Celine Song on How ‘Materialists' Subverts the Rom-Com With a 'Really Frank Conversation'

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With its fizzy trailers, set against 'Material Girl' and a throwback voiceover, Celine Song's Materialists may seem like a classic romantic comedy, but the film, Song and the actors behind the project tease, features more drama than is typical of the upbeat genre.
Indeed, as stars Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans said in the days leading up to the film's release, Materialists is more of a 'rom-com-dram.'
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'There is romance, there is comedy, but it's sort of a rom-com with drama,' Evans told The Hollywood Reporter at the Materialists premiere in New York earlier this month.
And Song did want to pay tribute to beloved rom-coms by filmmakers like Nora Ephron and James L. Brooks.
'I feel like I'm very inspired by rom-coms because I think rom-com is a beautiful genre where we all walk in getting excited to talk about and be in love and talk about being in love and talk about relationships and everything that concerns us and I think it's an amazing opportunity,' the writer-director told THR. 'I was really interested in talking about [love] in the ways that Nora Ephron had or Jim Brooks has but for the 2025 audience.'
But she cautions that moviegoers should be prepared for something they might not often see in such films.
'What I would think about the most is a really frank conversation that I think maybe would be considered impolite for the screen sometimes but is actually part of the straight talk that we do with our closest friends,' Song said of what moviegoers should expect. 'I think that's what you'll see onscreen.'
Marin Ireland, who plays Johnson's onscreen boss, says the A24 film features 'more of a real-life twist' than a conventional rom-com.
'I think you might think if you've seen rom-coms in the past that you know exactly what the road looks like for the movie, once you get a few key circumstances in place. And then it definitely takes more of a real-life twist,' Ireland said. 'The twist is less like they've been dead the whole time and more like things happen in real life that are less rom-com-esque, and something like that happens. So the characters have to kind of shift gears to deal with something more real life.'
Real-life matchmaker Patti Stanger attended the Materialists premiere and praised the film for its approach to her profession.
'The way that Dakota Johnson['s character] cares. Her boss was amazing — her boss kept the peace. She cared about her clients more than anybody,' Stanger said. 'I think I would hire her tomorrow. She's one of the best matchmakers I've ever seen, and I was happy Celine wrote a character like that. There are matchmakers like that — I'm like that, my partners are like that. We won't sleep unless you're happy.'
And Stanger thinks rom-coms have turned more realistic to reflect the times.
'The rom-com has changed to a more serious tone because we're going through a more serious period now,' she said. 'We're not getting out of the house, whether we're 18 or 80. We're watching a lot of rom-com television, Love Island, but we're not actually physically doing it ourselves. I think men — I'm not blaming the men — men, we're old school, we want you to ask us out. We want you to introduce yourself at the bar, the restaurant, the gas station. We are not in a period where we do not want to be talked to. We feel like we make money, we have a house, you don't want to take us out, you don't want to pay for us, we want men to be men, masculine men to step up.'
Materialists is currently in theaters.
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