“Material assets are cheap, they don’t last.”

I had never seen a love triangle sort of movie before, and I thought that this was a great first one to watch. Before I go into my review, I’m going to have to do something a little different than most of my reviews and sort of talk about the basis of the story (without spoilers, of course), just because I feel it is important for this particular movie. It is about a dating matchmaker who lives in New York City and meets an ambitious and rich man who meets all of the matching criteria (or as they say in the movie, “checks all the boxes”). However, she comes across her ex and finds herself struggling to know which one she truly loves throughout the rest of the movie.

I thought this movie, just based on the synopsis, was interesting, but the fact that it was directed by Celine Song, the director of Past Lives, a movie I love, made me more eager to check it out. I was very pleasantly surprised by it overall, especially after hearing some negative buzz around it. Most of the reviews were definitely positive, but there was quite a fair share of people who also didn’t like it. I didn’t think it was as good as Past Lives, but it honestly wasn’t crazy far off either. Song really proved with her second feature that she knows how to do a proper romance movie.

What made this film so intriguing to me as I was watching it was how both of the men that the main character, the matchmaker named Lucy, is torn between were both likable and rootable. If she had ended up with either one of them, I would have been fine with it. The two guys, who are named John and Harry by the way, are also complete polar opposites of each other. John is poor and struggling to accomplish his dreams, while Harry is rich and, let’s just say, doing just fine. You pity John because he is a genuinely good guy, but just can’t get his life sorted out, while you like Harry because he’s charismatic and really good with women.

Both Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans give fantastic performances throughout the film and really sell their characters. First off, I think Pascal was just obviously a perfect casting choice for his character, because he already has that charm naturally anyway. Chris Evans, on the other hand, I wouldn’t say was as obvious a casting choice, but a fantastic one nonetheless. I really enjoyed watching them on screen, and how they both treated Lucy really well, but in their completely different and unique ways.

When it comes to the main character, Lucy, I’m a little bit more split on her overall. She is written to be very entitled, but she has a self-consciousness about herself that makes her interesting. She knows she is entitled, and this is where the title of the movie comes from: materialistic. Just because of that, you almost kind of feel bad for the two guys in a way for even being involved in her life. They both deserve much better than her, but still can’t help but have an interest in her, mainly because she is also very available in the sense that she isn’t really going after other guys, like the two guys are going after her. However, you still admire Lucy because it’s obvious how much she really cares about her clients. She wants all of them to be in a loving and happy relationship, and whenever things go wrong, she feels horrible and responsible for it.

When it comes to the directing, I think I’m really just a big fan of Celine Song’s style now. It’s incredibly simplistic and grounded, but still makes for an incredibly pleasant viewing experience. She shoots New York City in a way that feels like you are there and present with the characters, and the color grade isn’t in any way complex, which helps with that even more. It doesn’t feel “cinematic” in the sense of a typical movie, but it works so well because, as I just mentioned, it feels like you are right there with the characters. A perfectly suitable filming style for a romance movie.

I would say when it comes to the not-so-positive aspects of the film, I really only have one actual criticism. The criticism I have is that there were certainly moments where Dakota Johnson, the actress who plays Lucy, gave off a little bit of a stale performance. It wasn’t atrocious by any means whatsoever, but I think she could have done a much better job personally. There were a couple of scenes where the way she reacted felt a bit unnatural. That was really it, though. I think she did a solid job otherwise.

So yeah, I was very pleasantly surprised by Materialists, and it is currently one of my favorite new movies of the year so far. I think it had a great and satisfying ending as well. I wish I had seen it in theaters.