Before becoming an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Celine Song lived the life of a playwright in New York City, working various side jobs to support her art. One of the most unexpected—and impactful—was a stint as a professional matchmaker. What began as a practical means of making rent became a deep well of insight into human longing, relationships, and the paradoxes of love. It’s that unique experience that shaped her upcoming film Materialists, a romantic drama premiering June 13 and starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans.
The story follows Lucy, a top-tier matchmaker in New York, played by Johnson. She’s efficient, brilliant, and hyper-focused on helping others find love, while remaining emotionally distanced from her own heart. Beneath her polished exterior, however, lies a sincere desire to help people find something meaningful. When two very different men come into her life, Lucy is forced to confront her own emotional needs and beliefs about love and worth.
Johnson describes Lucy as a woman torn between societal definitions of success and her own internal compass. The film presents not just a choice between two romantic options but a deeper dilemma: do we pursue what we think we want, or what we actually need? Song explains that while one man represents high materialistic value—social status, wealth, desirability—the other represents emotional and spiritual depth. Lucy, an expert in the “stock market” of dating, understands these dynamics better than anyone, and yet she’s still left navigating the emotional chaos they bring.
Both Song and Johnson agree that the film resists being reduced to a simple love triangle. Rather, it’s an exploration of how modern dating operates like a marketplace, influenced by algorithms, perception, and cultural expectations. Johnson highlights how society has evolved from seeing marriage as a business deal to demanding that partners meet every emotional, psychological, and spiritual need. Social media, she says, has further distorted real-life connection.
At its core, Materialists questions the language we use to define what we want in a partner and how far removed that language is from the lived experience of falling in love. The film doesn’t provide easy answers, but rather invites viewers to sit with the contradiction between logic and emotion—and to consider which one ultimately leads us to happiness.
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