusack, under the sway of a controlling therapist, finds a savior in Melinda Ledbetter.”
Noteworthy cast - John Cusack, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, & Elizabeth Banks
My thoughts - With the recent passing of Brian Wilson, I figured there was no other choice for the next “Retro Rec” than his 2014 biopic.
Music biopics are really hard to get right but that is because they often fail to show their subjects as humans with flaws and real struggles, not just cinematic struggles that fit into the narrative structure of a film. “Love & Mercy” has no interest in being a conventional movie, it is only interesting in telling Brian’s story. His whole story - the genius and the mental health struggles and the familial challenges he faced.
It is probably my favorite music biopic & not because it is a feel good move (it is very much the opposite) but because it feels authentically Brian.
The performances from Dano and Cusack are so good that it reminds you just how many good movies used to come out. If this came out in the modern Oscar era, they would probably both easily be nominated. A shame that this one wasn’t more recognized in the awards race that year.
Rating - 4/5
How did it do at the box office? - Grossed $28.6 million ($12.5 million domestically) on an estimated $10 million budget
Did it win any Oscars? - Somehow received no nominations
Where to watch - Currently streaming on Cinemax & available for rent or purchase on VOD
That is all for now! Big few weeks coming up for movies. We’ve got a new Pixar movie & “28 Years Later” hitting theaters in a few days followed by Brad Pitt’s F1 movie the following week (my #22 most anticipated film of 2025)
Until next time, enjoy some great films!
Aaron Nolan
I completely agree with you! I was so surprised to see takes on this film. Yes, Dakota Johnson is cold, but that’s the point! And she doesn’t have much chemistry with Pedro Pascal, but that’s the point!
I love that you love this film so much! While I agree with many of your points, I’m sad that there are so many comments about how “cold” Dakota Johnson is in her roles. I thought she was great in this.
I would’ve preferred a less “rom-com” ending and no cave people bookends…but it’s great to have a film worthy of quibbling over!