Materialists (15)
Cast: Chris Evans, Zoe Winters, Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, Marin IrelandGenre: Romance
Author(s): Celine Song
Director: Celine Song
Release Date: 13/08/2025
Running Time: 117mins
Country: US
Year: 2025
Lucy Mason is one of the star employees of the Adore matchmaking agency in New York City, working her magic to find clients their perfect match. Successful at work, Lucy vows that if she marries at all - which is unlikely - it will be for money not love after her relationship with ex-boyfriend John imploded because of financial difficulties. At a client's wedding, the groom's brother Harry flirts with Lucy and she politely rebuffs his advances. Unperturbed, Harry continues to pursue Lucy.
LondonNet Film Review
Materialists (15) Film Review from LondonNet
In 2023, playwright Celine Song transitioned with consummate ease from stage to screen with her stunning directorial debut Past Lives, which earned her Academy Award nominations for best picture and best original screenplay. Drawing inspiration from her personal history with screenwriter husband Justin Kuritzkes, Song conjured a masterful meditation on romantic opportunities – missed and seized – and the ripple effect, many years later. She remains fixated on matters of the heart with an emotionally charged menage a trois featuring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal, which toys with a traditional rom-com premise – a professional matchmaker who cannot find her own soulmate – and charts a storytelling course that is disappointingly evident from the outset…
Song’s ear for pithy dialogue is almost as acute as her first film (“You’re not ugly, you just don’t have money”) and she elicits winning performances from the central trio in New York locations that could almost be one block across from the wistful navel-gazing of Past Lives. Except in Materialists, the stakes don’t feel as high when a successful single woman’s greatest anxiety is deciding between two handsome suitors vying for her fickle affections. A meaty subplot involving a matchmaking client (Zoe Winters) who is cruelly robbed of her rose-tinted glasses adds timely social commentary to the elegant mix.
Failed actress Lucy Mason (Johnson) is one of the star employees of the Adore matchmaking agency in New York City. She has eight weddings attributed to her masterful meddling and another client, Charlotte (Louisa Jacobson), is poised to walk down the aisle with perfect match Peter (Fernando Belo). By her own admission, Lucy is “voluntarily celibate”, preferring the life of a singleton after her previous long-term relationship with actor boyfriend John (Evans) imploded because of his precarious finances.
At Charlotte and Peter’s wedding, Lucy meets the groom’s brother Harry (Pascal). She politely rebuffs his amorous advances, suggesting he should enrol with Adore. Harry persists and Lucy agrees to go on one date on condition that he signs up with the agency after their lunchtime liaison. On paper, in terms of looks, financial acumen and height, Harry is an elusive “unicorn” so why does Lucy continue to chew on her unresolved feelings for John?
Sly, charming and elegantly constructed, Materialists gently addresses contemporary concerns about loneliness and commitment in an age of right-swipe selection of the fittest. Johnson, Evans and Pascal are well-matched and generate on-screen heat in their respective couplings but the resolution to Lucy’s dilemma is preordained. Next to the deep-rooted yearning of Past Lives, Song’s second picture feels lightweight but does provoke animated debate about whether independent modern women can afford to marry for love. Happiness has a price tag.
– Jo Planter
Popular on LondonNet
London Cinemas Showing Materialists
From: Friday 10th October
To: Thursday 16th October
Wed 14:50
From: Friday 17th October
To: Thursday 23rd October
UK and Irish Cinemas Showing Materialists
From: Friday 10th October
To: Thursday 16th October
Wed 10:30
Wed 10:30
Tue 14:40
Sun 13:00; Thu 18:00
Thu 10:30
Wed 10:30
Wed 10:30
Scott Cinemas Bristol, Westbury Park
Tue 10:30
From: Friday 17th October
To: Thursday 23rd October
Cineworld Boldon Tyne And Wear
Wed 11:30
Wed 11:30
Wed 11:30
Wed 11:30
Wed 11:00
