Materialists (2025)

I won’t lie and pretend I know the history of online dating apps, but I am pretty sure that the last 15-20 years or so are when they began to explode in popularity (two of my brothers met their wives that way).

The thing is, I can not think of every coming across anyone in my life who used an in person match making service like the one shown in Materialists. Still, that is focus taken by writer/director Celine Song (who, I have learned, was once a match maker herself for a few months before becoming a film maker).

Set in present day New York, the film center’s on Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a match maker for a company that is known for it’s use of spreadsheets and “math” (I used quotations since I don’t remember much arithmetic being applied). As the title of the film may hint at, she is very attracted to rich guys. Having just succeeded in her 9th wedding, she runs into a rich bachelor named Harry (Pedro Pascal), while her old ex John (Chris Evans) reappears (he is a struggling stage actor).

While the film is being marketed as a romantic comedy, it should be noted there is a vast majority of the “rom” and not the “com”. That is not to say the film is not funny, but the laughs were rather scarce (mind you, I was one of three people in the theater). The romance (or rather, elements of it) are still rather present.

To date, I’ve only seen a handful of films that star Dakota Johnson, but I can understand the reasons why people write her off as a bad actress. I’m not saying she is one of the GOATs, but it is unfair to limit her to her bad movies (I never saw the Fifty Shades films, but it would be nigh impossible for anyone to do any worse than Madame Web). As Lucy, she does not show much emotion outwardly, but I felt part of that was appropriate for her character. Afterall, she is a materialist.

While Pascal does a passable job (in the film, he is described as a “unicorn”, “10/10”, which is not surprising when you realize it is Pedro Pascal), I was honestly somewhat impressed with Chris Evans. His post MCU projects have basically been disappointing (save Knives Out), and there are moments in this film where he is giving some of his more authentic, nuanced work I have seen from him in some time (of course, Song’s writing helps a bit).

Parents, this is another R rated movie where the swearing is all one needs to worry about (there is talk about sex, but nothing shown on screen). It is the standard R rating given to a movie with one too many F bombs. High Schoolers would be fine, maybe even mature middle schoolers.

This is Celine Song’s follow up to her masterful Past Lives, my favorite film of 2023. This film does not reach the heights of that film: the characters here are not nearly as deep and interesting. Yet that does not at all make the one’s in Materialists at all boring: it just seems to take more time to getting used to them. 

Materialists also had an odd way of attacking me. In the film (minor spoiler), we are told about a surgery that a certain character has taken to get taller by about six inches. The character explains how this has indeed helped their dating life. There is also a dark truth revealed about a character named Mark.

As someone named Mark who is just around five foot (not to mention not at all rich compared to these characters), I kind of felt attacked. Just saying.

Overall: