media glimpse of the week:

- I finally watched Materialists.

- After thoughtful consideration, I think Dakota Johnson could heal something broken in me. No further comments.

Did you like this movie?

But! Did you wish it was a little more high stakes? Perhaps did you wish it involved a murder? Or maybe some serial killers? Well if that is the case then by golly do I have a book to recommend:

Materialists

DNF when Lucy decided to break-up with Harry, aka fucking Pedro Pascal ! For a loser like John.

What’s wrong with this girl! She could have everything! Being the power couple that she wanted!

This movie didn’t make sense at all!

Some quotes:

“- You’re not ugly, you just don’t have money.” (Lucy)

“- I don’t know if I like you or if I just like the places you take me to.” (Lucy)

“- I’m not a girl you marry. I’m a girl that you go home with once and then never call again.” (Lucy)

“- Thought I think you’re underselling them by a significant margin. Material assets are cheap. They don’t last. I want to be with you for your intangible assets. As for what I can do for you, I think I’m the only guy this rich you can actually stand.” (Harry)

this movie got me crying so hard, its not funny. its so cute how he made a little flower ring. this feels so much more romantic..

One of my favourite parts of Materialists is the scene in the end credits of John and Lucy getting married at City Hall amongst a plethora of other couples.

I personally found that such a charming and interesting contrast to the lavish wedding we see earlier in the movie or even the wedding Lucy and John crash later. Both of those weddings were framed as quite performative and showy (for the public/extended family).

Especially in rom coms (which this movie isn’t really), weddings are often presented as these big, lavish affairs that cost a fortune and the brides their sanity, because they’re so stressed about making it the Perfect Day™. Or the perfect wedding on paper. The one that ticks all the boxes, fulfils all of the requirements (American pop) culture at large posits as non-negotiable.

I liked how John and Lucy’s wedding (and relationship) reflected the theme of the perfect match on paper not being the same as a perfect match—because ‘perfect’ doesn’t exist, anyway.

Luke Hemmings:

Post by @zoe-pickles · 1 image

Post by @zoe-pickles · 1 image

does the director of Materialists have a fetish for slow talking and awkward silences or what is happening

DATOKA JOHHSON in MATERIALISTS (2025)

MATERIALISTS (2025) dir. celine song.

DATOKA JOHHSON in MATERIALISTS (2025) directed by celine song.

DAKOTA JOHNSON in MATERIALISTS (2025)
dir. Celine Song

#nowwatching ( not really )

i watched this a while back but following @hopecomesbacktolife’s commentaries on the film i have some thoughts . hope you don’t mind , annika .

i think for celine song’s films , they’re about the luxury to be romantic . they are rather dissociative of reality , if you think about it .
( and that’s fine too ; aren’t we all just dissociating from the intricacies of real life with movies and books and series anyway ?)

and i think the title “materialists” , it’s not about the kind of materialism harry can offer , but more towards the said “materialism of the heart” , if that even makes sense . and lucy is materialistic towards that .
hence , choosing john , which seems “romantic” because she chose love over wealth . something i feel not a lot of people have the luxury of .

possible spoilers and maybe me stating the obvious behind the cut .

//

celine’s movies always left me feeling a bit inadequate with the endings , but i think that’s why they work still for me in a broader sense .
like , maybe this is what the romance genre looks like in this decade ; unlike say , chick flicks from the ‘90s .
i don’t think she was aiming for that generic happy ending either because her endings have been rather open ended — some may find it a happy ending but others ( skeptics like me i guess heh ) might be like ooh i wonder what’s gonna happen to them after the credits roll .

personally , i always find myself feeling bad for her “third party” in her films .

for past lives , it was the husband . i don’t know about you , but i’d be fcking wrecked if my wife keeps banging on about her childhood sweetheart and calling their non-relationship an “inyeon” and that she feels a deeper and more karmic connection with that person than you , her spouse .
like , what am i suppose to do with — this ?
( OK maybe she didn’t bang on about it , and the film is just one phase in the whole relationship when she has to get it out of her system or something but still )

//

for materialists, it’s harry because — sighs . honestly , i feel like he’s pitted against a relationship that has too much history — albeit a bad one but with history nonetheless . he has been fighting a losing battle from the start .
sure , it goes to show that money isn’t everything ; but realistically , it kinda is too , if you think about it .

that’s the reason why john and lucy broke up in the first place , why she exploded the way she did in the middle of the street .
john hasn’t changed after all these years , and i have a sick feeling that the same argument will come up again in the future , and she is going to feel suffocated again , especially when the time comes and she has to “voluntarily” support him financially .

//

i mean , what’s wrong with being financially stable and growing your love for each other from there ?
love is not something that happens off the bat — realistic ones anyway ; you need time for it to grow and why can’t it grow with harry ?
and why not , in one of the most stable foundations of realistic romance : financial security ?
harry doesn’t have to worry about money , and frankly , lucy doesn’t either . she never has to rely on him , nor her babying him money-wise — isn’t that great ?

nurturing a relationship — or anything to be honest — with financial burdens weighing you down sucks .

//

maybe lucy still loves john . or maybe she just misses the familiarity and the fact he can be there for her ; a kind of connection she didn’t quite give harry the chance to show .
but the question is , as well , can she be there for him ? because she sure as heck didn’t the last time .
because lucy and john don’t seem like people who have grown over the years , to me anyway .
they’re basically picking up where they left off from the argument in the car — with a few years and a harry wedged in the hiatus .

you can only wish them well that that “love” is able to outlast their next argument .
when the rose-tinted glass finally clears , but the bills haven’t .

also . it’s very hard for me to watch movies with dakota johnson in it because she is notoriously a monotonous actress , but i will give her credit that her acting is just a smidge better than what i saw her in previously .

Movie Review: Materialists

What I learned in the first fifteen minutes is that people are awful and have lofty expectations about who they should be with.  It was crazy to listen to them say a person’s too short, or too old (at 31) or someone was fat (who clearly wasn’t).  Lucy is very good at her job, at reading people, of making the best out of a situation.

Then there was a situation where Lucy set up two people and the man assaulted the women and she learns that this happens consistently because it’s “dating”.  The woman asks Lucy why she would set her up with a guy like that?  Lucy works for a dating agency, to provide possible matches, and then you go and date to learn about people   

Meanwhile, Lucy starts dating Harry - a unicorn in the field of dating but reconnects with John who is the ex-boyfriend (where they dated for 5 years).  It’s clear that John still has feelings for her but she is more of a question in that space.  John brings up being poor and a flashback supports that’s part of the reason they broke up.  But Lucy calls him when she’s upset about the attack on her client, their connection is deep

I was hoping for a RomCom and this was not it.  It’s commentary about dating, about how people have these expectations, turning their wants and desires on a whim, and talk about people being commodities.  It wasn’t what I was hoping and since most of the characters weren’t nice people… it was eh. 

Materialists (2025): Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal, Zoe Winters, Marin Ireland

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Materialists, 2025.

Materialists (2025) dir.Celine Song

See, the thing about the Materialists’ soundtrack is that it sounds like how Impressionist paintings look

Materialists

Okay sooo no. This movie made me sooo angry and sad. We are going to go straight into the meat of things because I can’t be bothered with a synopsis. Spoilers after the cut

First of all, I feel really sorry for Lucy. The way this woman hates herself is unbelievable. I think that Celine didn’t give her any grace and failed to convey in this film the trauma of being poor. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth but there were times where money was tight. I know always make sure to have flour, baking powder, oil, some sort of canned bean and salt in our pantry because you can make tortillas or flatbreads and a delicious filling with beans and there you have a meal. It can be quite traumatizing to be a child in the middle of fights and to not have the security of knowing when you are going to have your next meal, or to see how all the other kids get things that maybe you want and you can’t because your parents can’t afford it, or maybe have those kids pick on you because what you have is not “name brand”. Lucy is a woman that just over corrected so hard because she doesn’t want what her parents went through to happen to her and that is okay. It is a very human way of being and reacting. I think Lucy needed friends, any friends, but mostly female friends. As I have gotten older I have come to understand the importance of female friendships and how to have those spaces is crucial to feel loved, and bounce ideas off of each other. Community is super important, we are social beings after all.

Now about John. I think he might be depressed because for someone to not have change much in however many years after he and Lucy broke up is honestly kind of worrying. I don’t think he is terrible but I’m kind of worried.

Next, onto Harry. I feel like he could’ve been fleshed out a little bit more but since we are following Lucy’s POV it makes sense that Harry is not seen a a person, because she never really saw him as such. He is an anomaly in the matrix, a unicorn not a real person. Him and Lucy were never going to work out because there was never an emotional connection between them. She is still hung up on John, so it doesn’t matter who came into the picture, they never stood a chance.

As far as Sophie’s character goes, she is in many ways Celine’s voice and the audience. She has some really scolding words for Lucy and her business but in the end she is afraid of ending up alone like everyone of us. And although I agree that these kinds of sites and services have to be more careful with the kind of people involved, folks will always lie. I am the kind of person that always assumes good intentions though, but still. People can make up all sorts of things, using Photoshop and now the dreaded AI to create full false narratives about themselves. Unfortunately, that is the reality of dating, and to be bleak, is the reality of any kind of human relationship. So even though I understand Sophie’s anger as a character, Celine’s voice came through loud and clear on that confrontation between her and Lucy.

In the end, I don’t think I would ever watch this movie again. I don’t think is a rom com cause there was barely any comedy in it and it is such a shame that the chemistry cast had during the press tour didn’t translate at all on the final product.