Materialists

Released 2025. Director: Celine Song

TOO BUSY TO LOOK FOR LOVE? OR MAYBE you have some unnegotiable criteria? You need a matchmaker. While most people find a mate on their own, those wealthy enough (and just as finicky) can lash out a ton of money hiring professionals to find the perfect match, as seen in Materialists, a candid, occasionally delightful and ultimately starry-eyed new movie from Celine Song.

Dakota Johnson stars as Lucy, matchmaker extraordinaire, confidant and miracle worker. Her clients are cash-rich singles who use money to skip the bothersome chore of dating to only meet candidates vetted according to their steep demands. Top on the list is always the man’s height, the woman’s age and the amount of money they make. Doesn’t matter how they see the world, their views and beliefs, ambitions and goals, who cares about those? Intangible qualities, you say? They’re for the poor.

Servicing the demanding citizens of a materialistic world, Lucy is a dedicated Cupid with an enviable success rate. “I promise you,” Lucy says to a client with an impossible list. “You’re going to marry the love of your life.” She knows how to get people what they want, ticking a lot of boxes, as she likes to say. Her private life, however, remains resolutely single until she meets a man those in her profession call “a unicorn, an impossible fantasy and a 10 out of 10 in every category”, on the very same night she runs into her ex-boyfriend, who she clearly still has residual feelings for, even after their public break-up over money on a busy New York street some years ago.

The new beau Harry has a family business in private equity and is effortlessly charming, sophisticated, a ladies’ man with expensive tastes and an immaculate apartment prompting one of Lucy’s first questions: “How much is your apartment?” Answer: “12 million”.

Her ex, John, on the other hand, is still a waiter and struggling actor at age 37 in a shared accommodation worse than a college dorm room and could never afford to take Lucy on a fancy date. Amount in his bank account: $2,000.

Which man stands a chance with Lucy? Who will she give her heart to? More tricky question: how do you choose between Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans?

The psychology of pairing and how men and women view relationships and marriage is not new at the movies. But there's always an interest because it's one of those subject matters that just about everyone can relate to. Although the movie is set largely in the upper circles of Manhattan and most of us aren’t anywhere near in identifying personally, we can still connect on a realistic level whether it’s about how well we relate to each other, personal economics or more fundamentally, what do we look for in a life partner?

Lucy has some choice words she likes to tell her clients. Our husbands and wives are “nursing home partners” and “grave buddies”. Regardless of how tall or short, how rich or poor, compatibility has to take into account long-term commitment because who you choose will determine how you live the rest of your life.

Similar to her auspicious debut feature Past Lives (my pick for the best movie of 2023), writer-director Celine Song explores some of the inconvenient truths of modern-day romance. Whether it’s fate or in-yun, who we end up with is entirely a matter of choice under a set of circumstances. In Lucy’s case, she chooses to go with her heart, so it’s not difficult to predict the outcome.

Their love triangle transcends the romantic-comedy genre by asking some hard questions along the way. Materialists begins with a lot of worldly cynicism which Song gradually melts away to close the story in cushiony romantic notions. Her writing has a spirited mix of wit, spark and honesty to make us take leave of realism and nod along to reach a conclusion that spells happily ever after. In a non-fiction world, someone like Lucy would more likely have chosen the other guy. Then again, love is beyond sense or sensibility because it is for the most parts irrational. Materialists shows us how in a world obsessed with material assets, we each have a list of different boxes to tick.

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