‘Materialists’ Review: Celine Song’s Romantic Drama Dissects Love, Wealth, and Emotional Capital in a Brilliant Genre Subversion

What if your heart had a price tag; and your feelings needed a business model but you still have the ex?

Celine Song’s follow-up to Past Lives is not simply another foray into romantic storytelling; it’s a devastatingly sharp examination of love as a marketplace, where affection collides with ambition and emotional desire contends with economic practicality. In Materialists, Song skillfully manipulates rom-com structure and tropes not to uphold fantasy but to expose the transactional foundations of modern relationships. The result is a work that is as intellectually piercing as it is emotionally stirring—a film that forces its audience to reconsider what we expect from love, and what we sacrifice to sustain it.

At the center of Materialists is Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a high-end matchmaker whose professional acumen masks a deep cynicism about love. When she is courted by Harry (Pedro Pascal), a wealthy client with a transactional understanding of affection, and then re-encounters John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor from her past, the stage is set for a classic romantic triangle. But Song is not interested in sentimental resolution. Instead, she dissects the cultural forces that shape desire, from class mobility to personal branding.

What makes Materialists exceptional is how Song resists conventional melodrama in favor of nuanced character development. Johnson’s Lucy is a contradiction—a woman who facilitates romance for others while doubting its feasibility for herself. Her arc is one of guarded transformation. Chris Evans delivers a career-redefining performance as John, imbuing the character with longing, shame, and quiet perseverance. His chemistry with Johnson is electric, anchored in subtle gestures and unspoken histories. Pedro Pascal, as Harry, subverts the archetype of the suave financier, rendering him vulnerable and earnest despite his armor of wealth.

The film’s emotional and thematic richness is heightened by Song’s screenplay, which cleverly deploys genre tropes—meet-cutes, dramatic declarations, intimate confessions—not as ends in themselves, but as devices to interrogate the scaffolding of romance. In doing so, Materialists invites comparison to When Harry Met Sally or Notting Hill, only to unravel their assumptions. The characters talk about money—openly, uncomfortably, necessarily—and in doing so, Song critiques the unspoken economy of romantic selection: who is worthy, who is viable, who is safe.

Cinematographically, the film is intimate without ever feeling small. Interiors become reflective chambers—apartments, offices, wedding halls—where characters trade emotional and financial securities like market commodities. The score, understated but emotionally evocative, underscores the film’s duality: the tenderness of connection and the cold calculus beneath it.

By the third act, Materialists reaches a crescendo not of external conflict, but internal reckoning. Lucy is forced to confront her role in a system that commodifies desire—and what that role has cost her. Song’s triumph lies in her refusal to offer closure; the ending is not a fairy tale, but an emotional recalibration. We are left not with answers, but with clarity.

Thematically, Materialists is a revelation. It is a meditation on the competing ideologies of modern love: the logic of the marketplace versus the unpredictability of intimacy. It asks whether love can survive under the weight of optimization. In Song’s hands, this tension becomes not just narrative, but existential. Do we choose partners based on compatibility or aspiration? Are we investing in a person or projecting onto them? What does it mean to love in a society that tells us to brand ourselves, monetize our time, and calculate emotional risk?

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In this, Materialists becomes both critique and elegy—a paean to the unquantifiable magic that remains even amid the spreadsheets. Lucy’s journey is one of painful unlearning, of learning to separate metrics from meaning. Johnson plays her final moments with a quiet devastation that suggests not resolution but acceptance.

Celine Song has delivered a masterwork that feels both familiar and revolutionary. It is one of the year’s most intelligent romantic dramas, and one that will surely stand the test of time.

RATING: ★★★★★

Watch The Trailer Below:

Title: Materialists

Release Date: June 13, 2025


Directed By: Celine Song


Written By: Celine Song


Starring: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal and Zoe Winters


Rating: R for language and brief sexual material

Distribution: A24