Warning: This text incorporates spoilers for Materialists. When you haven’t seen it but, the movie is at the moment taking part in in theaters.
Celine Tune’s 2025 film launch, Materialists, is the form of shiny, high-concept New York romance that begs to be dissected over cocktails—or by somebody who really does the job it depicts. Enter Maria Avgitidis, a fourth-generation skilled matchmaker and relationship coach primarily based in NYC. Avgitidis simply shared her ideas some very candid ideas about Dakota Johnson’s newest movie. For sure, of us, she didn’t maintain again.
Maria Avgitidis caught up with Individuals to debate the buzzy new movie. In the course of the chat, she made it clear that she wasn’t thrilled by what she noticed on display screen. Based on the skilled, there isn’t a lot within the new A24 film that resonates together with her or her work. As she tells it:
I do not see myself on this. I used to be making an attempt to warn some matchmakers: ‘I do know you are about to throw a complete film screening for this. Tread rigorously.’ I do not know what else to inform you.
Within the movie, Dakota Johnson performs Lucy, a high-paid matchmaker to New York’s elite who has grown disillusioned with love, relationship and her personal life decisions. There’s a love triangle between her, her outdated boyfriend, John (Chris Evans), and a brand new suave multimillionaire named Henry Castillo — who’s performed by everybody’s daddy, Pedro Pascal.
There’s algorithm discuss, and there’s some huge drama that takes the movie from a few of the greatest rom-com territory into one thing greater than a romantic comedy and a little bit darker. Author-director Celine Tune primarily based the premise on six months she as soon as spent working at a real-life matchmaking service, however Avgitidis, who’s been within the sport for practically 20 years, says the truth could be very completely different in varied respects.
On the one hand, Materialists has been getting rave reactions from movie critics. Nevertheless, the movie apparently showcases facets of the matchmaking occupation that do not seemingly ring true anymore. For example, Maria Avgitidis had this to say about whether or not matchmakers really hand out enterprise playing cards as Lucy does within the film:
Possibly that occurred earlier than 2008, however… I let individuals come to me. There’s a stigma with matchmakers that solely determined individuals will use them, and that is not true. I’ve at all times taken the inbound advertising strategy. Even earlier than social media, I used to be out at bars, and I might use the Foursquare app and I referred to as myself Matchmaker Maria, so individuals knew ‘there is a matchmaker within the room, let me go discuss to her.’ However that chasing somebody down on the road, that is not one thing that I’ve ever completed. I do know sure matchmakers do it. And so they do it on LinkedIn.
The interview took a extra critical flip when Avgitidis addressed the movie’s central disaster: a consumer is sexually assaulted on a date arrange by Lucy. The matchmaker’s response? A pocket book with barely three traces of information scribbled down. For the love trade veteran, that second wasn’t simply dramatic, it was professionally offensive. “You didn’t do your job. You arrange this particular person with a stranger,” she stated. “I’ve fired workers for much less.”
And the concept this type of scenario is perhaps widespread? Flat-out false, in line with the trade veteran. “I’ve by no means had that occur,” she said, including that one thing that critical would ship shockwaves via the matchmaking trade. “This is able to be a factor we’d be discussing at our subsequent commerce affiliation assembly.”
Past the plot twists and dramatics, Maria Avgitidis had an even bigger situation with how Materialists portrayed the position of a matchmaker. Certain, she acknowledged that burnout is a part of the job, and coping with shoppers’ expectations and emotional baggage isn’t precisely gentle work. Nevertheless, in her view, anybody who turns into jaded or cynical about love most likely shouldn’t be within the occupation to start with. This line of labor, she argued, calls for optimism and emotional resilience, not bitterness.
What bothered her most wasn’t the movie’s liberties with actuality, however its obvious lack of soul. To her, matchmaking isn’t nearly algorithms or consumer rosters; it’s about constructing relationships and fostering a way of group. That’s the legacy she inherited from generations of matchmakers in her household, and it is the core of how she operates right this moment.
Materialists is now taking part in in theaters, however do not go in anticipating a “foolish rom-com” as a result of it has much more happening than that. As for Maria Avgitidis’ guide, Ask a Matchmaker: Matchmaker Maria’s No-Nonsense Information to Discovering Love, it is obtainable now wherever you buy your studying materials.