Celine Song directs Materialists romantic drama about love and money, setting her latest film among New York’s social elite as Dakota Johnson’s character, an expert matchmaker, finds herself torn between two vastly different men. The drama, which also stars Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal, explores how contemporary romance is shaped by ambition and financial realities, though it steers clear of traditional romantic comedy tropes.
A Realist’s Take on Love in New York
Materialists presents an opulent yet grounded look at love, money, and dating within New York’s upper social circles. Following her acclaimed debut Past Lives, Celine Song returns as writer and director, shifting her focus this time to a matchmaker named Lucy, played by Dakota Johnson. Surrounded by luxury, Lucy’s job is to find love for clients who possess not only personal charm but also wealth, taste, height, and six-figure incomes.
Johnson’s Lucy is at the center of a tense triangle. Chris Evans portrays John, a struggling theater actor who shares cramped living quarters and works as a cater waiter. On the other side is Pedro Pascal, cast as a charismatic private-equity broker inhabiting a multi-million-dollar apartment—his character fitting the mold of the elusive “perfect” man. The film’s depiction of their worlds lays bare the intersection of emotional desire and financial aspiration.
Unpacking the Dynamics of Matchmaking
Lucy works as a dating consultant at Adore, a company that guarantees its clients:
“You’re going to marry the love of your life.”
—Adore, Client Service Promise
Through a combination of careful selection and ego-massaging follow-ups, she seeks to engineer romantic success. After every date, Lucy contacts both participants individually, offering reassurance such as:
“He checked a lot of our boxes. And you checked a lot of his”
—Lucy, Matchmaker at Adore
Her role is part science and part emotional therapy, reflecting the broader changes that online dating has introduced to romance. Now, the pursuit of love can feel transactional, as if browsing for potential partners in a shopping mall rather than forging spontaneous connections.
The film’s clients, both men and women, are depicted in witty sequences as highly selective, assembling ideal traits like items on a checklist. This motif echoes influences drawn from authors like Jane Austen and Edith Wharton, who examined the interplay between social expectation, personal longing, and economic position. Materialists nods to that tradition, even as it skewers modern romantic perfectionism.
Lucy’s Personal and Professional Contradictions
Despite her expertise in orchestrating love matches, Lucy’s own financial standing is modest, earning $80,000 a year. While she expertly guides her affluent clientele, she remains closely connected to her ex, John, whose lack of economic success ultimately undermined their relationship. Flashbacks reveal the material struggles that complicated their romance, highlighting the film‘s central theme: in modern dating, money cannot be ignored.
Lucy is adept at reading people’s ambitions and insecurities, as summed up in her blunt remark:
“You’re not ugly, you just don’t have money”
—Lucy, Matchmaker
Celine Song shapes the dialogue with incisiveness, balancing quick wit with authentic emotional depth. Dakota Johnson’s performance stands out for its assured sharpness, a departure from her previous roles, giving Lucy a crystal-clear presence amid the emotional turbulence and financial calculations of her environment.
The Role of Money in Modern Relationships
Materialists is unflinching in its focus on the importance of money when it comes to romantic relationships. The rarefied matchmaking agency, Adore, exposes the ways love and wealth have become inseparably linked—as seen in parties that celebrate each successful marriage match as if they are lucrative mergers. The film critiques the idea that romance today is a competition to reach the upper echelon of society, a subtle corruption that shapes both the characters’ desires and choices.
Financial disparity is not only a recurring source of tension between characters but also a marker of opportunity and exclusion. Cosmetic surgery, extreme self-improvement, and personal reinvention—often requiring vast sums—play into the story, underscoring the lengths to which people will go to align their romantic and economic ambitions.
Beyond the Crowded Field of Romantic Comedies
While A24 markets Materialists as a romantic comedy, the film adopts a tone more serious and contemplative. Instead of the conventional buoyancy found in Sandra Bullock‘s or ‘90s-era rom-coms, Song’s film is laced with underlying melancholy and realism. The characters’ dilemmas are resolved without the energetic high of typical Hollywood endings, and the story treads carefully around easy resolutions and escapist fantasy.
Where classics like Sex and the City managed to inject their stories with lightness and joy, Materialists opts for a nuanced portrayal comparable to European art cinema, reminiscent of Eric Rohmer. Its straight-faced handling of romance and wealth suggests that happy endings require more than just luck or love—they demand navigating complex, and often inequitable, realities.
Assessing Performances and Directorial Choices
Celine Song’s directorial approach is layered and unsparing, choosing to depict both the glamour and the cracks in her characters’ lives. Chris Evans, who has at times coasted through roles, is engaged here, offering a compelling mix of vulnerability and frustration. Pedro Pascal channels a charm reminiscent of Chris Noth’s Mr. Big, yet with a warmth that undercuts the stereotype, balancing entitlement with approachability. Johnson’s Lucy, luminous and decisive, becomes the focal point through which viewers experience the bittersweetness of modern romance.
The film’s dialogue stands out for its combination of wit and emotional insight, offering lines that sparkle with awareness of both the aspirations and the disappointments that drive contemporary relationships. Song’s script and the ensemble cast ensure that the film never settles for easy sentiment, using every exchange to probe the deeper motivations of the characters.
Implications for Audiences and the Genre
Materialists emerges as a sharp, observant entry into the romantic drama genre, emphasizing the ways love and money are intertwined in today’s society. By focusing on realistic challenges and avoiding idealized conclusions, the film prompts viewers to reflect on what partnership and success truly mean. The careful depiction of economic factors within relationships adds a critical perspective often missing in mainstream love stories.
Whether Materialists finds broad popularity remains to be seen, as its honest look at romance may lack the effervescent appeal that propels typical rom-coms to box office success. Still, Celine Song’s direction, along with standout performances from Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal, mark the film as a significant contribution to conversations about how ambition and desire intersect in contemporary urban life.
