Love triangles are back baby, and so is Celine Song off the back of her directorial success with Past Lives. This time, she’s hoping to recapture the golden era of romantic comedies with Materialists (late 90s, early noughties FYI), starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chirs Evans.
Already out across the Atlantic, Materialists will land in the UK in Cineworld cinemas on August 15 – and we’re collating together everything you need to know about Materialists, including cast, plot, and trailer.
What is Materialists about?
Materialists follows Lucy, a successful matchmaker living in New York City who has just celebrated the ninth marriage she was responsible for. Throwing Cupid’s arrow out left and right, love seems to elude her. Until, of course, she finds herself torn between smooth talking millionaire Pedro Pascal and her old flame, Chris Evans.
Materialists cast
- Dakota Johnson as Lucy
- Chris Evans as John
- Pedro Pascal as Harry
- Zoë Winters as Sophie
- Marin Ireland as Violet
- Dasha Nekrasova as Daisy
- Louisa Jacobson as Charlotte
- Sawyer Spielberg as Mason
- Eddie Cahill as Robert
- Joseph Lee as Trevor
- John Magaro as Mark P. (voice)
- Baby Rose as Wedding Singer
What tropes are used in Materialists?
If you’re a true romcom girlie, then you’re all over tropes and likely have your favourites. Well, as with any self-respecting romcom gearing itself up for success, Materialists encompasses a few different tropes. Of course, there’s a love triangle. There’s also second chance romance between Lucy (Johnson) and John (Evans).
Another trope that also appears in a lot of romcoms is the idea of different class/financial backgrounds, with a rich person usually falling for someone less well off than them. It does feel a touch icky, but at least Materialists is hitting both ends of the spectrum, with Harry (Pascal) being incredibly wealthy and John a waiter and aspiring actor, living from paycheck to paycheck.
When does Materialists come out in the UK?
You’re right to be confused. Those folks in the States have already been able to watch Materialists, released in June. However, in the UK we’ve got to wait until August 15 to watch Materialists. Hang in there, it’ll be worth the wait!
Materialists takes inspiration from Celine Song’s own experience as a matchmaker
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Celine Song revealed she had once side hustled as a matchmaker in the late 2010s. “In that time, I learned more about people and what's in their hearts than I have in any other period of my life.” When her clients would describe what their perfect partner looked like, “their answer would be height, weight, race, job, net worth — and these are all numbers.”
When it came to writing Materialists, then, Song said, “I was interested in that gap between the way we talk about the partners that one wants and what it's like to actually meet somebody that is a partner for life.”
Celine Song has a cameo (sort of) in Materialists
Not simply a waiter, John is also a struggling actor. In Materialists, he is in a play, and if you keep your eyes peeled you’ll see that Celine Song is the accredited playwright of the play on a poster outside of the theatre. Even better still, the play is actually a real one she wrote in 2016.
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