Materialists is more than a romance film, it’s an exploration of how love and relationships matter so deeply they affect our individual sense of identity. Celine Song’s creative language is so perceptive with such sharp writing and assured direction combined with stunning cinematography, a beautiful score, and magnetic performances makes Materialists the best film of the year.

Celine Song is back with another intimate, beautiful film but this time it isn’t just about romantic connections but the relationship you have with yourself and the complicated nature of needs and your worthiness. Materialists is deeply resonant as its characters have difficult conversations about your needs changing as you grow, including what you yearn for from a romantic relationship and finances. Song is an expert at bringing intimate, personal notions to the screen and retaining what makes those conversations so human and relatable but still creating something cinematic. 

Materialists is achingly vulnerable and honest as it explores how the worthiness you see in yourself impacts your relationships and dating. Much has been said about the film being a return for the rom-com and I think despite having some (peak) rom-com bits, Materialists is much more a drama exploring transformation. Not just through Dakota Johnson’s Lucy but also her counterparts in John (Chris Evans) and Harry (Pedro Pascal). Much like Song’s previous film, Past Lives, Materialists does have you looking back at a previous relationship and how you have changed but Song delivers such a different film in the best way possible. Even in the film, there’s a jab from John about how dating isn’t serious but there’s nothing more serious and vulnerable in one’s life than to put yourself out there, be willing to love and to express not just your desires but your needs. If everyone had love figured out, there wouldn’t be such a market for different dating apps or memes about being single forever. Trying to find and understand love is a universal feeling and Song is the perfect writer/director to explore this in the modern day. 

Lucy is a matchmaker living in New York and has been living the perpetual bachelorette life, focused only on her job. She’s so focused in on her job that she plays the role of matchmaker strictly based on the numbers and checking her clients’ boxes of wishes. She compares the job to an insurance job spouting off age, height, hair color, income, smoker/non-smoker, and more all as the information necessary to make the perfect match. Early on in the film, we see Lucy comforting one of her clients, now a bride (Louisa Jacobson), and panicking if she should really get married. Lucy tells her to come clean with her, what is the darkest reason she does want to get married and that don’t worry, she’s heard it all before. Lucy, the pro that she is, connects the revealed reason to signify the bride feels valued by her soon-to-be husband, he simply makes her feel valuable. There’s an effortlessness in the scene by Johnson as she’s clearly calculating her response, but she is comforting. You can sense that is the woman you’d want to comfort you in your wedding day crisis, not just simply because she matched you to your groom. It’s clear to Lucy that love, and weddings are all a numbers game, a business deal. When she meets Harry, a suave, deeply handsome finance man, she thinks of him as the perfect client to add to her roster. It doesn’t even register to her that he’s a potential match for herself. Their meet-cute is interrupted by John, a cater-waiter, dropping off her signature Coke and beer. The embrace between Lucy and John is full of electric, familiar tension…but you can feel there’s a reason they’re happy yet surprised to see each other, from the touch of the embrace, you can tell there’s something that was once there. There’s a moment when Lucy and John are outside catching up and Lucy says she needs to remember John’s face, she outlines his face taking a mental snapshot yet when it’s John’s turn to ‘remember Lucy’s face,’ he simply just stares at her. The looks Evans pulls off is absolutely devastating as it’s clear he’s never forgotten a thing, a line, a freckle, a pore. It’s in these moments, and John gets many of them in the emotional arc he has, that Evans truly shines in easily his best performance to date. There’s a brief flashback scene giving some backstory to Lucy and John’s history with them fighting in the middle of a busy street in New York not simply over money but how hard it is to manage with little to no money. 

Materialists jumps to Lucy going on a date with Harry strictly to prove she’s not a match for him and he should just become a client of her matchmaking expertise. It’s so much that they have chemistry, but it’s simply so easy with them. Harry listens, he pays enough attention, and there are many dates, not only that he pays for, but he clearly takes the initiative on planning them. Yes, they are nice dinners with Harry picking up every check, but Lucy isn’t the one consistently planning them. In the flashback between John and Lucy, they can barely manage to even go out to a restaurant for their anniversary, yes due to funds, but it’s clear in the argument she’s the one putting in all the effort. An emotional burden combined with a financial one can feel catastrophic and Song’s writing combined with the performance of the main trio makes that pain feel palpable. To the point when Lucy is on these dates with Harry, you can see her thinking this is just so easy… At one point, she’s describing all the reasons she’s still wrong for him and why he simply shouldn’t be wasting his time on her… he’s wealthy, he’s older but has good hair, he’s tall, he’s successful, he could be with someone younger, more impressive, not in debt. Harry leans forward, with a commanding yet not threatening position, and says he doesn’t want attributes, he’s not looking at numbers, in this moment, all he wants is to be with Lucy and that trumps all the stats; he says he’s not dating her for tangible assets. Despite every date feeling to focus on what his background is, where he went to school, how much money he makes, how much his apartment cost, the feeling he has is simply more important than any graph could show him. The score cuts out after he offers his position and you’re left in silence with the terms both laid out, their feelings on the table and the weight of them the only thing in the room. 

This scene is so difficult to watch for anyone struggling with self-worth. It’s not so much the boxes Lucy thinks of herself as checking but more, so she has nothing to offer a so-called ‘unicorn’ of a perfect man that checks every box. Harry being interested in Lucy forces her to confront her opinion of herself. At work, Lucy hides behind stats and numbers, repeatedly enforcing the idea that marriage is a business deal. When Lucy is with Harry, she’s put on the spot to reckon with the concept that love needs to be on the table. Sometimes love gets in the way of how perfect the formula works and creates the unexpected, the ultimate blind spot for someone not only so Type A, but someone who has an unhealthy relationship with oneself. As someone who struggles daily with not understand what anyone sees in them but especially someone who feels ‘out of their league,’ it’s an impossible voice to silence. Song having Lucy and Harry have this conversation not only puts their cards on the table but forces Lucy to confront these feelings. Why does she feel so worthless? Why does she feel inferior to Harry? Is it just the money and comforts of luxury? Why is it so hard to let go and just enjoy a kind person treating you well and wanting you in their life? What can she possibly offer a man who has everything? He could be with anyone, why her? No matter how much someone reassures you and proves their intentions and their feelings for you, the voice inside your head is impossible to silence until you to terms with your own worthiness. The weight of Harry checking all the boxes feels overwhelming to someone like Lucy because it not only challenges her process of how she matches at work but her relationship with herself.

The next date between Lucy and Harry is different. It feels easier as their expectations have been communicated, despite both their financial backgrounds and their initial expectations of the relationship being so different, however, both attributes continue to contribute to that passionate spark not being there. There’s something between them but it’s nothing to the spark we previously saw between Lucy and John. Harry makes an offhand comment about aren’t couples who fight on the street embarrassed and Lucy says she’s the kind of person to argue on the street… It’s not so much a judgmental moment between the two but a verbalization of not only how different they are but that there is not that passion there. Couples who fight on the street aren’t strictly toxic, it’s a palpable fire between two people. You don’t want to argue on the street with someone but when there’s an undeniable spark between two people, sometimes the passion takes over. Healthy couples will work through the heat of the moment but only someone who has been in love can identify this. Pascal plays the scene so innocently but there’s a pain in his eyes when it’s clear Harry can’t recognize the feeling Lucy is describing. Pascal continues to certify he’s not just a movie star but one of the best emotive actors working as he’s able to communicate such a strong sense of longing just through the look in his eyes.

When something terrible happens with one of Lucy’s clients, Sophie (Zoë Winters), at work, it breaks Lucy. How could she not have seen it coming? Is her blindness due to the stats and what matches fit what boxes preventing her from seeing who people truly are? Winters delivers career best work and honestly gives my favorite performance in the film. The emotional impact of the events that happen to Sophie rest largely on Winters and Johnson being vulnerable but not too big and both are perfect in these moments that require so much of them as performers. Lucy isn’t just questioning what went wrong with Sophie’s match and how Lucy perhaps isn’t as good at her job as she once thought, she’s doubting herself too. There’s a scene where Harry and Lucy go to see John in a play and go out for drinks after. John immediately notices something is off with Lucy; she’s not acting different for a stranger or someone new in her life to notice, but to some with history and that truly knows her, it’s obvious. Anyone who has ever been truly seen and truly loved by someone knows the feeling you cannot simply hide your thoughts or mood from, and Song perfectly captures that in this brief moment and a perfectly executed scene from Evans and Johnson. However, that pure moment quickly reminds Lucy of why it never worked with John as he dismisses her job, quite crudely, as girl shit (a clear commentary from Song on the way many treat films focused on romance). While maybe it’s not the same as being a doctor or a firefighter, a matchmaker is involved in such a vulnerable aspect of someone’s life, love is something that everyone will go through… it is never simply just girl shit. 

Materialists never romanticizes the idea of love; it’s entirely honest and human as it dissects what is important to everyone in a romantic relationship. Being torn between two lovers is not the simple plot of Song’s latest film. Who are you when you’re with this person? Are you able to fall in love despite the hardships presented in a relationship? Are you able to fall in love when it’s simply just easy? Do you need something to drive you forward as your own person? Song imposes a lot of questions not just through Lucy but through Harry and John as well. John has a line about how he’s disappointed Lucy doesn’t think he’s changed because he’d never be the guy who lost her if he had changed. He feels hurt not by her but by the fact that he hasn’t grown at all. But maybe losing her is when he lost the drive to push himself forward? Harry struggles with the idea of love, he finds it so complicated and as Lucy reminds him many times, love is easy, you know when it happens to you. It’s so hard for him because he simply hasn’t found it despite being described as the perfect man, the unicorn of dating. How can someone check so many boxes but not be the one for anyone? There’s a line from John to Lucy, “When I look at you, I see wrinkles, grey hair, and kids that look like you,” even the biggest cynic, like me, feels the honesty radiating not just off John but from Song’s writing too. This isn’t a romanticized bit; John has been struggling with his career and finding his place in a city that just continues to increase in expenses yet never the creative opportunity for him to afford the city and all he’s thought about in every hardship is Lucy. Maybe everything else is hard but the constant good thing in his life is the idea of ending up with Lucy. While responsibilities and life pile on, if you love someone, truly and fully, it’s easy to hold onto a future that feels so bright because of someone you can honestly see as the only true joy in your life. It’s not putting all your eggs in one basket; it’s holding onto the person that makes life worth all those hardships. 

Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner, who previously worked on Song’s last film, shot Materialists using 35mm film and adds such a rich, real look at not just New York but all of the characters. The grainy, lived in feel makes the story all the more human and intimate. Daniel Pemberton’s score is one of the best of the year. It heightens every moment but allows you to be in the moment, never distracting or overdramatic. His score allows the film to keep that deeply personal feel yet guide a cinematic story across. 

Materialists is more than a romance film, it’s an exploration of how love and relationships matter so deeply they affect our individual sense of identity. Song’s creative language is so perceptive with such sharp writing and assured direction combined with stunning cinematography, a beautiful score, and magnetic performances makes Materialists the best film of the year.

Grade: A

Oscars Prospects:
Likely: Best Original Screenplay
Should be Considered: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Lead Actor (Chris Evans), Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography

Release Date: June 13, 2025
Where to Watch: In Theaters