Materialists (2025) Movie Review & Summary

Materialists may not hold a candle to Past Lives, but it does present the idea a scripted matchmaking show could be good – just maybe not with the lead characters.

ByAmari Allah Hours Posted on Hours Updated on

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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“Materialists” Film Details

  • Runtime: 1 Hour(s) and 49 Minutes
  • Released On: In Theaters
  • Public Release Date: June 13, 2025
  • Director(s): Celine Song
  • Writer(s): Celine Song
  • Primary Language: English
  • Genre(s): Comedy, Drama, Romance
  • Rating: Rated R
  • Distributor: A24

Summary

After the breakup with her 37-year-old, aspiring actor, ex John, Lucy has remained single and focused on being a matchmaker. Thus far, she has gotten nine people to the altar, which in comparison to her peers, might be double. However, it is an odd thing for someone to be so adept on who would be the perfect pair to not be in one herself.

Enter Harry, a rich man, brother to someone that Lucy paired, who takes a keen interest in her. However, while Lucy wants a rich man, the factors of compatibility for her, that has led to her success, goes beyond money and she spends the entire movie stuck in a love triangle, between John and Harry, going back and forth between the logic of being with Harry and the feelings she still holds for John.

Cast and Characters

John (Chris Evans)

  • Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
  • Character Summary: John is a 37-year-old aspiring actor with three roommates who dated Lucy for about 5 years. However, they broke up, and while they keep in touch, as friends, John seems to hope that, one day, they could reconcile.

Lucy (Dakota Johnson)

  • Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
  • Character Summary: Lucy is one of, if not the top matchmaker at Adore NY, but despite how good of a matchmaker she is, she is single. Part of the reason could be that she is looking for a unicorn, a man who has everything, but it could also be that her heart belongs to someone else, and she can’t just be with someone who looks good on paper.

Harry (Pedro Pascal)

  • Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
  • Character Summary: Harry’s mother started a highly lucrative investment bank, which has become the family business and made him and his brother very wealthy and unicorns in Lucy’s industry. However, his interest in Lucy she finds perplexing since their backgrounds aren’t in alignment, and he spends a good part of the movie trying to convince her they need not have the same boxes checked off to be meant for one another.

Sophie (Zoe Winters)

  • Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
  • Character Summary: Sophie is Lucy’s favorite client, but also the one she struggles the most with, since Sophie is just a nice girl with no notable features or niches.

What To Expect In “Materialists” (Rated R) – Content Overview

  • Dialog:
    • Cursing: Occasional
  • Violence: Nothing Notable
  • Sexual Content: Nothing notable
  • Miscellaneous:
    • Drinking: Yes
    • Smoking: Yes

Links

Review and Commentary

Highlight(s)

Love vs Logic [83/100]

Love has become an increasingly complicated topic for people have become so focused on the look of love, and if it makes logical sense, that feeling it, the willingness to give it to someone, has become secondary. Take Lucy, for example, she loves John, but logically it doesn’t make sense cause he is broke and she likes nice things. She doesn’t want to go to fancy restaurants strictly for birthdays and anniversaries. She wants what Harry offers, which can have that be something they do on a Thursday.

However, similar to what is shown in A Tree Fell In The Woods, it is easy to love aspects or qualities of a person, and not love that person at all. Yet, as many clients, and even Lucy notes, there is something about feeling like you have value. Someone who checks all the boxes, or is out of your league, wanting you, and it feels good. Having someone that other people are jealous of you having, it feels good.

And while many may believe there is no love without logic, or vice versa, Materialists does a good job in showing that relationships have largely become a negotiation between the ego and one’s own feelings, with the ego more and more having a stronger case because of how modern dating works.

Would Make An Excellent Scripted Show [87/100]

While there are shows like Millionaire Matchmaker out there, I would submit it would be interesting to take how Materialists works, and Lucy’s job at Adore, and make it into a scripted series. One in which there is an ensemble that includes the Sophie types, and a string of others. For while the B-storyline is Lucy doing her job, and mostly excelling, it brings more than enough interest that when you hear Lucy say someone’s name or talk to her boss about someone’s progress, you want a follow up. You don’t want names to just be lines said, but to see faces, hear about the good and bad dates, and maybe learn something from these people.

It Balanced Out The Unrealistic Expectations For Men And Women [84/100]

It is easy to imagine that with a female lead, this could become a film that validates the issues women go through regarding men wanting women who are young(er), have specific looks and body types, and the pressure to fit that mold. In some ways, Materialists does do this as we see men in their late 30s, even 40s, barely wanting to go past dating women in their 20s, even with knowing there are limits to the conversation, due to being raised in different generations.

But things are flipped as well. There is the desire for men to have a full head of hair, be over 6 feet, and a list of things so long, it looks like a job posting for an executive position. Both of which Lucy goes off on, since it makes her job harder, and considering who her clients are, you can see a desire to manage expectations, but also not wanting to get fired.

In many ways, this is where a lot of the comedy comes from but it also adds onto the desire to want to see more and get to the root of each person’s need, or assumed need, to have this specific type of person and why they are so stringent in the belief that is what will make them happy.

On The Fence

The Sophie Storyline [77/100]

The Sophie storyline shook things up in Materialists in a way that left complicated feelings. On one hand, Lucy failing at something at her job felt necessary. She couldn’t be perfect at her job, now with a rich man, and everything would be in alignment as it would in an ideal situation. This might be a movie, but this isn’t a fantasy. So Sophie’s situation felt like a wake-up call for Lucy to realize that checking off all the boxes is not what a person needs, but it does suck that it required Sophie to go through what she did to get Lucy to think about that.

Also, if I may add, a part of me feels like they didn’t give Sophie’s overall arc justice. Now, entering into the conversation the caveats that Sophie is a lawyer, able to afford living in NYC alone, and able to afford Lucy’s services, the way she was portrayed as the average woman made it so you’d want more of her journey to be featured. You’d want more check-ins, to see her on dates, even the bad one, which acts as the turning point of the story, and the eventual success.

Again, what Celine Song crafts here does not feel like a one and done type of movie. It feels like a pitch of how a show could work in the capacity of being a romantic drama with the occasional comedic moments.

The Caveman Start [73/100]

Let me be frank with you, I loved most of Materialists, but the caveman, or prehistoric human, starting point threw me off and made me wonder if I was in the wrong theater. And even when an effort was made to tie in Lucy’s pondering about the first marriage or relationship, it felt a bit weak.

I would even say it seemed like it was placed in an attempt to allow for an artsy indie moment rather than subvert the film largely being a mainstream production, which certainly has its value and moments, but beyond presenting an idea that could be expanded on, had forgettable characters.

Overall

Our Rating (80/100): Positive (Worth Seeing)  

Materialists is strong on its message and themes, to the point of wanting to see more. However, when it comes to the lead characters, their drama, and their stories, honestly, they are but mediums for something far more interesting, and I’d submit, as much as we enjoy each actor, they didn’t bring anything special to their roles.

What To Check Out Next

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Amari is the founder and head writer of Wherever-I-Look.com and has been reviewing media since 2010. He approaches each production with hope, rooting for every story to succeed, and believes criticism should come from unmet potential, while praise is reserved for work that meets or exceeds expectations.