Dakota Johnson in ‘Materialists’. Credit: Atsushi Nishijima.
‘Materialists’ receives 9 out of 10 stars.
Opening in theaters June 13 is ‘Materialists,’ directed by Celine Song and starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, Chris Evans, Zoë Winters, Marin Ireland, Dasha Nekrasova, Louisa Jacobson, and John Magaro.
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Initial Thoughts
(L to R) Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in ‘Materialists’. Credit: Atsushi Nishijima.
If you’re going into ‘Materialists’ thinking that this will be something of a traditional romantic comedy, think again. While the trailers may sort of sell it that way, ‘Materialists’ is quite different and deeper. Written and directed by Celine Song, whose 2023 debut ‘Past Lives’ was a melancholy exploration of memory and lost love, ‘Materialists’ looks at dating, romance, and love through the lens of a transactional society.
At its most basic level, ‘Materialists’ has a romantic triangle at its heart. But that three-way relationship is seen as a numbers game, with Song deftly outlining how cold logic and math can lead – if the participants are lucky – to some semblance of happiness, while also opening the door to disaster. The film is also an intimate, detailed character study of the three people at its center, how they perceive themselves, and how they perceive each other. While it wobbles a bit down the stretch, ‘Materialists’ is an emotionally resonant, culturally relevant look at how and why we expose ourselves to love, and the danger of treating people – especially women – as commodities.
Story and Direction
(L to R) Director Celine Song, Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans on the set of ‘Materialists’. Credit: Atsushi Nishijima.
Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a professional matchmaker, working with well-off, usually older clients – both male and female – to help them find the perfect person with whom to fall in love. But many of Lucy’s clients have stringent or unrealistic expectations: the women are looking for a six-foot-tall man with a six-figure (at least) income, while the men don’t want anything too “intense or complicated.” As one man says, he doesn’t have much in common with women in their early twenties…so he wants to date women in their late twenties.
As for Lucy, she’s a self-described “voluntary celibate” who has broken up with her boyfriend John (Chris Evans) after five years. John, an unemployed actor, works as a cater-waiter to make ends meet and shares his crummy Manhattan apartment with two sloppy roommates. Having grown up poor and trying to pursue her own career, Lucy does not wish to live that way: she wants to be comfortable and taken care of, and sees marrying into wealth as the only way to achieve that – or so she thinks.
That’s why the matchmaking service she provides breaks love down to “checking boxes” on a list: the candidate’s age, height, salary, job, and even the state of their hair are all factored into the equation without a thought of whether these two strangers can connect in a more intimate, personal way. “Marriage is a business deal,” Lucy tells one of her clients who’s about to take the final step of walking down the aisle. “You can always walk away if the deal is no good.”
Dakota Johnson in ‘Materialists’. Credit: Atsushi Nishijima.
All of this is transactional for Lucy, so when she meets Harry (Pedro Pascal) at that same wedding, who she describes as a unicorn for seemingly checking off all her boxes effortlessly, she decides to begin dating him after he asks her out – even though she insists he can do better. And even though she and John are no more, he’s still in her life as a friend (who is also clearly pining for her). Lucy begins to wonder just what she does want out of a relationship – as her carefully structured philosophy about dating and romance begins to unravel around her.
Aside from a third-act plot turn that might have been handled a little more smoothly, ‘Materialists’ is top-notch storytelling about modern relationships and love – and how even those most precious aspects of human life can be somehow stripped down to, as Lucy says, a business deal. It’s only when she gets into a potentially lucrative deal of her own in that sense that she begins to realize what a shallow worldview that is, and how the same approach to her job may end in misery for her clients – and in the case of women, even danger.
Song’s script cleanly delivers all this through a spare, modest, yet impactful narrative and deftly rendered characterizations, filtered through lovely lensing of the movie’s New York locations by cinematographer Shabier Kirchner. In the end, the movie is a pointed critique of the society we’re living in now: where everyone thinks they’re entitled to everything, and you don’t have to work for it — even love.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans in ‘Materialists’. Credit: Atsushi Nishijima.
Coming off the embarrassment of 2024’s ‘Madame Web,’ Dakota Johnson bounces back nicely here with perhaps the best performance of her career to date. Lucy is a complex, finely-drawn single woman in her mid-30s who has grown up poor and is deeply afraid of falling back into that situation, which has led her to not just view her own romantic life in a clinical way but boil her services as a matchmaker down to cold equations. Johnson does an excellent job of putting up Lucy’s armor, only to gradually show us the pain and doubt beneath.
The same could be said for Chris Evans – while his choices since exiting the role of Captain America have been hit and miss, ‘Materialists’ also represents his best work since putting down the shield. John is acutely aware of his circumstances, his lack of motivation, and his own deep desire for love and connection, and blames himself for letting Lucy get away. His own pain at seeing her is evident from the start, but he’s also desperate to maintain their connection by being the best friend he can be. This is a sensitive turn from Evans, who can be a come across as all surface with the wrong material, and demonstrates his underrated ability to portray vulnerability.
Pedro Pascal’s Harry is a bit less layered and defined than either Lucy or John, although he avoids stereotyping by being an incredibly wealthy man who does not see others around him as playthings – even when he reveals something about himself late in the game. Pascal is empathetic and charismatic as always. The other star player of the film is Zoë Winters (‘Succession’) as Lucy’s client Sophie, who delivers a monologue late in the film that is raw and just devastating, a cry of anger and frustration that will resonate with many single women of a certain age. The actor just nails it in a showstopper of a moment.
Final Thoughts
(L to R) Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in ‘Materialists’. Credit: Atsushi Nishijima.
Don’t get us wrong: ‘Materialists’ is not a somber meditation on late-stage capitalism infecting every aspect of our lives. It’s not somber, anyway. It’s funny, witty, and yes, melancholy, and it also doesn’t shy away from pointedly critiquing how the commodification of the most basic, wonderful, and complex of all human interactions is inherently not a good thing.
In other words, it’s not “just math,” despite what Lucy says early in the film. And ‘Materialists’ is not just, as we said early on in this review, a standard rom-com or even a typical romantic drama. It’s a movie with something far deeper on its mind, and Celine Song once again explores the intricacies of the human heart with candor and clarity, making this possibly one of the best movies made for adults that you’ll see this year.
“Some people just want more.”
A young, ambitious New York City matchmaker finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex. Read the Plot
What is the plot of ‘Materialists’?
A young, ambitious New York City matchmaker finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.
Who is in the cast of ‘Materialists’?
- Dakota Johnson as Lucy
- Chris Evans as John
- Pedro Pascal as Harry Castillo
- Zoë Winters as Sophie
- Marin Ireland as Violet
- Dasha Nekrasova as Daisy
- Louisa Jacobson as Charlotte
- Sawyer Spielberg as Mason
- Eddie Cahill as Robert
- Joseph Lee as Trevor
- John Magaro as Mark P.
Dakota Johnson in ‘Materialists’. Credit: Atsushi Nishijima.
List of Movies Starring Dakota Johnson:
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