Movie: Materialists
★★★☆☆
I did not laugh. Which I guess isn’t a bad thing, but an unexpected thing for a movie marketed as a rom com. I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate it. I just have a lot of thoughts.
The men were just… there?? I didn’t feel anything for them or for their stories, which I do not think has anything to do with the performances. The lack of intersection in the storylines baffled me.
A lot of this made me sad too. The whole idea of “love comes to you when you least expect it” was kind of done here in a really hateful way, one that made fun of the people who were looking for love. (I know that the clients were more meant to poke at the materialistic desires, esp of the wealthy, but it came off more to me as making fun of the search for love. I just do not believe in the idea of love just magically appears in your life. I’m all for critiquing materialism, but not so much on the search for partnership)
Maybe it’s a mismatch between my idea of love vs Celine Song’s, but the options here are bleak.
And, tbh, I don’t really have any reason to believe either love story! The lingering monologues and quiet nature worked for past lives I guess as a rumination on regret/what-ifs, but here it just neglects the characters stories.
The main defense of this movie is its “realistic nature” but isn’t it kinda sad to think real love would be this boring?