When Celine Music‘s debut movie, Previous Lives, was first launched in theaters, it shocked audiences with its profound and delicate dealing with of human relationships, love, and the deconstruction of myths about destiny and future. Nevertheless, it additionally in some way affirms them on the identical time with the story of two individuals who have been seemingly destined to be collectively, just for life and distance to forge new paths of their respective lives. Now, with Music’s newest movie, Materialists, the author and director returns to the romance style, solely this time (if the advertising for the movie is to be believed), leaning into all the trimmings of a typical romantic comedy.
Nevertheless, regardless of the tacky narrations of the trailer and what A24’s good advertising would have you ever consider, Materialists is not your typical rom-com. As a substitute, the movie is a intelligent deconstruction of the very style movie it fashions itself after, with a good script and well-written characters that play into the archetypes they’re anticipated to be, just for a important story beat to flip conventions on their head on the final minute. Music’s tackle real love and relationship within the trendy world feels wise and related – that’s, till the third act, when it absolutely leans into the tropes of the very style it is deconstructing. However then once more, possibly that was the purpose.
Materialists
- Launch Date
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June 13, 2025
- Runtime
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117 minutes
- Director
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Celine Music
- Writers
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Celine Music
- Producers
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Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler, David Hinojosa
Celine Music Expertly Captures Fashionable Courting in ‘Materialists’
Materialists facilities on the lifetime of Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a matchmaker working in New York who prides herself on trying on the relationships and qualities of women and men as objectively as attainable, virtually like an equation. The character even states the way it’s all simply “math” and “numbers,” with Lucy’s outlook feeling like a illustration of contemporary relationship apps, which use algorithms and numbers themselves of their coding to offer individuals with the absolute best “matches.” Already along with her cynical outlook, Materialists has viewers who took the rom-com advertising bait hooked. It’d even be a stretch to name Materialists a comedy, as any laughs that may be discovered within the movie largely stem from the presence of uncomfortable, socially awkward (and frighteningly correct) scenes that touch upon the hole and excessive expectations in at present’s relationship world.
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Issues get attention-grabbing with the introduction of Pedro Pascal’s effortlessly cool and charming character Harry, adopted by the speedy and blunt introduction of Chris Evans’ aloof but simply as good-looking John. Music wastes no time in establishing the love triangle on the coronary heart of all of the advertising, as Harry does his finest to courtroom Lucy, whereas John is solely there to pout within the background. Nevertheless, Music subverts the rom-com but once more, in that Lucy and John’s previous relationship is not romanticized — a harsh flashback scene depicting their brutal honesty resurfaces.
As a substitute, Lucy adheres to her personal shallow relationship ideas, beginning a relationship with Harry and getting on along with her life. Even the character of Harry, who in most different rom-coms may have simply been portrayed because the antagonistic, wealthy airhead with hardly any redeeming qualities, is given depth and made extremely likable. Furthermore, his mature and candid conversations with Lucy in regards to the worth he sees in her make the connection seem to be it may work, not on the idea of affection, however as a enterprise deal or merger. It is all fascinating writing on Music’s half, showcasing the stark actuality of relationship.
The subplot involving a consumer of Lucy’s, named Sophie (performed fantastically by Zoë Winters), additionally helps to floor the movie in actuality, particularly when a selected match arrange by Lucy ends with Sophie being assaulted. It is a low level for Materialists, which causes Lucy to instantly reexamine every part she thought she knew. There may be nothing rose-tinted within the New York backdrop of Materialists, and there’s no clear reply for Sophie’s downside or Lucy’s guilt. Every other rom-com would greater than seemingly have one of many love pursuits offering an answer, or the consolation that Lucy is searching for. That is hinted at with a cellphone name to John, however in the end quantities to nothing.
It is at this crossroads that Materialists begins to go away the overwhelmed path that the movie carved for itself, and as an alternative delves into what everybody anticipated the movie to be like within the first place. Lucy has a sudden epiphany about her relationship with Harry, deciding to finish issues along with her rich suitor in an virtually too-amicable means. Pascal and Johnson do heavy lifting with their performances to assist make all of it really feel convincing, as the best way the connection ends on an all-too-happy word (and is arguably the one flaw in an in any other case brilliantly-crafted image) is simply the primary indication that the ending to Materialists will find yourself seemingly reaffirming every part that the movie had been beforehand deconstructing.
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It is when Lucy goes again to John that the 2 have a candid and brutal dialog about how, although a while has handed since they have been collectively, they each nonetheless have the identical flaws, which they could have resented one another for prior to now. Music’s tragic underpinnings that she is well-known for since Previous Lives seemingly come out, and it virtually looks like Lucy will not find yourself with anybody by the film’s finish. That’s, till, in a shocking transfer from Music, John pours his coronary heart out one final time, providing Lucy a “deal” to rekindle their relationship, to which she agrees. Materialists makes use of the muse of the rom-com — the concept of real love prevailing above all — and nothing else from the style, which might be thought-about an odd transfer by some that doubtlessly undermines the message of the remainder of the movie.
One way or the other, Celine Music will get to have her (marriage ceremony) cake and eat it too. Materialists is a continuing tightrope stroll, delivering a satirical and deeply emotional examination of the rom-coms which have outlined generations, set unreal expectations, and helped form the shallow and unrealistic expectations of Lucy’s shoppers within the movie. On the identical time, the author/director performs into the identical tropes within the third act in a wholly totally different context. The subversion up up to now has been used to emphasise that individuals should not be seen as merchandise. Whereas which will seem to be a cop-out to some viewers, it is a highly effective message about how genuine connections can and do exist, even in a cloth world like this one.
Celine Music’s sophomore characteristic impressively forges its personal path within the rom-com style, utilizing each the romantic and comedic elements in sudden ways in which really feel antithetical to the movies that impressed it. It is all in service of a 3rd act that in the end favors the clichéd completely satisfied ending, which manages to work towards all odds (very similar to the couple on the coronary heart of the movie) to ship a strong message about how love can exist, even in a world as jaded and cynical as that of Materialists. Regardless of what individuals inform themselves, people usually are not summary numbers or commodities. Sophie places it finest within the film when she tells Lucy, “I am not merchandise. I am an individual.” Materialists is in theaters now.