From Celine Song, the Academy Award-nominated writer and director of Past Lives, comes Materialists: the story of a young, ambitious New York City matchmaker torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.

Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is the star matchmaker at a boutique New York agency, and believes love is a numbers game. Her beliefs are put to the test when two potential suitors for her come along at once.

One is Harry (Pedro Pascal), a suave, wealthy bachelor who's perfect on paper, and can offer her the lifestyle she covets. The other is her ex: John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor working as a cater-waiter, whose messy lifestyle is her biggest hindrance. But how do you choose between the life you want and the love you need?

The Garden Cinema View:

With it’s Vogue aesthetics, Manhattan setting, and laughably attractive cast, Materialists feels initially like stepping back into a blighted mid-00s world of Sex and the City and Hitch. Of course, the surface begins to crack, and all is not as glossy as it seems. This is quite a strange film. Celine Song’s script is full of uncomfortable truths about modern dating, but the screwball setting and one-liners are never exactly funny. In fact, the endless itemising of material wealth and physical capital, and discussions of the mathematics of dating edge this closer to a Bret Easton Ellis New York satire. Comparisons of matchmaking to insurance or mortician work might have come directly from Cronenberg’s The Shrouds (actually Materialists contains some light body horror). Perhaps this explains Dakota Johnson’s glazed lead performance. To be generous, this perfectly fits the narrative of empty consumerism (otherwise it’s just entirely miscast/misjudged).

An enjoyable, occasionally astute and even moving, but rather odd watch.    

Cast:
Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal