Perhaps unexpectedly, a glossy and star-studded rom-com with Pedro Pascal is the film that has generated the most intense disagreements and backlash this summer – and I really don’t get it.
From those questioning the ‘com’ part of Materialists’ description given some of the storyline’s surprisingly darker elements to those raging at Dakota Johnson’s character Lucy making the ‘wrong’ choice at the end, the feelings have been fiercely felt.
Given its earlier June release in the US, we’ve already borne witness to the barrage of think pieces and annoyed social media posts from Stateside sceptics.
But for me, Materialists is a stylish and thought-provoking examination of the modern dating scene and society’s obsession with trying to commodify everything – except actual love. It also serves as proof that we should stop forcing romance films to fit within a rigidly narrow definition.
Materialists is exactly the type of film I expected writer-director Celine Song to deliver after her poignant work in Past Lives about a missed and intensely nostalgic romantic connection, even if it’s a little lighter and more superficial.
It’s clearly struck a nerve once more though, given the discourse it’s provoked – and depending on your stage in life and romantic situation, you may find the savagery with which it skewers the prejudices people have in terms of dating preferences intensely triggering or oddly comforting.
Johnson’s Lucy works as a successful matchmaker in New York City, who has seen multiple clients to their end goal of walking down the aisle to a happily ever after, although she’s currently struggling to get her favourite client Sophie (Zoë Winters) any dates.
While attending the obscenely lavish wedding of one of her successes, wealthy brother of the groom Harry (Pascal) strikes up a conversation with her about matchmaking, leading to her amazing demystifying of the job as just like ‘working at a morgue or an insurance company’ in the way it deals with emotionless facts about a person’s job and vital statistics.
And as she’s previously told a gaggle of interested female wedding guests, it’s not actually about a second date or a wedding – ‘You’re looking for a nursing home partner, a grave buddy’.
Harry is charmed and they agree to go on a date, but Lucy also bumps into her ex, John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor who is working a catering shift. He’s not the type of man Lucy sees a future with, but there’s clearly still a connection there.
Each man offers something different, and it speaks volumes about Materialists that one of its most romantic lines is Harry telling Lucy ‘I want to date you for your intangible assets’ because he has ‘enough material assets for the both of us’. Swoon!
Song remains such an impressively smart writer – funny but substantial in a way that keeps you thinking about (or indeed, fuming over) the film long after you’ve watched it.
The observations of Lucy’s clients ring devastatingly true and preposterous, from the man insisting ’39 is not 30s’ of the woman he’s been set up with, to the woman sniping ‘is he actually 5’11 or 5’9 and lying?’.
There’s also a brutal exchange between Lucy and a matchmaking colleague about ‘niches’ people can fill in a competitive market, all finance speak as they agree ‘six inches can double a man’s value’: the dialogue pulls no punches.
While there are certainly a few twists in Materialists I didn’t expect, it is perhaps a more obvious story than that of Song’s Oscar-nominated Past Lives – although they can absolutely be viewed as close relations.
The film has a great cast in its heavyweight actors, which helps sell its aspirational and cinematic sheen, alongside a smooth soundtrack of perfectly picked pop. Pascal and his easy charm are the standout, although Johnson operates efficiently and sympathetically as the confused protagonist and – for many – audience surrogate.
Materialists makes the perfect argument for the creation of a new film genre by Song: romantic realism. Ignoring the expectations you may have about a movie sold as a rom-com – and what that’s allowed to be – gives the film more space to deliver its exquisitely crafted yet cutting observations without the noise of society complaining about the mirror it holds up to us.
Materialists releases in UK cinemas on Friday August 15.
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