By John Corrado
In Past Lives, writer-director Celine Song delivered one of the greatest directorial debuts of all time, reinvigorating a love triangle premise to offer a deeply moving exploration of longing and potentially meeting the right person at the wrong time.
Expectations have been set incredibly high for Song’s sophomore feature Materialists, which finds her working more in the romantic comedy space, at least peripherally. But, if Past Lives was going to be a nearly impossible act to follow (it was my personal favourite movie of 2023), Materialists is absolutely a worthy successor.
Song has crafted an intelligent yet deeply romantic rom-com that also goes to some deeper places, with a highly perceptive screenplay about the values we assign people and why we fall in love. Where Past Lives came alive thanks to the performances of Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro, the sparkling Materialists is built around wonderful work from its own trio of Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans.
Johnson stars as Lucy, a New York City matchmaker who views romance as a series of mathematical equations. You assign a value to your client based off a number of criteria, and find someone else who matches it. She is very good at her job. But Lucy finds herself developing her own relationship troubles as she develops feelings for one man, and re-develops feelings for another.
At a client’s wedding, she meets Harry (Pedro Pascal), the brother of the groom. On paper, Harry is a perfect match; a rare “unicorn,” in the parlance of the matchmaking community. He’s rich, single, has a fancy apartment, and is six feet tall. But she also reunites with her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans) at the wedding, who is working as a server. John is a struggling actor who works as a cater waiter in his spare time, and still lives with roommates.
Song takes this rom-com setup and deepens it. The genius of her writing is in how she sets up two characters with different value propositions – the rich finance guy, the broke actor – and weighs them against each other for both our lead character and the audience. But Song goes one step deeper; her film is also a deconstruction of this mindset, and the very idea that you can make a perfect match just based on how many boxes a prospective partner checks.
This is an incredibly smart screenplay in the way that she sets things up with payoffs later on. It’s practically a masterclass. Song also shows a remarkable ability to navigate and weave in the darker places that her story goes, sensitively handling some pretty serious themes. Like other films that loosely fit into the rom-com genre like Up in the Air or Silver Linings Playbook, Materialists leans more romance than comedy, and moves more into the dramatic space at times.
This is the sort of grounded rom-com in the same vein that we used to get from the likes of James L. Brooks. Not only is it refreshing to see the theatrical return of the mid-budget, character-driven film for adults, but also to have one where the characters act like mature, intelligent people. Like in Past Lives, Song shows remarkable compassion for all of her main characters, letting us understand each of their choices, and letting them be vulnerable.
Those worried that Song would lose her voice can rest easy; this film is still recognizably hers. One of the things that made Past Lives stand out was Song’s use of long dialogue scenes that allowed her characters the space and depth to explore their feelings, and have uncomfortable but honest conversations with each other. She does a similar thing here with several exceptionally written and performed dialogue scenes. These characters know their own shortcomings, and are often the first ones to address them, as Song’s screenplay honestly explores millennial worries about money, self-worth, and social status in a compelling and impactful way.
It works because Harry and John are both fully realized love interests, and the actors playing them deliver memorable performances, each captivating in their own ways. Pascal is suave and charming, but also imbues deeper layers into his character. Evans is endearing in a more scrappy way; what he does with the role of John, and what Song gives him to work with, is one of the things that will stay with audiences after leaving the film. It’s some of his finest work. Johnson is excellent at the centre of the film, as a woman having her entire worldview around love and romance challenged.
The film is also deeply, achingly romantic in both its presentation and construction. The lovely cinematography by Shabier Kirchner (who also shot Past Lives) is often understated, but has a purpose to it, every composition being a deliberate choice in how it shows the characters within the frame. And then subtly wowing us with long takes, including a magical, gorgeously shot dance scene where the camera floats around the room and the characters. The film is set to a beautiful, minimalistic score by Daniel Pemberton.
There is a lot to swoon over in Materialists; the way a scene is lit, the way Evans delivers a line, the warm glow that the film leaves us with. But every one of these moments feels earned. It’s refreshing to watch a movie like this and be able to just sit back and enjoy where it takes us, because we know that we are in the hands of a master. If Past Lives was one of the finest debut films of all time, Materialists cements Song as one of the preeminent voices of our generation.
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