Movie · 2025 · Romance, Drama · 1h 56m · R · English
Curator score: 2.1/10 (1.5M ratings)
Some people just want more.
Overview
A young, ambitious New York City matchmaker finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.1/10
IMDb: 6.2/10
Letterboxd: 2.89/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 77%
Metacritic: 70
TMDB: 6.3/10
Director
Celine Song
Production
A24, Killer Films, 2AM, IPR.VC, Access Entertainment
Cast
Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal, Zoë Winters, Marin Ireland, Dasha Nekrasova, Emmy Wheeler, Louisa Jacobson, Eddie Cahill, Sawyer Spielberg, Joseph Lee, John Magaro, Nedra Marie Taylor, Sietzka Rose, Halley Feiffer, Madeline Wise, Ian Stuart, Dan Domenech, Emiliano Díez, Rachel Zeiger-Haag
Where to watch
Max
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, talky modern romance with real ideas about class, desire, and self-worth, but its cool, self-conscious style may feel more mannered than moving for some viewers. If you like relationship dramas that interrogate dating like a social system, it has plenty to chew on; if you want a warm, easy romcom, it may feel too detached and deliberate.
Best for
viewers who like cerebral relationship dramas
fans of modern New York romance
people interested in class and dating politics
audiences who enjoy offbeat, dialogue-driven films
Skip if
you want a breezy, conventional romcom
you dislike slow, reflective pacing
you prefer chemistry-first love stories
you want something emotionally straightforward
Overview
Materialists is less interested in the fantasy of finding love than in the economics of being chosen. It treats dating as a marketplace without reducing its characters to slogans, and that tension gives the film its bite. The result is often funny, sometimes piercing, and occasionally so controlled that it can feel emotionally sealed off from the viewer.
Worth noting
Celine Song’s approach is elegant and intentionally uncomfortable: long pauses, precise dialogue, and a sense that every romantic choice is also a class choice. That makes the film feel smarter than a standard studio romance, but also less immediately satisfying. The performances are calibrated to the material’s cool surface, which works when the movie is probing insecurity and status, and works less well when it needs warmth.
Bottom line
For viewers open to a romance that doubles as a social critique, this is a worthwhile watch. For anyone hoping for a swoony, easygoing date movie, it may be a frustratingly analytical one. It’s a film about wanting love and fearing what that want reveals.
Top Letterboxd reviews
a (1★) · 36352 likes
broke men propaganda needs to be stopped
update: Celine Song can say all she wants about this review being a classist way for capitalism to colonize love, but she still hired a zionist MAGA (Dasha Nekrasova) to star in this movie. What a hypocrite money hungry director who clearly knows nothing about capitalism and colonialism, cheers!
And to all the upset men: I’m a lesbian, it was never that deep ❤️
timtamtitus (2.5★) · 34170 likes
what if they just did it like challengers
Karsten (3.5★) · 27432 likes
they had to memorize so many lines
sydney a (1★) · 25329 likes
i just couldn’t take that damn knee surgery scene seriously
Kellen Gallagher (2.5★) · 24252 likes
Giving Dakota Johnson a line where she says she can’t act is diabolical