Writer-director Celine Song’s latest film is called Materialists, so she is ideally placed to talk about how to spend it. And how to spend it well.
The 36-year-old was born in South Korea, but moved to Canada with her family when she was 12. Her debut film, 2023’s Past Lives, a tender tale of first love, adulthood and immigration, was nominated for best picture and best screenplay at the 96th Academy Awards. Her second feature tells the story of Lucy (played by Dakota Johnson), a matchmaker who serves Manhattan’s singleton elite. When she begins a relationship with one of her wealthy clients, Harry (Pedro Pascal), she is torn between her desire for the assets of such a union and her feelings for her former boyfriend John (Chris Evans) a handsome actor who has yet to catch his break.
Song’s oeuvre so far is unashamedly romantic. She describes Materialists as a romcom and although its plot subverts many of that genre’s features, the story still delivers a sparkly serotonin hit. But what, for Song, defines a romantic hero? And why does the romcom remain so compelling in the modern age?
“Love is still a place that is not going to be colonised by capitalism. Capitalism tries to colonise absolutely everything, every aspect of human life, because there’s a profit to be made. But I feel like love is this incredible, great ancient mystery and a holy miracle. And it’s divine when it happens. And just because you have more money or more power or more education, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be better at it. It’s the one thing you cannot control with wealth. It makes fools of all of us. It asks us to surrender. So, because of that, the romantic hero is always mythic. Because the bravery to love is eternal. And I think it’s the only thing that is going to be free from the market, this thing that crushes all of us.
