After the big success of her award-nominated feature debut, Past Lives, playwright-turned-director, Celine Song, couldn’t have asked for a better launching point for her film career, with her first film performing quite well from a critical, commercial and awards perspective for such a small unassuming A24 romantic drama. This made her follow-up film, MATERIALISTS, highly intriguing as it looked like this was her attempt at tackling something more mainstream, with the lighter, quirkier and more comfortably casual setting of a rom com feeling drastically different to the more soberingly dramatic Past Lives. With expectations to meet, MATERIALISTS probably never had the chance of being just another ”standard romance” in the first place, but considering the film was anything but standard, at least it didn’t have to pretend.
Lucy (played by Dakota Johnson) is one of New York City’s greatest matchmakers, with her latest achievement of pairing nine married couples making her invaluable to the company she works for, Adore. At the wedding of her latest client, the groom’s brother, a wealthy financier named Harry (played by Pedro Pascal) expresses romantic interest in Lucy, and despite claiming to be voluntarily celibate, she is eventually wooed by Harry’s lavish wealth and agrees to go out with him.
At the same time, Lucy reunites with her struggling theatre actor ex-boyfriend, John (played by Chris Evans) with whom she broke up with due to financial issues, and this reunion causes past feelings to come flooding back, resulting in mixed feelings now that she’s with another man who has the wealth she was upset John didn’t have. To make matters even worse, Lucy is informed that one of her long-time clients, Sophie (played by Zoë Winters) was assaulted by the match Lucy paired her with, calling into question her abilities as a matchmaker as well as the purpose behind her entire career. All of this will climax to a point where Lucy will be forced to confront her own selfish tendencies and decide which man she wants to end up with.
With a very strong critical rating right out the gate, Celine Song seems to have repeated the success of her previous film by appealing to critics through luxurious visuals, poetic dialogue and rich direction and atmosphere, and yet this doesn’t prove to be the rom com the trailers made it out to be. While this deception will lead to many being surprised and confronted when they actually see the film, MATERIALISTS still manages to be unique and intriguing in spite of some components that are drastically uncommercial.
While it was strange to see some declaring that this movie had the chance to ‘’revitalize the rom-com’’, the statement does hold some weight as while romantic comedies are still made in today’s market, they’re nowhere near the heavy hitters they used to be back in their heyday, so having one led by an acclaimed director and starring talent that had the right image for a sappy yet appealing lovey-dovey flick, felt like just the right project to reignite a dwindling genre. However, while this film on the surface has a premise that is as old as the genre itself and was advertised with an expected frilly atmosphere matched with snarky remarks and an appropriately themed pop song, it’s not the light-hearted ‘’girl’s night out’’ film some might imagine it to be.
Instead of Celine Song trying her hand at a lighter genre to see if she could survive in a broader film landscape, MATERIALISTS is actually a situation where Song instead warps a traditional rom com to fit her criteria and identity, birthing a concoction that might be befuddling, but is otherwise still worth studying. This combo of ponderous and giggly won’t work for everybody, as this movie doesn’t contain much in terms of conflict, is more verbose with its dialogue, more intricate with its imagery, and more weighty with its story (which was also written by Song), and for those expecting something like Pretty Woman, Notting Hill or Sleepless in Seattle, they’re going to be a little caught off guard when the film starts talking about date rape, the theoretical purpose behind marriage, and the dangers of modern day dating.
Much like with Past Lives however, the abnormal seriousness with which a set-up that could easily be viewed as heartfelt junk is portrayed is what makes it feel special, and it’s actually the portions that do take themselves more seriously that are the most fascinating and indicative of the director’s merits. The dissection of matchmaking and even the very notion of intimacy and marriage are pretty broad concepts to comprehend, but this movie does a decent job approaching them in a steady and grounded fashion while operating within a very flimsy, even recyclable premise, and with gloriously intimate visuals, eloquent scripting, and a slower pace that really lets every moment sink in, it’s something that will stay with you.
It doesn’t all work, as it feels like the movie is eroding itself by still trying to stick to a romantic formula even after dropping such a heavy bombshell, and due to Song’s more holistic and almost spiritual form of portraying topics, it can be hard to be emotionally connected with the content even if it’s well delivered (a problem Past Lives did also suffer with), but the story isn’t easy to predict, the characters aren’t annoying, it doesn’t waste too much time despite its nearly two hour length, and by the end, it might be hard to properly determine, but you’ll appreciate the chances it took.
One of the reasons the film feels like a very traditional romantic comedy is because the casting feels very on brand. Dakota Johnson effectively birthed her career with the romantically barren Fifty Shades of Grey movies, and while Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans haven’t really starred in many romances, they have the looks and screen personas to easily slot into these competing archetypes very smoothly. Even with a stranger tone, the performances manage to mostly work out, but the characters they play are somewhat hinder by Song’s specific writing style.
Being a playwright, a lot of her dialogue doesn’t feel incredibly natural, and while the actors make it at least somewhat plausible, she also has a habit of writing very stoic characters who state their emotions and problems rather than naturally let them be felt (another holdover from theatre where cinematic tropes used to express inner thoughts without words aren’t available and need to be louder and more pronounced). Because of this, what should be very cookie-cutter leads who wear their feelings on their sleeves, are instead unperturbed individuals who appear to have layers to their motivations but sadly lack the needed depth to match the elevation of their portrayals.
This is one of the few areas where Song’s style can’t save or excuse the execution, as some of the characters, particularly the two male love interests, feel very underdeveloped and aren’t provided enough to make them feel like fully fleshed out characters (ironically feeling as shallow as how these tropes are usually portrayed in most rom coms). Both Pascal and Evans do fine, but not enough to bring something special to these parts, it is easily the most underwhelming element. Dakota Johnson hasn’t had the best career, with movie choices that aren’t always the most flattering and a delivery that is commonly coined as monotone, but when given a role that works within her capacities, she can pull it off okay and MATERIALISTS kind of does this.
There’s an occasional flat line reading, but not only is her character positioned as someone with a stony exterior who only really lives for her job, but Johnson is able to keep up with this unique delivery well enough, and some of her positive acting quirks shine through like an occasional good comedic delivery or having believable enough chemistry with most of her co-stars, so while not a performance that’ll change how audiences view her, she doesn’t come across as awkward. Most of the supporting roles aren’t anything that interesting (aside from Zoë Winters who does a pretty great job making the character of Sophie easily sympathetic), but some of the responses and reactions from the clients looking for dates can get a decent chuckle.
The visuals on display in this film are truly a marvel and much like every other building block for this film, it feels drastically different to how it would be delivered in a traditional romantic comedy. With Song bringing over director of cinematography, Shabier Kirchner, from Past Lives to work on this film, the way this film is shot doesn’t only match how peacefully intricate and quietly profound that movie was visualised but also feels upgraded through how much more kinetic and fluid the camera work is. While there are still plenty of static shots that are wonderfully angled and do a great job keeping you fixated on the subject at hand, there are multiple panning shots featured throughout that feel expertly planned out, with the petite way the camera smoothly glides from point of focus to point of focus being just as compelling as when the film provides a jarring cinematic shot with an almost overly ambitious lay out.
The fact that it’s filmed on 35mm film explains the crisp quality and being distributed by A24 also helps, it’s a fantastic job by a very talented cinematographer. This can also be said for the music composed by Daniel Pemberton (who is best known for composing the scores for Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse), offering up a tune that is sorrowful yet also peaceful at the same time, and stirs with enough symphonic build-up that it proves quite effective when played during meaningful emotional moments.
MATERIALISTS wants you to believe that it’s a shallow, pandering, easily predictable film, and yet underneath its glamorous all-appealing veneer hides a cutting unflinching centre that is ready to pounce on its onlookers, and that strangely feels appropriate. This won’t be the crowd-pleasing feel-good movie that will bring the romantic comedy back to its former glory, but what it does do is prove that Celine Song is someone who can take even a bare minimum idea and make it more fascinating, which is extremely promising for an upcoming director. Given how most people came out of it thinking positively but also unsure at the same time, it’s an acquired taste to say the least, but the good performances, excellent visuals and atmosphere, tight direction, and effective twists on a very cookie-cutter film genre will be enough to pique your interest.
