In July 2023, I was lucky enough to nab a ticket for the Irish premiere of Past Lives during the Galway Film Fleadh.
It took place at the (dearly missed ) Palas Cinema and was followed by a Q&A with the writer/director, Celine Song. Not knowing she would be present made the night all the more memorable. The film had made waves since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January of that year, garnering significant critical acclaim in the United States.
Therefore, seeing Celine Song make the trip to the West of Ireland for this inconspicuous premiere was a pleasant surprise, and the modesty with which she spoke really endeared me to her. The film itself was a profound meditation on the complexity of romantic feelings. How they can be influenced by the past and by the passage of time? If you cared deeply about someone when you were young, are they still the same person 20 years later? The film captured the unspoken attraction between the two protagonists mostly through body language and how they act in each other’s presence. It is not only achingly romantic, but Song’s naturalistic depiction of New York City gives the film a personal touch. You can really feel Song’s passion for the story being told. It is a frank and wise exploration of love, with all its ecstasies and agonies. Materialists - despite being a creation from the same talented mind - is an extremely different proposition.
Lucy (Dakota Johnson ) is a professional matchmaker. Her job is to manage her clientele’s love lives with the ultimate goal of finding them a long-term partner. Whereas real estate agents might celebrate selling a property, Lucy and her colleagues celebrate their orchestrated couplings’ engagements and marriages.
At one of these weddings, Lucy meets two men. One from her past and one who is enamoured by her at first glance. Both men pose challenges to Lucy’s cynical, transactional perspective on relationships. This, along with other professional setbacks, forces Lucy to confront her values and question what she really wants from a relationship.
It is common nowadays for filmmakers to pour personal experiences into their debut films. You can feel the emotional weight behind them. Aftersun (2022 ), directed by Charlotte Wells, is another good example of this. Once that specific story is told, the challenge becomes how to make something that might not be your personal experience but still something that feels purposeful. Materialists’ focus on relationships, and New York-based relationships specifically, inarguably crosses over from her debut, but the execution of this subject matter is woefully heavy-handed here and completely lacking in any sort of emotional depth.
Even taking the film on its own, avoiding the temptation to compare it with the vastly superior Past Lives, there is nothing here for the general audience to connect to or really empathise with. Celine Song undoubtedly has a love for New York, but unfortunately, in this film, she fills it with the most privileged, entitled and just downright unlikable characters you could ask for, with very movie-ish problems. Even the impoverished, down-on-his-luck love interest doesn’t really seem poor.
There is a glaring layer of artifice to the whole film that is nigh impossible to overcome. The glamorous corporate matchmaking company, the openly shallow and immature way Lucy’s clientele describe what they’re looking for, the obscenely rich suitor who enters into Lucy’s life just as she reunites with her much more modest ex-boyfriend, creating this very coincidental love triangle. The film sincerely wants us to care about these characters, but their hardships are not genuinely concerning. The casting doesn’t help the issue either.
Dakota Johnson is not right for this role. Her screen presence exudes an air of superiority that is actually quite grating. Her character is supposed to be naturally gifted at curating relationships, built on her cold, clinical view of relationships and dating. Johnson’s aura works for this type of character initially, but when she goes on a journey of self-discovery, I couldn’t get on board. She doesn’t contain the qualities necessary to be the emotional core of a film.
There are some early moments of chemistry between her character and Pedro Pascal’s wealthy suitor Harry, where Song’s direction and writing lead to some compelling conversations, but that character soon becomes nothing more than a pathetic rich man drowning in his own vanity. And casting well-known actor Chris Evans (44 ) as a struggling actor in their mid-thirties(? ) unironically is just ludicrous. That characterisation is nothing more than a lazy caricature.
Not only are the characters unworthy of our attention, but the story and how it unfolds is devoid of any thoughtful complexity. Johnson cannot perform the film’s dramatic moments in an affecting way, and the film’s handling of sensitive subject matter is resolved in a disconcertingly neat manner. I would have liked more time spent with Zoe Winters, as she gives the most incisive and alive performance of the cast and had to negotiate some emotionally demanding scenes.
I cannot voice my frustrations with this film entirely without the context of Past Lives being so rich in intimacy, realism and specificity. That film has an emotional intelligence and a nuanced, hopeful (but not naively hopeful ) view on connection that Materialists ignores. It is strange to see such vastly different attitudes to the same subject from the same mind. It makes me curious to see what she decides to explore next.
Playing in cinemas in Galway now.
