Celine Song’s Smart, Star-Studded Romantic Comedy Sparkles
DIRECTOR: CELINE SONG/2025
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. It is also a truth universally acknowledged that a woman in want of such a man will go to great lengths to possess him. We all know the inverse is true as well: A good fortune is an equal opportunity attraction for men and women, and sometimes it’s the only attraction at all.
No one knows this better than Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a professional matchmaker for the high end company Adore. Though her Manhattan clients can be demanding, she has a knack for successful unions thanks to her perspicacious criteria based on tangible details like background, money, and appearance. But at the wedding of one of these couples, she hits a snag: the groom’s brother, Harry (Pedro Pascal). In spite of her best efforts to woo him to Adore’s services, he’s more interested in wooing Lucy herself. And what of her struggling actor ex, John (Chris Evans)? Though they couldn’t make it work before, he still has eyes for her.
I spent a lot of Materialists thinking of Working Girl, and not just because it stars Melanie Griffith’s daughter or because of their similar posters. I also thought about Broadcast News, His Girl Friday, You’ve Got Mail, and Pride & Prejudice, and not just because of love triangles or because of the competition between career and courtship. (Nor was I aware writer/director Celine Song has publicly cited several of them as as influences before seeing it.) Materialists fits within that small romantic comedy canon because of its depth of insight into the overlap between romance and money—and because it’s just such a darn pleasure to watch. The best rom-coms at least acknowledge the friction between finances and falling in love, from subtext (like in Broadcast News and His Girl Friday) to the “truth universally acknowledged” theorem at the heart of Pride & Prejudice. The latter is the sandbox Materialists is playing in, and its candor on modern dating is a breath of fresh air. Lucy’s clients represent a small economic segment of America, but their concerns are no different from anyone swiping on an app. Physical appearance, career, socioeconomic status, race, education, and age have always been factors in choosing a partner, but modern tech makes shopping for a person who matches our filters feel as easy as finding romance movies categorized as “Help Me Believe in Love Again” on Netflix. If all us had the money for Adore’s services, would all of us verbalize our fussy, superficial, and unrealistic yardsticks aloud? Because Lucy sees through the polite patois of her clients—such as calling a prospect “fit” instead of “not fat”—their taxing non-negotiables play for comedy, but it’s no less razored a critique.
Another reason Materialists is so refreshing is its flawed heroine. Centering this love triangle on a woman plagued by her self-professed materialism is a welcome pivot for the genre, which has rarely rewarded a selfish protagonist with love in the last 30 years unless she’s played by Julia Roberts. Jennifer Lopez, Drew Barrymore, and Sandra Bullock are usually presenting a wholesome alternative to women like Lucy, a self-loathing social climber who gets distracted during a makeout session by the multi-million-dollar ceiling above her. She isn’t a Cinderella finally getting the break she deserves—she’s woman discovering how much she’s willing to sacrifice for her greed. In terms of rom-com history, she shares more with the aspirant, prickly heroines of the early screwball era, like Katherine Hepburn’s harsh socialite in The Philadelphia Story or almost any Barbara Stanwyck trickster. Another reason she’s so compelling: In Pride & Prejudice terms, she’s an Elizabeth Bennett who wants to be a Mrs. Bennett but believes she’s a Charlotte Lucas. Though she needn’t settle for a buffoonish Mr. Collins to prevent her family’s destitution like she might have 200 years ago, her aspirations don’t stem from entitlement. She is dressing in natty, minimalist clothing for the milieu she wants, not for the one she believes she deserves.
I have mixed feelings about Dakota Johnson as a performer—I’ve never disliked her in anything (even Madame Web), but I can never quite forget I’m watching, well, Dakota Johnson acting—but she nails the insecurity and empathy guiding Lucy. The real standouts, however, are the guys. We’ll see how Fantastic Four and Eddington shake out this summer, but Pascal’s suave boulevardier proves he’s made for the big screen. Harry isn’t a smarmy cliché or the archetypal stand-in for a corrupt one-percenter that you’d expect. Instead, he harbors an uneasiness in every environment, even for a sushi dinner at Nobu where he’s likely the king prawn. As for Chris Evans, I had nearly forgotten he has this kind of romantic lead in him. Six years removed from Captain America, Song’s warm light makes him look the humblest he has since Steve Rogers first took that super soldier serum. (There’s an entirely separate piece to be written comparing this film to the only feature he’s directed, the charming and scrappy Before We Go.) Because Song keeps the camera in place for long two-shots and close-ups, her trio of stars (and memorable supporting player Zoe Winters) get time and space to cook.
The real star for film lovers is Song, whose scope has widened with Materialists but has stayed true to the heart that made Best Picture nominee Past Lives so special. If she wants it, she could fill the vacuum left by Nora Ephron and Netflix’s undervaluing of Nancy Meyers, though that may not be her dream given the variation in genre between her first two films. Still, she fits in their lineage (and the lineage of Howard Hawks, George Cukor, James L. Brooks, Mike Nichols, and Jane Austen) because of the insight into the human condition she brings to sparkling characters and unputdownable plots. Materialists is skewering the shallowness of modern dating, but it’s also exploring the basic human need beneath the class satire: our desire to be valued. We’ll see if Materialists lands as well as Past Lives in Awards Season later this year, but at press time, it’s one of the best films of the year so far.