Materialists had people fully hooked the minute its star-studded cast was announced, and after director Celine Song’s Oscar-nominated Past Lives, the bar was set high. The film delivers exactly what was expected: emotionally intelligent writing that takes its audience seriously.
★★★★☆
Drawing from her experience as a matchmaker in New York, Celine Song offers a commentary on modern dating and its many quirks—particularly the tendency to reduce people to a set of checkboxes: height, age, the state of their bank account, and the condition of their hairline. Beyond that, the film opens up a conversation about love and relationships—the insecurities and fears they reveal and the hard work they require.
Materialists follows Lucy, who works at a matchmaking agency in New York. She’s celebrating yet another professional success as two of her clients prepare to get married. But while she excels at finding love for others, her own romantic life feels stagnant—until she finds herself caught between two men. One she’s just met, and the other is a remnant of her past.
The recent encounter is with Harry (Pedro Pascal), a charming private equity broker who, in Lucy’s line of work, would be described as a “unicorn”, a man who simply has it all: the looks, the money, the wit, and the social status. In the world of professional matchmaking, he’s the kind of rare, high-value man clients dream of. Casting Pedro Pascal in the role feels like a perfect match in itself.
The other man who reappears in Lucy’s life is her ex John (Chris Evans), a financially struggling actor who still lives with roommates. In the brutal world of dating, that fact works heavily against him. Evans’s performance is one of the film’s strongest suits. He portrays John with a touching subtlety and authenticity, making it hard not to care for him, even when we don’t always agree with his actions. From the early interactions between Lucy and John, it is evident that the chemistry between them hasn’t faded. A flashback offers more context about their past, a heated argument revealing that finances were a major source of tension. John, living paycheck to paycheck, grows increasingly frustrated, and that frustration spills into their relationship. Lucy, meanwhile, has a deep aversion to “money talk”, shaped by watching her own parents fight over finances. Lucy begins dating Harry, yet John remains a part of her life she can’t seem to let go of.
But Materialists is much more than a trope-heavy love triangle. First of all, as Song intended, it’s a story about “the transformation of a woman”. At the start of the film, our protagonist perceives love as a kind of mathematical equation. She has come to believe in a very particular version of love, one that is conditional on checked-off boxes. This approach coexists perfectly with her job, where clients provide long lists of what they believe their dream partners should be—until it doesn’t.
A plot twist completely upends the film’s previously playful tone. One of Lucy’s longtime clients, Sophie (Zoë Winters), is assaulted during a date that Lucy arranged. The moment we learn about it, that lighthearted tone dissolves into the background—quite literally in one scene, where Lucy discusses the assault with her boss while her coworkers cheer behind her in the office as they celebrate another successful match. Their voices fade away as the focus shifts to Lucy’s face, her expression heavy with guilt. If we’re going to talk about dating and love, it’s time to get real.
This tonal pivot is mirrored in Lucy’s arc. When Sophie is assaulted, something breaks in her. The vision of love she has so carefully crafted for herself—one where marriage is a business deal and love is transactional—is shattered. The mathematical equation suddenly stops adding up. Johnson nails this transition—from initially coming across like a salesperson, delivering rehearsed pitches about finding her clients’ true love, to gradually becoming vulnerable and authentic.
Materialists gives a nod to the rom-coms we know and love, but it also flips the genre on its head. That’s because Song is dead serious about love and refuses to dismiss a story about dating as just a chick flick. While Materialists brings the warm, feel-good ambience of classic rom-coms that makes it easy to indulge in (New York’s challenging dating scene will surely put a smile on any Sex and the City fan’s face), it’s also a wake-up call, a reminder of the harsh realities of modern dating. At the end of the day, it’s not just about dating someone’s bank account, but an actual person. And the results can go in any direction.
The film makes plenty of space for intellectual nuance—after all, who ever said love was meant to be simple? This need for deeper reflection is mirrored in its cinematography with: lingering shots and extended dialogues. There’s no flashy editing here—just elegant aesthetics captured on 35mm film. And the surroundings speak volumes. John’s cluttered shared flat and Harry’s $12-million Architectural Digest-style penthouse are not just backgrounds—they’re windows into their inner lives. Interestingly, Lucy’s apartment is never fully revealed. We only glimpse fragments: an empty room, only white colours and a messy table littered with beer bottles. It raises a question: What lies beneath that sleek, rational character we’re not being shown?
Song’s latest feature is very clear in its statement that love cannot and should not be quantified. That’s not to naively suggest that practicalities like financial stability have no place when it comes to people in love; on the contrary, through the lens of Lucy’s and John’s relationship, it shows how money talk is a very present part of relationships. Rather, it prompts us to consider that having difficult conversations—and putting in the work—might be worth it when something bigger (yes, love) is at stake.
The Verdict
Materialists is a beautifully and intelligently crafted commentary on how the modern world has perhaps made us too pragmatic in our quest for love, reducing people to a set of checkboxes. It takes dating as it is—both the pretty and the ugly—reminding even hopeless romantics that they must sometimes face reality. Yet, beneath it all, it still celebrates love in its purest form: something we simply can’t help but surrender to.
Words by Luiza Świerzawska
Materialists is in UK cinemas from 15 August.
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