Materialists (2025)

I love it when a film can surprise me. Materialists sets itself up (and is marketed similarly) with what appears to be a typical love triangle scenario but quickly deconstructs that in its exploration of western conceptions of what "love" and "relationships" mean. By using this trope, Song plays with our expectations in ways that force us through our perceptions and assumptions that these sorts of films usually reinforce. I wish she had had the courage to end her journey here in a different place than she does but the journey remains interesting. 

Song has such a deft hand both as a director and a writer. The dialogue is sharp and piercing and her style of filming, while unassuming and never flashy, is so intricate in how it expresses the film's themes and ideas, the emotions of the characters, that I felt like I knew these people. Her characters never feel stock and are wholly flawed people that feel like they stepped out of real life. 

The thing that didn't work for me was the chemistry of the actors. I never felt the connection that Lucy and Johnathan needed to make this story feel authentic. Sure the energy wasn't there for Lucy and Harry either but that was supposed to be the point. Materialists delves into the transactional nature of relationships, and not in a judgement way. Yet even then I never truly bought that Harry and Lucy would make this transaction. Materialists is also making a point about the naturalness of falling in love but little felt natural between Evans and Johnson. 

So in my head Materialists worked wonders. It have been thinking about it over and over since I saw it, mulling over ideas about how we structure not only our "romantic" connections but also our relationships to those connections. But if I am being honest, my heart never bought in. Perhaps this could have been more effective if the film didn't try to find a happily-ever-after for Lucy, at least not one that involved her finding "love." Perhaps then I wouldn't have been so underwhelmed by seeing her and Jonathan reunite. A film that maybe ended with her choosing something else might have knocked it out of the park for me. Maybe. 

Materialists 

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal

Writer/Director: Celine Song