Materialists (2025) Review: Celine Song’s Bittersweet, Star-Studded Reimagining of Modern Romance

Materialists (2025)

Directed by Celine Song

Written by Celine Song

Starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal

Release Date: June 13, 2025

Published: June 16, 2025

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With Past Lives, director Celine Song delivered a stunning debut—an emotionally rich exploration of how memory, longing, and choice shape our identity. That film was elegant, thoughtful, romantic, and fearlessly honest about the complexity of loving more than one person.

In Materialists, Song sharpens the edges of that emotional palette. She adds a dash of bitterness and brings in three major stars—Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal. The result is a romantic drama that challenges its genre’s most comforting assumptions.

Dakota Johnson Leads the Way

Johnson leads the film as Lucy, a high-end matchmaker in New York City. Lucy is brilliant at finding love for others, but her own views on romance are steeped in hard-earned cynicism. For her, marriage is less about passion and more about partnership—a transaction that fits neatly on a spreadsheet as much as it does between the sheets.

But Lucy’s carefully constructed world begins to wobble when one of her clients ends up harmed by a man she matched her with. As the cracks in her professional persona begin to show, Lucy is also navigating a new relationship with Harry (Pedro Pascal), a wealthy, handsome “unicorn” ideal for her matchmaking business. But Harry doesn’t want a match—he wants Lucy.

Chris Evans as The Dreamy Romantic

Then there’s Lucy’s ex, John (Chris Evans), a dreamy romantic with no stability. Their breakup was inevitable: John couldn’t offer the dependable life Lucy demands from a partner. So when Lucy finds herself torn between Harry’s security and John’s sincerity, the story becomes a modern fable about love as math vs. love as magic.

You may think you can guess the ending, and maybe you’re right—but Materialists has more in its DNA than a typical romantic comedy. Lucy is no standard rom-com lead. Her cynicism isn’t cute—it’s earned. Her clients often reveal themselves to be superficial snobs, demanding perfect fantasies with tall, wealthy, thin partners. Is it any wonder she sees relationships as business deals?

Pedro Pascal Perfect on Paper

Lucy’s career boasts nine successful marriages built from a literal algorithm: height, weight, age, income. In this world, love is data—and Harry fits the formula. He’s not just a partner—he’s a pitch.

John, by contrast, doesn’t argue with big romantic speeches. He simply shows up. He’s steady, kind, and when Lucy’s life begins to crack, she finds herself reaching for the warmth he still offers. The third act is especially powerful as it explores the messy, unresolved emotions between Lucy and John—a breakup that left deep scars, words they can’t take back, and love that still lingers beneath the surface.

A Rom-Com That Fights Convention

Materialists doesn’t go down easy. Unlike Past Lives, which moved with lyrical grace, this one stumbles and resists in its first two acts. But that tension works in its favor. It’s refreshing to feel unsure of where a modern romance is going—to wrestle with it rather than coast to a happy ending.

Celine Song’s direction is once again quietly masterful. Her use of color—cool grays and whites early on, shifting into warmer tones as the story deepens—mirrors Lucy’s emotional thaw. These visual choices elevate the film’s talky, analytical tone into something sensuous and stirring.

Materialists may frustrate viewers expecting a comfort-food romance. But for those willing to engage with its bitterness, honesty, and intelligence, it’s a rewarding story about how modern love is negotiated—not just felt.

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5 out of 5 stars.

Tags: Celine Song, Materialists review, Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, Chris Evans, romantic drama, indie film 2025, modern romance movies, Past Lives, A24, summer movie releases