MATERIALISTS - Mark Reviews Movies

Materialists, A24

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 12, 2025

The characters of Materialists might be too clever and self-aware to really find or, if they somehow have found it, accept love. That's at least the irony of the main character of writer/director Celine Song's intelligent romantic comedy—a woman who seems to know everything about how to make romantic matches for other people but can't quite figure that out for herself.

Song's premise, of course, makes this sound like any run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, especially with that central gimmick, but the filmmaker isn't interested in the usual clichés and plotting of the genre. Sure, Lucy (Dakota Johnson), the aforementioned matchmaker, is basically given a choice between two men who could be her perfect match—one who checks all the boxes on her list for an ideal partner and another who, while he's missing a couple, does genuinely love her in a way no one else has. From that setup and labeling this within a particular genre, one might expect a lot of contrivances and obstacles bringing these characters together before tearing them apart, but Song's approach is more aligned with the better examples of this kind of story.

To her, the characters, their personalities, their pasts, their hopes and fears, and their occasional contradictions are far more intriguing and worthy of exploring than some convoluted plot filled with external barriers played for laughs and resulting in plenty of melodrama. When these characters talk, they know exactly what they're saying, what specific ideas they want to communicate, and why they have to say it to that other person and within that specific context. Listening to the dialogue of this film is to hear characters who sound as if they're real people, who know exactly what they want but often let themselves get in the way of obtaining it.

In her mid-30s and living in New York City, Lucy, for example, knows precisely what she wants from her next romantic partner, because she's also certain that the next man she ends up dating will be the man she marries. Her list includes someone with at least a particular pre-tax salary, although she's shrewd enough not to say that number aloud, and with some height to him and, of course, to be attractive. Does this make her superficial? She'd be the first to say that it does, but that's the kind of person Lucy partially is. She knows it, accepts it, and simply goes through life knowing that it might get in the way of finding the right man, if such a person exists in the first place.

She's not, by the way, as shallow as some of her clients, who appear in montages of exacting demands for age, physical characteristics, socioeconomic status, and other factors that sometimes, she admits to her boss (played by Marin Ireland), make her feel more like a psychologist than a matchmaker. Some of these people are pretty narrow in their outlook on romance, since they can afford to hire such a service. Some, such as Lucy's most problematic—simply because she's "enough" in terms of attitude, personality, appearance, income, and the rest—client Sophie (Zoë Winters), are desperate. Lucy offers them the promise that she'll find them true love.

What does set this apart from a more traditional or blander kind of romantic comedy, though, is how much it is about talking. Lucy's smart, knows her job inside and out, and understands herself. Song is wise enough to pair her up with two men who a lot like her in that respect. One is John (Chris Evans), an actor in his 30s who does a lot of catering work to barely make the ends meet.

Despite what we learn about Lucy, she and John dated some time ago, and the one flashback we get of that relationship says it all. The two argue over paying for parking in city for their anniversary dinner, and while Lucy is willing to pay that expense, John is too stubborn—out of pride or embarrassment or some idea of masculinity—to let her do that. The money, Lucy finally tells him, isn't the problem. It's that it is a problem in John's mind, which makes it hers, too.

The other guy is Harry (Pedro Pascal), whom Lucy meets at his brother's wedding, which she's attending because she matched the brother with his bride—both of them clients for her firm. Harry is, as Lucy puts it, a "unicorn" in her industry—extravagantly wealthy, tall, handsome, charming, confident enough to somehow not let all of that get to his head. Lucy wants to recruit him as a dating prospect for her company. Harry just wants to date Lucy.

With all of that in place, the rest of the story amounts to, well, these characters talking. They're honest and sincere, even when it comes to being superficial, and, also, to-the-point and cognizant of themselves and, to the extent they can be, each other. Much of the enjoyment of this film is simply listening to these characters, who may speak of love, romance, and marriage as some kind of business transaction (A major reason Harry likes Lucy instantly is that he, involved in finance, hears a kindred mind when she discusses her job) but also talk in more vulnerable terms.

The rejection of some gimmicky storytelling, in other words, extends to Lucy, John, and Harry, as well, because not one, singular trait defines them. Lucy does genuinely want love, even if that's hidden beneath the way she speaks of dating and marriage. John is still frustrated with the course of his life, sharing an apartment with filthy roommates, but has come to understand why he and Lucy are no longer together. Harry may seem perfect, but one scene, in which Lucy discovers a secret about him, reveals the hint of an uncertain, insecure man beneath it all.

Some of these details might seem like the fairly familiar characteristics of figures in romantic comedies, but the reason Materialists is so refreshing and invigorating isn't in who these characters are. It's that Song knows them so well, allows them to know themselves even better, and lets them talk about what really matters to them, without forcing any of this into some conventional plot.

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