“Materialists” Writer/Director Celine Song on Why Love Can’t Be Commodified

Celine Song loves love. 

And not in the way that middle schoolers doodle in their notebooks about dreamy-eyed crushes, or in the way that newlyweds share song lyrics on Instagram. Celine Song has made it her career to analyze the very foundation of love.

Her latest film, Materialists (in theaters June 13), explores the complexities of navigating love in a society that increasingly values material wealth over all else. It follows the tale of Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a matchmaker torn between her heart and her mind in deciding what love really means to her. Billed as a romcom, Materialists is more of a psychological analysis of what it means to love and be loved, as well as an almost eerily accurate commentary on the state of modern dating. 

“We have a material record of things, because the film is ‘Materialists,’” Song says. “But the thing that we don’t have a record of is the feeling that passed between people.”

In the opening sequence, Song’s message is clear: love predates humanity. But humanity has lost sight of what it means to be in love.  Working as a matchmaker briefly in her early career, Song always knew she wanted to write about her experience. 

“I remember leaving that job feeling like, ‘Oh, I want to write something about this,’” Song says. “I think that when it comes to the filmmaking of it, I think that it always has to feel true to me and in the way that I experience [life].”

As a matchmaker, Lucy is very practical. Similarly to Song’s own experience, Lucy spends her days asking people what they want out of their love life and hearing monetary values in response. Lucy is constantly bombarded with clients looking for someone “tall,” or  “rich,” or in a certain tax bracket, who dress a certain way, and act however they deem acceptable. They all request a perfectly curated human who meets their standard, but also is deeply in love with them.

“You actually cannot fall in love with the height, weight, salary,” Song says. “As Lucy says, love has to be on the table.”

Throughout the film, Lucy goes on her own journey of self-discovery, realizing that even as a self-proclaimed expert on love, she still has no idea how to understand her own heart. Torn between the perfectly distinguished “unicorn” Harry (Pedro Pascal) and the emotionally mature but financially inadequate John (Chris Evans), Lucy struggles with heeding her own advice. 

“To me, it’s so much about the distinction between dating, which is a game, and something that you can try, right?” Song explains. “You can go on dates, you can be on Tinder, you can do whatever you want, you can try. And then there’s love, which is something that you can’t try, and that’s what’s hard about it. But then, when it happens to you, it’s the easiest thing in the world.”

You’ll have to see the film to find out how Lucy chooses in her quest for happiness and love. Song did have this to say, however, about finding love, in the movies and life;

“The one thing that you should feel entitled to from the person who loves you is that they love you,” Song explains. “Love is the only thing that you’re entitled to.”

Song also says her decision on the film’s ending was rooted in wanting to create a film for the modern woman. 

“I think this is something that I think so many of us modern women understand,” she says. “All day I have to show up and have to be the smart girl, right? I’m a director, I’m a boss, like, you know, I have to walk around, I have to make decisions, and I’m in control of everything. I try to control everything… So what an amazing thing that there is one thing in a person’s life, in my life, that makes me feel so stupid, right? And makes me feel like a fool.”

Song’s films are characterized by soft, romantic lighting and camera angles so gentle, it almost feels like a caress. When creating a film about romance, she wants the viewer to “momentarily” forget their own reality.

“You almost want it to feel like it’s just being observed, and you’re being observed intimately, so much so that the audience forgets, not the whole time, but even even momentarily, that they’re watching a thing that is not real,” she says. “So the visual language is always going to be about that — you want to feel completely effortless, because love is effortless,” Song says. “So in that way, I wanted to make a movie that feels as effortless as love.”

Materialists is in theaters on June 13.

Featured image: L-r: Writer/director Celine Song, Dakota Johnson, and Chris Evans on the set of “Materialists.” Photo credit: Atsushi Nishijima/A24