'The Materialists' and Projection of the Audience
[originally posted on letterboxd]
Throughout the promotion for Celine Song's The Materialists, A24 and the industry media kept calling this film a "romantic comedy" or declaring, "romcoms are back." It left me perpetually confused because none of the trailers communicated that. And, so far as I know, comedy (be it slapstick or camp) was not Song's wheelhouse. Past Lives was as dramatic as a drama could get, and one that felt genuinely invested in the lives of its characters. That said, the genre prescription got no pushback from Song herself.
Regarding the film, Materialists is not a comedy. Lighthearted sometimes, sure, but that seems reserved for mocking the absurdity of 40-to-50-something [balding] men chasing the skirts of young women decades their juniors, body shaming and sneering at women in or above their age wheelhouse. If Lucy's role as matchmaker does anything for the film's narrative, it highlights the artificiality and entitlement that surrounds dating across gender. Which is nothing if not a consequence of the deluge of romantic comedies and reality television's shallow definitions of 'romance' and the exploitation of emotionally vulnerable people who've bought into the con.
There's a pretty tense subplot regarding a client of Lucy's who gets sexually assaulted on a date. It highlights the dangers of the online dating or the matchmaking scene and really seems to be the only time the story is about who Lucy is as a character and what she does.
While the people at her job shrug it off as one of the unfortunate perils of the job, Lucy internalizes and questions her so-called skills. How she spoke to this woman, how she woe'd that she was just 'average' and seemed eager to shuffle her off to the next guy. It all comes to a head when she tries to apologize to her ex-client (after stalking her) and gets dismissed as a pimp. It felt like the only genuine part of the story that felt like it had something to say about her social climbing and her judgmental behavior. Had she become too dispassionate about her job, was she missing warning signs?
The film isn't a deconstruction or critique of the dating scene, the romantic drama or even the romcom. Song mostly plays it straight. A romantic drama that feels antique --- out of time. As her job recedes into the background, the focus becomes Lucy's love-life. Not necessarily about which guy she ends up choosing (that's certainly how the general audience took it, though), but how she can make peace with her fear of poverty and reevaluate her lack of self-worth.
If you look at the John/Harry subplot like "Betty or Veronica?", then there is so little time spent on John or Harry versus Lucy's exploits as a matchmaker and the problems that come with said job, that the question doesn't feel earned or all that interesting.
Chemistry-wise, nothing really stands out as dynamic between Dakota Johnson, Pascal and Evans. Certainly not like it did during their press tour. The jump from Harry's flirtation with Lucy to wanting to marry her is abrupt. His insecurities about his former height and what he did to win affection from women are equally out-of-place as someone who isn't her client.
John's struggles as an impoverished stage actor and server with roommates hardly feel like something worth condemning him for, or a character flaw. In the context of a "love-triangle", there isn't one. That she ends up with John over Harry seems beside the point.
(And in a world where private equity is devouring everything, it's incredibly baffling to read shallow takes about why Lucy should've ended up with the rich guy purely because John was "broke.")
Materialists wants to be about Lucy, her emotional guardedness as a woman who gives sound advice she doesn't follow, or is quick to reduce a person down to surface details. It's just really clumsy getting there.
Song doesn't seem able to tackle poverty and the issues it causes in people's relationships. Most of the talk about money issues barely scratches past the surface, brushed aside from the aesthetics of hasty romances. Lucy's job and romantic exploits, her fears, don't come together to make an interesting story about how people maintain love in the face of encroaching capitalism eating away at their quality of life.
It's not a terrible movie, but it could've used a little more time in the pot.
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