Materialists (2025) A24/Comedy RT: 117 minutes Rated R (language, brief sexual material) Director: Celine Song Screenplay: Celine Song Music: Daniel Pemberton Cinematography: Shabier Kirchner Release date: June 13, 2025 (US) Cast: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal, Zoe Winters, Marin Ireland, Dasha Nekrasova, Emmy Wheeler, Louisa Jacobson, Eddie Cahill, Sawyer Spielberg, Joseph Lee, Nedra Marie Taylor, Sietzka Rose, Halley Feiffer.
Rating: ***
Let’s get one thing straight. Although billed as a rom-com, Materialists is really more of a drama. Sure, it has moments of humor, but it’s not one those light, fluffy deals that make for a good date movie. Writer-director Celine Song (Past Lives) has more on her mind than some girl finding Mr. Right. She takes a good hard look at the modern dating scene. It’s not always pretty and it’s never not complicated.
Materialists stars two Marvel heroes and one Star Wars hero. Dakota Johnson (Madame Web) plays Lucy, a professional matchmaker credited with nine marriages. She’s currently single and not really in the market for a relationship. That changes when she meets Harry (Pascal, The Mandalorian) at the wedding of her latest successful match. He checks all the boxes. He’s tall, handsome and very wealthy. She’s skeptical. She can’t understand why a “unicorn” like Harry would be interested in somebody like her. He assures her his interest in legit.
At the same wedding, she bumps into her ex-boyfriend John (Evans, Captain America), a struggling actor working for a catering company. Not much has changed since she last saw him. He still drives the same old car, still shares the same apartment with annoying roommates and still has no money. Him being broke is the reason they broke up in the first place. He still loves Lucy, of course. She doesn’t know which guy to choose. They’re both good guys and they both love her. What’s a single New York girl to do in this case? Should she marry for love or money?
So let me start off by commenting on what Materialists might have been had it been made in the 90s or 00s. I envision it as a weightless rom-com starring either Julia Roberts or Renee Zellweger. The male leads could have been, oh I don’t know, Matthew McConaughey and Richard Gere. I see an eccentric best friend played by Janeane Garofalo. There would likely be a series of funny misunderstandings, mix-ups and mishaps as the female lead navigates her way along the twisted road to love. It would be nothing like the Materialists I saw earlier today. It’s more like a follow-up to Reality Bites featuring characters in their mid-to-late 30s concerned about finding a partner that can fulfill their needs. If love happens, so be it.
Now let me tell you what I was thinking while watching Materialists. Thank God I’m married. I didn’t like the dating scene when I was single (up until 2005) and I like it even less now with all the swipe left/swipe right apps aimed at singles looking for love or hook-ups. I will admit to placing a personal ad in one of the city’s free newspapers. It ran for several months. I received less than five responses and only two resulted in dates, neither of which resulted in a relationship. I never even considered signing up for computerized dating or elitist matchmaking services. Most of them are a scam anyway. Lucy works for an outfit called Adore. She sees relationships in terms of math. She looks at the data and makes matches based on it. Never mind the whole human aspect of it. She herself says she’ll only marry for money if she even marries at all. Predictably, this is a woman due for an attitude change.
For me, the most interesting part of Materialists is how it examines dating in the social media age. I said earlier it isn’t pretty and here’s why. Further cementing my assertion that there’s no com to go with the rom, there’s a subplot about a client of Lucy’s being sexually assaulted by a guy she matched her with. Obviously, there’s nothing funny about sexual assault. It affects Lucy in that she starts to question her career choice. She feels responsible for what happened. The client Sophie (Winters, Succession) blames her for it. It’s a shockingly serious turn for a movie that’s supposed to be a “comedy”. I didn’t expect this level of realism.
The love triangle element of Materialists isn’t anything new. We’ve seen it before. One woman, two guys, she has to choose. Johnson does a pretty good job as Lucy, a career woman confident in her abilities to make good matches but she’s a mess when it comes to her own dating life. She doesn’t know what she wants and wants it all at the same time. She’s confused which I guess is an accurate depiction of single women in their late 30s. I’ll give Dakota this; she’s come a long way since Fifty Shades. Evans proves he can act beyond the MCU. His character lives like he’s still in his 20s while still holding on to his dream of being a stage actor. Pascal is also good as the more stable choice, a grown-up with a steady job, a nice apartment and money. He loves Lucy, but is he the right man for her?
Materialists is a movie for adults. None of the characters are younger than 35. It’s not a bedroom farce. There is no silly slapstick. It’s more serious-minded than that. In just her second film, Song shows she’s a filmmaking force to be reckoned with. Who else has the nerve to make a rom-com that’s not really a rom-com? It has some pacing issues to be sure, but it’s one of the more interesting movies I’ve seen in a while. This is the one to see if you’ve had your fill of non-heroic superheroes, cute little aliens and chicken jockeys.
