‘Materialists’ can’t seem to decide what it’s made up of

Is the Celine Song movie a romcom, dark drama or farce, wonders Clarisse Loughrey... perhaps it’s just an accurate reflection on dating. Plus, a match made in hell for ‘Together’

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“I’m asking here for the bare minimum,” begs the most frustrated client of professional matchmaker Lucy (Dakota Johnson).

“I don’t want to settle.” Her bare minimum, by the way, is a salary of 150K or above, a height of six feet or above, and a full head of hair. Materialists, then, is a romcom made for late-stage capitalism, populated by people who seek love like they're negotiating the Treaty of Versailles. If you don't think they're real (one man insists he'll only date a “20 BMI” or under), then you just haven't met them yet.

Director Celine Song, as in her debut Past Lives (2023), draws here from real experience. She worked briefly in the matchmaking field, and so takes a knowledgeable and dexterous approach to its operations. It's a film that works beautifully as an intellectual exercise. Ironically, it's in the love stuff where it starts to falter.

The film's tone has proven somewhat divisive with audiences and critics (it was released back in June in the US). At times, it borders on farce, like when Lucy and a colleague feverishly discuss the benefits of height surgery, in which the bones are broken and forcibly separated (“six inches can double a man's value on the market!”). Then, suddenly, a client commits a horrific act, and the film tumbles down a ravine of fear and uncertainty.