25
Sep '25
I recently saw the movie Materialists, and if you haven’t seen it, stop reading this post and go watch it before continuing. This post will contain spoilers.
Materialists is a movie starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans. It’s a rom com that follows Dakota Johnson’s character, Lucy through her career as a matchmaker in New York City. She’s constantly doing “the math” on everyone she meets and what type of match they could get. This person is tall, has a great job, and is good looking, they can match with someone amazing and won’t settle for less. This woman is over 35, while she might believe she’s overdue for an amazing match, the truth is her age will mean she has to lower her expectations. The film shows several sequences of Lucy sitting across from clients in cafes and restaurants as they tell her their “non-negotiables” most of which feel ridiculous and rigid. He must be this tall, he must make this much money, he must love cats, he must this, he must that. The scenes are genius in that they are both funny, and incredibly sobering. They make the audience look at themselves and think, am I like that? No, surely, I’m more reasonable.
Lucy meets what they call at her matchmaking agency “a unicorn,” with more money than he knows what to do with, six feet tall, good hairline, nice personality, no drug or alcohol additions, and despite being the complete package he isn’t interested in being her client, but instead he’s interested in being her boyfriend. While Lucy tries to tell him that he can “do better” than her, he isn’t swayed and wants to be in a relationship with her. As Lucy begins to date him, she also re-connects with her long time ex, who she broke up with because of financial issues.
The film follows as Lucy ends up having to decide between “the complete package” and her “long time love.” And to find out who she chooses you’ll have to watch the movie.
Is Celine Song creating the modern rom com? This movie had everything you could want from a classic rom com, but in our new modern world. It had funny moments, it had moments with heart. It had something classic rom coms never did:
- Growth of the main female character throughout the film
- Respectful and kind male love interests who have real flaws and who are willing to sacrifice for her
- Appropriately deep and sobering moments that are handled beautifully with raw emotion instead of this ultra perfect happy ideal
- And ultimately what we all go to a rom com for, light hearted feel good moments that make you believe in love!
These are the type of rom coms I’m all for in 2025 and beyond. I don’t need the stupid outfit picking/makeover montage. I don’t need the over stereotyped gay man best friend. I’m all for including LGBTQ+ characters, but let’s give them more depth than the overly stereotyped characters of the 90s and 2000s rom coms. I don’t need the love interest who ends up not respecting boundaries at some point, or kisses the girl when she’s mad as if that fixes everything. I don’t need the women in the film hating each other and being competitive at work. I don’t need the lead female character being indecisive, and not knowing her own worth.
Celine did something I truly didn’t believe was possible in today’s world. She made a rom com that is realistic and yet still happy. She wrote a film that fixes a bunch of problems and tropes of old rom coms, while addressing problems of our real world and somehow still giving us those funny and feel good moments. She gave us more than 1 female character who is interesting and has depth and has flaws who doesn’t hate other women. And maybe the most important, she gave us male characters who have flaws and who don’t end up saving the day. She gave female viewers something to look for in a future partner that goes deeper than outside appearance.
These are the type of rom coms we’re looking for in our modern world and really just the type of stories that I want to watch no matter what genre they are in. I want stories where the character’s depth gets revealed throughout the film and where the characters are imperfect. In our ever increasingly materialistic world, I want stories like this that emphasize there is more to life and love than “the math” or materialistic qualities.
Post image from A24