Materialists

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, 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 John couldn’t offer her. 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.

With a very strong critical rating right out the gate and earning $100 million at the box office on a $20 million budget, 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 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 the right ingredients 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 warps a traditional rom com to fit her criteria and identity, birthing a concoction that might be befuddling, but is 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 caught off guard when the film starts talking about date rape, the theoretical purpose behind marriage, and the dangers of modern dating.

Much like with Past Lives, the abnormal seriousness with which a set-up that could be viewed as heartfelt junk is portrayed is what makes it feel special, and it’s actually the portions that take themselves seriously that are the most fascinating and indicative of the director’s merits. The dissection of matchmaking and 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, 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  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 emotionally connected with the content even if it’s well delivered (a problem Past Lives also suffered with), but the story isn’t easy to predict, the characters aren’t annoying, it doesn’t waste too much time despite nearly being two hours long, 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 traditional rom com is because the casting feels so 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 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 are somewhat hindered by Song’s writing style. Being a playwright, a lot of her dialogue doesn’t feel incredibly natural, and while the actors make it plausible enough, she also has a habit of writing very stoic characters who state their emotions rather than naturally letting them be felt. 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 but sadly lack the needed depth to match their elevated 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 fleshed out. Both Pascal and Evans do fine, but not enough to bring something special, it is easily the most underwhelming element. Dakota Johnson hasn’t had the best career, with movie choices that aren’t very 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 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, it’s not another negative to her resume. 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 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 cinematographer, Shabier Kirchner, from Past Lives to work on this film, the way this movie is shot doesn’t only match how peacefully intricate and quietly profound that movie was 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 tracking shots throughout that feel expertly planned out, with the petite way the camera smoothly glides from each 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 shot 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 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 people to believe that it’s a shallow, pandering, easily predictable film, and yet underneath its glamourous 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-pleaser that’ll 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.