HomeMovies'Materialists' is a Tonally Uneven Satire of Modern Dating

‘Materialists’ is a Tonally Uneven Satire of Modern Dating

Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in Celine Song's MATERIALISTS.
Photo Courtesy of A24 Films.

Written by Melly Merida

Materialists, written and directed by Celine Song (Past Lives), may have some issues, but it conveys an important message about modern dating culture. It tells a story about an analytical matchmaker, Lucy (Dakota Johnson), who finds herself in a love triangle between her broke ex-boyfriend, John (Chris Evans), and a charming, wealthy businessman named Harry (Pedro Pascal).

The characters themselves are charming. Lucy starts as blunt and cold, but soon her loveless facade falls apart, and a hopeful, loving side appears. Harry lives in wealth and carries himself confidently—with an undeniable charm—but through Pascal’s excellent performance, you can see insecurity subtly creeping in. Overall, Harry is the ideal man who meets Lucy’s standards. John, a theater actor who lives far less luxuriously than Pascal’s character, doesn’t. Still, he captures viewers’ hearts with his deep love for our protagonist.

Despite the film’s synopsis, the expectations for a funny rom-com with cute competition for “who gets the girl” are completely subverted. Instead, Materialists becomes a commentary on today’s dating culture. In several scenes where Lucy meets up with her clients to discuss who may be their perfect match, both men and women set a high standard for their ideal person.

The male clients give out very vague or specific traits—some preferring women much younger than themselves or a ” fit ” woman. Meanwhile, female clients give out long, complicated (some controversial) lists of traits that are often impossible for one person to have. Similarly, Lucy uses her matchmaking abilities outside of work to scrutinize people like objects, pointing out their fundamental flaws and listing qualities based on appearance, wealth status, career, and height.

Through these scenes, Materialists comments on our cultural desperation to get into a relationship and get married, based on the societal belief that this is the only way to achieve happiness. That belief weighs heavily on some characters and some take drastic measures to “fix” their flaws to appear more desirable to others.

More importantly, there’s also a consistent message carried throughout most of the film about how “dating is a risk,” like jumping off a cliff and hoping to land on a soft surface. This film perfectly showcases the good, bad, and worst outcomes of dating life—especially for a woman. When the ‘worst’ outcome does happen, it plays a significant role in Lucy’s character development and her position as a matchmaker. But it raises another question: Do the surface-level traits of a person matter if it doesn’t define who they truly are inside?

Although Materialists carries a strong message, it struggles with its story structure and pacing. The plot juggles the conflicts between Lucy’s love life and her career. While the plots are complementary, the conflict within Lucy’s love life overshadows the one in her work life.

There’s a steady pace throughout the beginning and middle parts of the film until the inciting incident with one of Lucy’s favorite clients, Sophie (Zoe Winters). It’s a significant tonal shift from where the plot was heading, and for a few scenes, there’s a noticeable weight of self-blame hanging over Lucy’s head. It’s a tragic subversion that builds an expectation that Lucy will face this new emotional challenge that may affect her life and those around her.

But then the film switches back to the romance plot, where more conflicts arise between Lucy and her love interests. The pace begins to slow down here, as we focus on Harry’s hidden insecurities and John and Lucy’s relationship, and it almost seems like Song’s script pushes aside the conflicts of Lucy’s career—only for it to be brought back near the end of the film, abruptly shifting the tone from romance to drama once more.

In theory, these situations work well within Song’s commentary on dating culture, but for a singular film, there are too many conflicts stacked on top of one another. Fortunately, it doesn’t clash with Lucy’s development as a character.

Celine Song provides an essential reminder that we don’t need to rely on attributes to find the perfect match; what matters more is the undeniable love you feel between you and your partner.

Materialists is now playing in theaters.

Pop-Break Staff
Pop-Break Staffhttps://thepopbreak.com
Founded in September 2009, The Pop Break is a digital pop culture magazine that covers film, music, television, video games, books and comics books and professional wrestling.
RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Follow Us

Most Recent