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Love vs Lifestyle: The film explores how money, ambition, and emotional history shape modern relationships, and whether true love can survive them.
Strong Performances, Subtle Tension: Dakota Johnson leads with poise, while Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal deliver depth and contrast in a love triangle that avoids clichés.
Not Your Usual Rom-Com: With unexpected twists, sharp dialogue, and grounded emotion, Materialists challenges the fantasy of romance with refreshing honesty.
Celine Song’s second feature isn’t just a rom-com. It’s a quietly piercing reflection on what we value in love, in life, and ourselves. Celine Song delivers again after her hit movie, Past Lives. Materialists is playful with matchmakers, weddings, glam outfits, and a starry triangle featuring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans. But under that sparkle, Materialists know exactly what it’s doing. It’s smart, sly, and emotionally tuned.
Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a high-end matchmaker. Elegant, measured, and unapologetically strategic. Her job is to help people find love, but her real skill is knowing what clients want to hear and what they can’t admit to themselves. The opening scene sets the tone: Lucy coaching a reluctant bride (Louisa Jacobson) into going through with a lavish wedding. It’s not about soulmates. It’s about social contracts, optics, and timing. The irony is that Lucy’s own love life is a negotiation she hasn’t closed.
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At that wedding, Lucy meets Henry (Pedro Pascal), the wealthy brother of the groom. As if the universe has a sense of humor, her ex, John (Chris Evans), turns up as a waiter. We get the backstory in a flash: five years together, one broken heart, and an anniversary dinner eaten off a food cart. That’s where it ended.
Lucy doesn’t hide her intentions anymore. “Marriage is a business deal. It always has been,” she says, blunt but clear. And Johnson plays her with such subtle control that the line never feels cruel, just honest.
Henry is polished, generous, a man who knows his world and moves through it effortlessly. He and Lucy share the same language of ambition, aesthetics, and a curated lifestyle. “Once you’ve had your first $400 haircut,” he says, “you can’t go back to Supercuts.” That one line says everything about their connection, not romantic heat but mutual understanding.
John, on the other hand, is all warmth and ache. Evans plays him like a man still holding his breath every time Lucy’s around. Their chemistry is natural and lived-in, full of moments that feel like emotional deja vu.
Song fills the film with clever, bittersweet moments like clients with absurd checklists, Lucy’s deadpan sarcasm, and glamorous weddings that blur into each other. But she doesn’t keep things comfortable. A sudden act of violence during a matchmaking date pulls the story into real-world stakes, reminding us that love, especially when transactional, can carry risk.
Visually, the film is elegant without showing off. Dialogue sparkles but never overwhelms. And at under two hours (1hr 49m), the pacing leaves room for quiet reflection without dragging the narrative.
The final scene is beautifully restrained: Lucy dancing at yet another wedding to the old classic That’s All. “I can only give you love that lasts forever,” the lyrics say. It’s an almost laughable sentiment in her line of work. But there’s longing in her eyes. Maybe, beneath all the calculated choices, there’s still space for something unpredictable.
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Materialists isn’t here to romanticize love. It’s here to challenge what modern romance even means. In a world shaped by status, money, and careful performance, Song asks the real questions about the possibility of choosing love for love’s sake. This is masterfully portrayed through the characters she has made, and the actors do their roles justice.
Rating: 4.5/5
Runtime: 1hr 49m
US Release: June 13
UK Release: August 15
