Materialists

Studio: A24

Oct 19, 2025 Web Exclusive By Zachary Lee Photography by Blu-ray.com

A couple months after the release of her second film Materialists, director Celine Song disclosed some of the troubling reactions she heard about the film, specifically it being referred to as “broke man propaganda.” She shares, “Capitalism is going to try to colonize and eat everything and eat love too. We’re falling for the propaganda of the wealthy where love is the only thing that the wealthy can do. But the truth is that how much education, power, and money does not change if you’re going to be good in love. So love is still free and love is freedom. So it’s an amazing thing that there’s this one human domain that won’t get eaten by the algorithm or corporatization.”

It’s a beautiful reflection and powerful condemnation of the ways consumerism has infected our ideas around relationships and love. Those are core provocations of Materialists, and while I find that the film itself did not explicitly dive into the themes Song was able to spell out with such eloquence in her interview, thankfully this Blu-ray release means that we’re able to revisit the film with bonus features that better flesh out her treatise.

Materialists is set in contemporary New York City, specifically in the dating rhythms of the wealthy and well-off. These are the type of people who would hire someone like Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a matchmaker with the highest success rate of having her clients end up together. She herself is convinced she’s an “eternal bachelorette,” until at a former client’s wedding, she encounters Harry Castillo (Pedro Pascal), the brother of the wedding’s groom. Harry takes a clear interest in Lucy, who rebuffs him but remains intrigued. To complicate matters, she also encounters John Pitts (Chris Evans) at the wedding, her struggling actor ex-boyfriend working there as a caterer. The two ended their relationship due to their differing views on money (in one sequence, Lucy articulates how she doesn’t want to have to celebrate their 20th anniversary by eating from a halal cart). Throughout the film, Lucy struggles between rekindling her relationship with John or starting a new chapter of her life with Harry.

Song’s film wears its questions on its sleeve proudly; it doesn’t try to subvert tropes or offer any saccharine platitudes about love. These are real people who have to make adult decisions and who have to wrestle between reality and idealism. It’s particularly gratifying to see Johnson in a film like this; between Materialists and Splitsville, she’s expanded the scope of what intimacy looks like on-screen beyond heteronormative depictions. Whereas Materialists acknowledges how life’s logistics get in the way of passion, Splitsville is all about how to make room for our desires in the set rhythms of our lives,

A24’s release excellently preserves the film’s 35mm grain. This is a film that’s seeped in the cold and warmth of a big city and bathed in the colors autumn brings. It’s rendered beautifully in the presentation here.

It’s also a surprisingly quiet film, even as it is dialogue heavy, and the release’s Atmos mix does justice to the ways this was encountered in the theater. I was particularly delighted by Song’s commentary track; through it, we get more insights into her headspace and creative process while crafting the film. There’s also a great composer deep dive with Japanese Breakfast, who penned an original song for the film. Other features include a “Making of” featurette and six collectible postcards with photography (courtesy of Atsushi Nishijima). These postcards have become a staple of A24 releases and the set included here would be great to either frame or house love notes you may want to send to a hidden crush.

(www.shop.a24films.com/products/materialists-blu-ray)

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