In the modern world of love, where our value as people has greatly diminished thanks to a swipe left, swipe right culture that can inadvertently encourage the nature of our disposability, love, relationships and sex can become an intensely transactional, self-centered endeavor that doesn’t foster togetherness. What does your worth offer me? What value do you hold? What boxes do you check off that can enhance my already rich and wonderful life? Even if they’re far and away from the world of dating apps, these notions are thoughtfully explored in Celine Song’s “Materialists,” her follow-up to her achingly melancholy Academy Award-nominated romantic drama, “Past Lives.”
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A reprise of the same genre, with a slightly more commercial, upscale bent, anything you read that calls “Materialists” a romantic comedy ultimately does the film and the reader a disservice. Yes, it’s more accessible, more mainstream and has more laughs, but it’s long and far away from the traditional studio romantic comedy (the A24 poster does it no favors on the outside, but hey, they have a product to sell and don’t assume they’re selling out here cause they’re not).
With a similarly thoughtful, empathetic, and well-observed approach to “Past Lives,” Song examines the complexities of modern love, albeit on a bigger stage thanks to the name value of a cast that includes A-listers like Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans.
But perceiving the film as Song or A24’s savvy bid to attract more bees to honey is also a cynical faux pas, when the reality is the filmmaker’s cachet is now so fetching she can attract movie stars to lead the type of more artful films, we don’t experience them in enough.
Suspending your disbelief enough that anyone needs a matchmaker in the world of do-it-yourself dating apps—ok, maybe the affluent clientele of this movie can afford the privilege to have someone else separate the elite wheat from the chafe and thus makes sense—“Materialists,” centers around the world of a professional romantic matchmaker named Lucy (Dakota Johnson).
Ruthlessly matter of fact and pragmatic, a little hardened, and well put together, Lucy’s job and trade are seeing value, finding opportunity, and aligning mutual interests. She understands relationships and marriages as transactional, a place for short-term gains, a business proposition—it’s the art of the deal, and the deal is the “perfect match.”
And at a wedding for one of the women she matchmade—one who gets cold feet and then confesses to Lucy the primary motivation for agreeing to marry her mate is that he makes her sister jealous and inadequate about her life—the ambitious, highly persuasive cupid fixer meets the dashing, tall, dark and handsome, Henry Castillo (Pedro Pascal), a millionaire in the equity trade. She speaks of dowries, material items, what a partner can bring to the table financially, the value proposition of a relationship, while he, already having everything he could ever want materialistically, is more of a romantic idealist.
Immediately taken with Lucy, he flirts and gets curious, while she deflects and tries to sell him on her matchmaking prowess; she will be able to find him the flawless mate, she coos with sexy confidence. Meanwhile, at this exact moment, she runs into her ex-boyfriend, John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor, who is waiting tables at this event as part of the catering company, and has been struggling since their breakup five years prior.
What eventually transpires is something of a triangle dynamic, but certainly not the typical one and certainly more scalene than isosceles.
On one side of the narrative, Henry convinces Lucy to date him, showering her with lavish NYC five-star restaurant rendezvous and the opulence she craves. But he’s also an unattainable unicorn, who she insists can do much better than her. On the other hand, she flashes back on her relationship with John, perennially broke, angry and bitter, he cannot give the aspiringly upwardly mobile Lucy what she wants.
And it’s not like she’s that materialistic, but at a certain point, dead-ass brokenness and a going-nowhere career does exhaust, especially when the actor is constantly losing his cool and not behaving at his best. But the pangs for what might have been and their lingering affection still tether them together like the longing found in a lonely, late-night text.
It’s essentially idealism and romantic dreams (John) vs. practicality and stability (Henry); for most of the picture, the latter wins. And meanwhile, for subplot complications’ sake, Zoe Winters from “Succession” co-stars as one of Lucy’s clients who suffers some of the brutal indignities of dating in New York and then something even worse (Marin Ireland, Sawyer Spielberg, John Magaro appear in smaller parts).
And yes, some early laughs and jokes make “Materialists” feel a bit more breezy and light compared to her previous effort, at least at first, but in the aggregate and by the end, it definitely resembles the wistful, soulful and heartbreaking twinge of ‘Past Lives.” Though admittedly, it’s a bit more shallow and less convincing.
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Featuring a contemplative score by Academy Award-nominated composer Daniel Pemberton and gorgeously natural cinematography by Shabier Kirchner (“Small Axe,” “Past Lives”), “Materialists” has a lot of aesthetic worth, and Johnson, Pascal and Evans all seem to relish the opportunity to dig into something a little bit more resonant and emotionally meaty.
While ultimately not as appreciable or substantial as her previous effort, “Materialists” hits hard in its most critical moments, illustrating Song’s cinematic skillfulness and her nuanced and observant eye for human behavior, both visually and narratively. And as an perceptive story about desireability, our collective value as people or romantic partners, what we’re worth, what we’re willing to compromise for happiness and love and how the courtship market makes us treat one another as casual, often throw-away commodities, it’s an insightful, if imperfect, piece worthy of your affections. [B]
“Materialists” opens on June 13 via A24.