‘Materialists’ Review: A Romcom with Style, But Not Enough Soul

In Materialists, director Celine Song swaps out the emotional pull of Past Lives for a sharper, colder lens on modern romance. The result? A film that gleams with polish but wobbles under the weight of its own cynicism. The film wants to say something urgent about love in an age of dating apps and financial aspiration, but it sometimes forgets to make us feel anything.

At the center is Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a no-nonsense matchmaker in New York who treats romance less like fate and more like a spreadsheet. Love, for her, is all about cost-benefit analysis: career, education, height, BMI, net worth. Her office isn’t so much a place of passion as it is a boutique consulting firm for the romantically exhausted and financially flush. Romance, for her, is a risk portfolio, not a feeling. Johnson’s performance mirrors that same cool efficiency: effective in moments, but too distant to draw us in. At a certain point, the calculation becomes a limitation—for her, and for us.

The romantic triangle driving the plot should sizzle: Lucy’s old flame John (Chris Evans), a broke actor with charm to spare, crashes back into her world just as she’s caught the eye of Harry (Pedro Pascal), a wealthy, suave best man with a penthouse and perfect hair. The setup has all the ingredients of a solid romcom, but Song’s execution is uneven. Instead of building tension between these three characters, Materialists lets the chemistry fizzle out before it even begins.

There’s a flatness to the central romance. Johnson and Pascal never quite find a rhythm, and though Evans fares best, leaning into the warmth and wear of a man left behind. His cluttered apartment, unlike the rest of the film’s pristine aesthetic, feels grounded. The dynamic between Lucy and her suitors never rises above concept. It’s not that the triangle doesn’t work; it’s that we’re not convinced Lucy’s choices matter beyond the metaphor they’re meant to carry.

Money is the film’s true obsession, along with class, lifestyle, and the illusion of choice in capitalism’s dating game. Song tries to frame Lucy’s materialism as trauma response, but the script rarely digs deep enough to let us feel the past that haunts her. Lucy doesn’t just want love; she wants stability, status, an escape from a lifetime of scarcity. Her fixation is relatable in theory, but the screenplay rarely deepens her beyond that core insecurity. And while Song has plenty to say about how dating apps and capitalism has turned love into a battleground of metrics and expectations, her characters often serve more as mouthpieces than fully formed people.

Materialists is a film that wants to diagnose a culture, but forgets to give it a heartbeat.

Visually, the film is pristine. Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner returns from Past Lives to shoot on 35mm, giving the city a glow that contrasts with its emotionally chilly vibe. Still, the world here feels more curated than lived-in. Harry’s immaculate apartment could be lifted from a luxury brochure, while John’s messy digs are the only spaces with any grit or personality. It’s telling that the film feels most alive when it stops trying to look expensive.

And yet, Materialists is not without its sharp observations. Song’s script occasionally cuts through the noise with moments of clarity. Lines about men’s aversion to women over 30, or the way women dismiss men under 6ft, aren’t just jokes, they’re bleak reflections of a dating culture obsessed with surface. When characters voice what most of us only think, it lands like a slap, and it’s briefly electrifying.

But those jolts of honesty can’t quite hold the film together. Materialists feels like a film torn between being a satire of love and a love story itself. In trying to be both, it ends up diluted. Song clearly has a voice and vision worth following, but here she’s less confident than in her debut. The emotional center that grounded Past Lives is missing, and no amount of designer coats or clever lines can fill that gap.

It’s a film that wants to diagnose a culture, but forgets to give it a heartbeat. Still, there’s value in the attempt. Materialists is a misfire, but an interesting one, a high-concept romance for the age of income brackets and personal brands. If it doesn’t rekindle the rom-com, it at least forces us to ask what we expect from one now. Like Lucy’s clients, it’s searching for something that might not exist: a perfect match.

Materialists is now playing in theaters across the U.S., but won’t hit U.K. cinemas until August 15.

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