Female Film Critics 24/375
Materialists has officially revived the rom com genre with a modern take on a familiar story. Lucy is an ambitious young New York City matchmaker, who finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex. The plot raises a lot of questions about dating in the world today. It’s an honest and authentic look at dating brilliantly told from writer/director Celine Song’s insightful perspective.
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Writer-director Celine Song’s savvy and shrewd spin on modern relationships confronts expectations – and gender politics without irony. Materialists, her highly anticipated follow up to 2023’s acclaimed Oscar-nominated Past Lives, frames a romantic triangle with Song’s experience working at a dating service while she was trying to get her playwriting career off the ground. With her keen understanding of male-female dynamics, she presents an honest yet somewhat cynical look exploring intangible romantic love vs. a transactional business deal. Look at all the lonely people! Where do they all come from?
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In Celine Song’s Materialists, the follow up feature to her astonishing debut Past Lives, Dakota Johnson plays Lucy, a professional matchmaker who only thinks of love in terms of mathematics. Lucy’s formula is simple. A couple with similar salaries, upbringings, work/life balance and looks should, according to her maths, be soulmates – but veer outside of that formula and you’re certainly doomed. The rationale makes sense, considering her entire livelihood rides on successfully bringing lonely singles together – the business of which frames all marriages as a successful merger between companies.
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There was a hurly burly to this Oscars/Globes/SAGs season in the wake of the strikes. Tiaras could be worn again. No more Rosie the Riveter anti-glam jumpsuits. Men, like Rustin’s daring and dapper Colman Domingo, won the runway like they haven’t before. Chicken Little may moan that ‘the sky is falling’ in the wake of the pandemic, theatrical contraction, those gnarly but necessary strikes, and the ridiculous consolidation of the industry under men who know how to negotiate their golden parachutes but not how to tell stories or make art. Still, there are huge streaks of light. While four out of five of the Best Director nominees were (white) men, French film director Justine Triet made a nondogmatic domestic drama that was superbly directed – and colored outside the lines. Anatomy of a Fall, also nominated for a Best Picture, is a film recognized for being muscular, and challenging. It’s a movie that demands the theatrical experience because it needs to be seen and immediately discussed. It’s disruptive.
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I empathize with the director’s need to come from her heart. I honor the genuine disappointment that Gerwig and her star Robbie might have experienced after riding their wave of hype and success. Still, let’s insert a little context here. Barbie, despite its eight Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling) and Actress (America Ferrara), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and two Best Songs, is not your typical Oscar-winner.
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Imagine there’s no bias. It isn’t hard to do. What if all five Best Director nominees were women? Who would they be? When we put together our AWFJ EDA Awards Nominations, we managed it. We had our ultimate winner, Barbie’s Greta Gerwig, who has gone from the female-driven indie Lady Bird to the female-driven literary adaptation of Little Women to the 2023 blockbuster inspired by the iconic Mattel doll.
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In 2023, The Zone of Interest picked up awards for both Best Film and Best International Film, Barbie captured four awards, including Best Director for Greta Gerwig, who also shared Best Original Screenplay Award with Noah Baumbach, Best Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling and Best Ensemble Cast/Casting Director (tie). Among other awards Killers of the Flower Moon won awards for Best Actress (Lily Gladstone), Best Cinematography (Rodrigo Prieto), Best Editor (Thelma Schoonmaker) and Best Women’s Breakthrough Performance (Lily Gladstone). American Fiction also won multiple awards.
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Celine Song’s first day of shooting her debut feature was not the warmest welcome to her new career. The experienced playwright and theatre director was shooting a boat scene, cruising past the Statue of Liberty forPast Lives, but there was a record-setting storm in New York City. “I’ve never been on a film set before, and I show up on this set and it’s raining so hard you can’t see in front of your face,” Song says. “We’d had this really productive prep and we were feeling very prepared.” But they had not quite envisaged a storm of epic proportions. The crew and producers assured her it would clear — and, she reveals, “It did clear up and it was amazing.”
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The Gothams get out in front of the awards season as actors return to the red carpet, and stylists heave sighs of relief. On Monday night, November 27, while I was chugging Nyquil, the Gotham Awards unfolded at Cipriani’s Downtown in Manhattan. First awarded 32 years ago in 1991, the baby sister to the West Coast Film Independent Spirit Awards launched in 1984, the event’s original mission prioritized recognizing indies as opposed to Oscars. It’s since sacrificed some of its indie street cred with a slew of special awards to attract the big-name stars (Leo! Bobby! Penelope! Greta! Bradley! Margot!), exploiting the night’s current position as the first awards ceremony out of the gate.
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For a film about the deep connections we have with others and how destiny shapes which relationships come and go in our lives, it would seem appropriate that the talents behind the film also share deep bonds. In fact, Past Lives writer-director Celine Song says she’s convinced she was married to actress Greta Lee in a past life. That’s the kind of connection the two forged working on one of this year’s standout films, now widely considered a top contender for recognition this awards season. Song and Lee shared details of their work, and the meaningful on- and off-camera relationships behind their poignant film.
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