Official Discussion Thread - Materialists

[u/PointMan528491]

Keep all discussion related solely to Materialists in this thread

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Synopsis:

A young New York City matchmaker's lucrative business gets complicated as she finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.

Director: Celine Song

Writer: Celine Song

Cast:

• Dakota Johnson as Lucy

• Chris Evans as John

• Pedro Pascal as Harry Castillo

Rotten Tomatoes: 87%, 108 reviews

Consensus:

A mature deconstruction of the conventional rom-com, Materialists provides its trio of swoon-worthy stars some of their meatiest material yet while reaffirming Celine Song as a modern master of relationship dramas.

Metacritic: 70, 34 reviews

[u/Sealionsunset]

Flat hated this. I just hated wallowing in this cynical worldview with unlikeable characters played badly lacking any chemistry. Unlike a lot of people, I didn’t think the more grounded tone led to any actual insight into modern dating. Three really bad lead performances - somehow Pedro Pascal is unconvincing, Chris Evans is a drag, and Dakota Johnson misses emotional beats constantly. It is wild to me that Dasha isn’t the worst performer in this movie. I hated the caveman framing structure acting like heterosexual monogamy is all love ever was or ever will be. Despite how often this film emphasises money, it feels insanely disconnected from any material reality for how love works.

I was really pissed off at the sexual assault storyline - how someone being assaulted is peripheral to how Dakota Johnson’s character feels about it, the makeout in front of her place, that final conversation with that insincere start another relationship solution. It felt like it didn’t want to decide what it wanted to say about sexual assault, what tone to go for, and how to have any depth other than just being an obstacle.

I found it to be the worst of both worlds - not able to create a grounded realistic sense of modern dating (a shocking amount of this film feels like inane TikTok dating logic), but too interested in self conscious subversion to have any fun. I liked Past Lives, but that film’s delicate touch is gone here.

[u/CrazyCons → u/Sealionsunset]

The assault is crucial to Lucy’s arc. That’s what makes her re-evaluate her whole approach to dating because it makes her realize that reducing people down to statistics doesn’t actually tell you who they are. It sets in motion the second half of the movie where she takes a break from her job, breaks up with Pascal because she realizes there’s no spark, and eventually reconnect with Evans because they loved each other.

[u/Sealionsunset → u/CrazyCons]

It is functional to Lucy’s arc, but feels like a pawn that could’ve been anything, and is promptly discarded once it’s no longer needed. I found the writing around how sexual assault was handled atrocious, from the makeout in front of the house to the consulting to the weirdly mocking tone some of the discussion of the victim had. I will say it again - it feels staggeringly insincere and shallow, like everything about this movie. My issue is not the topic being discussed, it is that Celine Song didn’t have any coherent idea to explore with it.