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Dakota Johnson and director Celine Song rethink the rom-com with 'Materialists'

Dakota Johnson and director Celine Song rethink the rom-com with 'Materialists'

Yahoo04-06-2025
The new film 'Materialists' is something of a bargain: essentially two films in one. It's very much a sparkling romantic comedy in which a young woman finds herself torn between a wealthy man who can offer her a life of comfort and ease versus another much poorer man who nonetheless understands the deepest, truest parts of her inner self.
It is also filled with long, thoughtful conversations on the very nature of why love and relationships matter so much, the parts they play in people's lives and effects on an individual's sense of identity. The movie is both a thing and spends a lot of time considering the nature of that very thing, almost an essay about itself. And it does so with a stylish, romantic sophistication and ease.
Written and directed by playwright turned filmmaker Celine Song, "Materialists" is the follow-up to the wistfully melancholic 'Past Lives,' her 2023 feature debut that was nominated for best picture and original screenplay Oscars. The new film is in conversation with classic rom-coms by the likes of Nora Ephron, James L. Brooks and Billy Wilder, while also grappling with of-the-moment concerns such as ambition and achievement.
'We're not just showing up here to be in love and beautiful and get to be in a rom-com," says Song. "We're also going to take this opportunity to talk about something. Because that's the power of the genre. Our favorite rom-coms are the ones where we get to start a conversation about something.'
Read more: The 18 summer movies we're most excited about
Song, 36, is sipping tea at a sunny corner table in the restaurant of a West Hollywood hotel along alongside the film's star, Dakota Johnson. In the film Johnson plays Lucy, who works as a professional matchmaker in New York City, helping affluent clients fulfill their impossible criteria of looks, physique, occupation, education, income, background, lifestyle and anything else that might impact a prospective partner's value in the marketplace of eligible singles.
When Lucy meets Harry (Pedro Pascal), a tall, handsome and very wealthy private equity manager, she initially tries to wrangle him as a possible match for any of the many female clients who would want him. But he plans to pursue Lucy instead across a series of impressively expensive dinners. Meanwhile, Lucy has also reconnected with John (Chris Evans), a former boyfriend who is still a struggling actor making ends meet as a cater waiter years after they broke up. Lucy finds herself torn between the cynicism and mathematical practicality her job has hardened in her and a yearning romanticism she wishes she could be open to.
Depending on how one finds the erotic absurdities of the young-woman-in-the-big-city storylines of the 'Fifty Shades' films that rocketed her to stardom, Johnson has rarely done a conventional rom-com (there's only 2016's 'How to Be Single'). Which is not to say she hasn't been offered such vehicles. She's just declined to be in them.
'They're not good,' Johnson, 35, says, chuckling lightly at her own bluntness. 'Sorry.'
'I think a lot of what I read these days is void of soul and heart," she continues. "And Celine is all soul and heart. I really love a rom-com if it feels like I can connect to the people in it. And I think I've found it hard to connect to the people in some of the ones that I've been offered.'
What made 'Materialists' feel different for her?
'The complexities of all of the characters," Johnson answers. "The paradox. Everyone being confused about what the f— they're supposed to do with their hearts. And what's the right move? I found that very honest and I found it just so relatable."
Johnson, who is in a relationship with musician Chris Martin, continues, "For a long time we've all been so quick to judge relationships or how they should happen, how they should exist in the world. When people should get married. Divorce is bad. All these things that actually, if you think about it, why is divorce bad? Why do people have to get married or at a certain age or only once? Why? It doesn't matter.'
First thoughts for the project began around 10 years ago, when Song worked for a professional matchmaking service for about six months. It's very much a client-facing job, and she found the interactions she had with people to be bracing in their candor and vulnerability, as well as the ways in which the work demanded management of people's feelings of desirability or lovability — as well as rejection or worthlessness.
'To a matchmaker, everybody's very honest about what they're looking for," says Song, herself married to "Challengers" and "Queer" screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes. "Even at that time, I always thought, I just know I'm going to write something about it.'
Ever since the film's first trailer dropped, people online have commented on an unusual drink order placed by Lucy. More specifically, a drink that is placed in front of her before she really even has a chance to order it, by someone who already knows that her preferred beverage was once, indeed, Coke and beer, with space left in a glass to pour the two together.
'To me what was important is that this was a drink that is so strange that you can't guess,' explains Song. 'And that only somebody who knows you very well, who knew you in college, who knew you when you were really just at your heart your pure self, [knows] your drink order. So all I did was I Googled 'weird drinks.''
Though the drink is apparently popular in Germany, as for how it actually tastes, Johnson notes, 'It's just very effervescent and kind of gross. Not for me.'
Song and Johnson have formed an apparent bond in the time spent working together. (They met during a period when the attention around 'Past Lives' meant that Song could get general meetings, not even for a specific project, with many top stars.) They both mention how by the time they were shooting, Song could often communicate ideas to Johnson with just a look or a gesture rather than an involved explanation.
"She'd come in and be like, 'Um ...' and I'd be like, 'Yes,'" says Johnson.
Johnson in particular has the unbothered savvy of someone who has spent their entire life in some proximity to the spotlight (her parents are actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson) and has now been steadily working since appearing in "The Social Network" in 2010. In conversation, Johnson and Song share a casual, relaxed energy between them. Yet at the mere mention of "Madame Web," the 2024 Marvel adaptation starring Johnson that was a box-office bomb and subject of intense media scrutiny, Johnson's eyes narrow and her posture tightens.
'Go on,' Johnson says with a feigned seriousness.
Will Johnson now stick to indie films at the scale of 'Materialists' or the projects produced by her company TeaTime Pictures, such as 2023's 'Daddio' or the upcoming 'Splitsville,' which recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival?
'It wasn't my fault,' Johnson says, laughing slightly while maintaining her focus.
'There's this thing that happens now where a lot of creative decisions are made by committee. Or made by people who don't have a creative bone in their body. And it's really hard to make art that way. Or to make something entertaining that way. And I think unfortunately with 'Madame Web,' it started out as something and turned into something else. And I was just sort of along for the ride at that point. But that happens. Bigger-budget movies fail all the time.
'I don't have a Band-Aid over it,' she adds. 'There's no part of me that's like, 'Oh, I'll never do that again' to anything. I've done even tiny movies that didn't do well. Who cares?'
Having now been an active producer on a number of projects — including one to be directed by 93-year-old comedy legend Elaine May that Johnson says she hopes could be shooting in the fall — has made it different for her when, on a film like 'Materialists,' she is an actor only.
'I think that sometimes I'm like, 'Oh, I know how to fix it,' or I know what to do, I want to help,' says Johnson. 'And there's some things where I have to just not say things. Sometimes I love just showing up, especially on our movie, it was just so much fun for me to only be acting. Because I was in so much of it, I felt like I was in such good hands, I could just relax into that role.'
The film uses a fable-like framing story about two prehistoric cave dwellers who may very well be the first married couple. (They also pop up for sharp-eyed viewers in another scene as well.)
'To me, the whole movie is in those pieces,' says Song. 'Because all of what we are living through is also going to be ancient too. We know that certain stone tools were passed over to the other, but we do not know about the flowers that were exchanged. Because there are some things like sentiment and feeling and love that are intangible and ephemeral. There's a very real and tangible and material record of stone tools and things being traded. But what passed between them in their heart is not. It's not on record.'
Leaping forward in time to depict contemporary worries and desires, 'Materialists' attempts to capture the specifics of a cultural moment, calculating cost-benefit analysis against a perceived ticking clock while also often dodging abusive predators.
'In present time, the dating world because of social media is so different — everything is aspirational," says Johnson. 'You want to live the life that all these other people have on your phone, thinking that that's what you're supposed to be doing. It looks good, but it's not authentic because it's manufactured, it's filtered, it's ridiculous. So everything that a woman or a man is looking for in a partner, when they get to a certain age, whenever that is, it's all material things. It's height, it's income, it's hair, body, physique. It's things that have nothing to do with a soul connection.'
Unafraid to grapple with tough conversations and moments of internal crisis, "Materialists" exudes a chic glamour as it interrogates the tough choices, motivations and consequences of modern romance.
At one point in the film, Lucy and Harry go to see John perform in a way-off-Broadway production of Song's play 'Tom & Eliza.' (Song's name appears onscreen on a poster.) At drinks after, John says something dismissive about Lucy's work as a matchmaker and she sarcastically retorts that it's just 'girl s—.' This line was Song's own purposeful rebuke of the dismissive attitudes toward writing about love.
'I so often experience a general sentiment that love as a topic of conversation and study is dismissable as unserious, unimportant, 'lighter fare,' 'girl s—,'' writes Song in a follow-up email. 'People call romantic films 'chick flicks' as a way to diminish them, which I find unspeakably sad, not just for the way it excludes 'chicks' from the realm of 'serious people,' but also for the way it excludes 'serious people' from the realm of romance and love.
'That line of Lucy's is intended to be a sharp reproach of that dismissal,' adds Song. 'I believe that love is the greatest mystery in everyone's lives, and therefore it is one of the most important themes in cinema. Love is the one drama we all experience, and it deserves the utmost respect.'
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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John Cena dresses up as 'Peacemaker' for new trailer debut, Season 2 peek
John Cena dresses up as 'Peacemaker' for new trailer debut, Season 2 peek

USA Today

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John Cena dresses up as 'Peacemaker' for new trailer debut, Season 2 peek

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10 best Netflix original movies to watch this summer
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Inside the struggle to create a cozy Lord of the Rings game
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The Verge

timea day ago

  • The Verge

Inside the struggle to create a cozy Lord of the Rings game

When new employees start at Weta Workshop, they're herded into a meeting room with a long, unassuming conference table. On the walls, behind panes of glass and in between statues, swords, and masks, are five Oscars. Four of them were awarded to the studio for its efforts on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films. New hires are offered a chance to hold one of those Oscars, but there's a catch: handling the golden statuette marks you with a curse, preventing you from ever winning one yourself. Rarely do inductees take Weta up on the offer. Weta Workshop's fledgling Game Studio hasn't achieved the same level of prestige as its film and special effects teams. There's been no success to build superstition, no room for myths. And yet, the studio's first major console release, Tales of the Shire, seems to have inherited its own curse. 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After studio director Amie Wolken quit Weta in November 2023 to take a position as CEO at Dinosaur Polo Club, a New Zealand indie studio, Weta needed a replacement. It took six months to find Tony Lawrence, who arrived at Weta in April 2024. Lawrence had a long career in Australia at multiple studios, including as head of 2K Australia. During his seven-year tenure there, the studio delivered two successful BioShock games and a Borderlands title. After leaving 2K, Lawrence worked at developer Mighty Kingdom, where he served as executive director and chief operating officer when the studio listed on Australia's stock exchange in April 2021. Mighty Kingdom was once considered a shining light of the Australian games industry, but during Lawrence's reign, it released just one console game — Conan Chop Chop — that launched to disappointing sales, and the company's share price crashed 98 percent. After his hiring at Weta, there was an 'instantaneous' shift in the studio's vibe, according to one employee. 'It was like the air stilled, you could feel it, and morale slowly started to crumble from there on,' they said. Those familiar with Lawrence's hiring said the process felt rushed and noted that Lawrence did not meet with those inside the studio who would be reporting to him. This, one senior team member noted, was 'very weird.' 'It was like the air stilled.' Lawrence did not respond to a request for comment. Weta did not respond to specific questions around his employment either. In January 2025, as The Verge was investigating this story, Lawrence led an all-staff meeting to discuss breaches of confidentiality. In that meeting, he told staff that 'it's not cool to talk to journalists,' discouraging them from speaking about their experiences. Wolken also did not respond to a request for comment. Alongside internal issues, Tales of the Shire had to contend with a major external one: uncertainty over the fate of its publisher, Private Division. In May 2024, IGN reported Take-Two was 'quietly killing' the label, slashing staff numbers and closing two of its studios. By November, Private Division had been sold to an unknown buyer. The upheaval occurred toward the final stages of development on Tales of the Shire and left Weta in limbo for several months. According to multiple sources, Weta also waited on milestone payments. (Private Division did not respond to a request for comment.) It was unclear to Weta employees exactly when, or if, Private Division would continue. Several staff noted the situation with Private Division was demoralizing, igniting concerns the game may even be canceled. In January, Bloomberg revealed former staff of publishing house Annapurna Interactive had purchased Private Division's games and franchises from Take-Two, including Tales of the Shire, with the backing of Haveli Investments, a private equity firm based in Austin, Texas. The new publisher, revealed during this year's Summer Games Fest, is named Fictions. Weta received its milestone payments, but there has still been confusion for staff, internally, about the state of publishing and which company is overseeing it. Former copresident of Annapurna, Deborah Mars, is listed as cofounder and cohead of Fictions on LinkedIn. She did not respond to a request for comment in March. Fictions did not respond to a subsequent request for comment in June. The press email listed on Private Division's website bounces. In an emailed statement, Jessica Wallace, chief marketing officer at Weta Workshop, said, 'Neither the departure of Amie nor the challenges [Private Division] has had through the year has impacted directly on the team's work building a great game.' One of the most pernicious issues in game development is 'crunch,' a practice variously defined as 'extended periods of drastic overtime' or 'a sudden spike in work hours.' The effect of crunch has been well-studied, with the exploit leaving lasting effects on physical and mental health. Many current and former Weta staff said they worked long hours, especially as deadlines approached. 'It was a systemic problem,' one experienced developer said. 'It was a resourcing problem and general mismanagement of the project.' Three staff members who spoke to The Verge said they felt pressure to work overtime coming from management and senior leadership. In August 2024, as a crucial deadline approached, a company-wide meeting was called. According to those who attended, Weta's leadership suggested that if the team did not meet this major milestone, then there was real concern over the studio's long-term sustainability. One staff member told The Verge it felt like the team was 'strongly encouraged to crunch' in that meeting. Another former staff member said that leadership had previously told the studio there was no crunch because such a practice involved working 70 hours or more per week for several months. 'I felt a little bit gaslit, given the amount of work that I was doing,' they said. However, there are employees who shied away from dubbing the extra hours as 'crunch,' but noted there were broader issues related to overwork and burnout in parts of the development team. One employee stated, 'I do not see our studio as a crunch studio,' suggesting the problem was specific to certain developers who chose to work extra hours and consistently accrued overtime. The studio works on a 'swings and roundabouts' model, which is meant to provide employees with the flexibility to bank hours worked and take time off later. In practice, this caused havoc. One staff member mentioned time off was not tracked well, so it was difficult to adequately resource or finance as needs shifted. Often, they said, staff would work extra hours, but they didn't receive that time back in kind — there was simply no opportunity to take time off with deadlines baring down. Wallace responded to this by stating, 'There was no 'crunch' during the development of Tales of the Shire. We extended deadlines to prioritize the well-being of our team, and all staff worked under New Zealand employment agreements, which ensure fair and adequate compensation for all hours worked.' There is nothing indicating Weta Workshop acted illegally, but staff that spoke to The Verge said there were definitely crunch periods during development of Tales of the Shire. One staff member said they could not remember a time when they were not working beyond 50 hours a week. Another responded to Weta's statement saying there was no crunch by simply texting back 'lol.' On October 4th, 2024, in an all staff meeting, Weta's executive team announced there would be a round of redundancies. It was an incredibly disruptive event that shook the team. 'That really came out of the blue for us,' said one senior developer. Leadership explained the need to cut staff was to provide the studio with long-term sustainability. Other parts of Weta's business were feeling the effects of the pandemic slump in tourism and film, and the studio had yet to sign another contract to fund future projects. Every staff member who spoke with The Verge expressed disappointment. 'It was handled terribly,' said a former member of the team. After the announcement, one staff member said it felt like the 'Hunger Games trials to keep your jobs.' They said those whose roles were being 'disestablished' would need to reapply for their jobs or other jobs within the studio. One developer said that, post-announcement, coming into work 'felt like coming to a funeral.' According to documentation seen by The Verge, the core development team on Tales of the Shire was predominantly male. Only four senior leadership positions on the project were held by women, while 18 were held by men in early 2024. The redundancies in October 2024 saw the departure of four non-male employees on the team. Today, the studio has five non-male employees on its roster of 26 development staff, sources said. Those ratios are not uncommon in modern, mid-sized studios, but sources noted that this had left diverse voices out of key meetings. After a final version of the game was completed in November 2024, about half of the studio began working on DLC, although no contract for that work had been signed with a publisher. Other studio heads that The Verge spoke to suggested this is normal as a game approaches release — and for Weta, it helped keep some members of the studio employed — but it is risky given the difficulties already encountered during development, particularly amid the current state of the games industry. Meanwhile, the other half was tasked with building out the studio's next prototype. The Verge has learned this prototype is codenamed 'Groundhog' and is again based on The Lord of the Rings. It is a roguelike, drawing inspiration from the likes of Baldur's Gate and Diablo. In an effort to ready the prototype for the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, this past March, where Weta could pitch it to prospective publishers, some employees suggested the crunch culture and overtime hours persisted. 'There's definitely been crunch, and there's definitely still people doing crunch,' one developer told The Verge in January. In February, Weta announced Tales of the Shire's release would be delayed until July 29th, 2025 (a scheduled mobile version for Netflix was also canceled last year). The Verge understands this is to ensure quality assurance has been performed on all platforms, with the Switch port being particularly tricky to get running smoothly. In addition, The Verge has learned that work on Tales of the Shire DLC was paused in February with no certainty the game will receive content updates at all. In a February 21st memo to staff, Kelly Tyson, the general manager of product at Weta Workshop wrote that Private Division (at the time, codenamed Vero) would deliver a part payment recognizing the studio's DLC efforts, but 'all post-launch content decisions have been delayed until the games in market performance is determined.' Tyson also stated there was a 'funding gap' and the studio would attempt to reduce costs by moving all staff to a four-day workweek, with a 20 percent pay cut for a period of three months. The February 21st email called this a 'temporary change,' adding that the goal is to 'keep as many people employed as possible.' The change was reversed in mid-May, ahead of schedule, as the studio worked to polish its Groundhog prototype in the hopes of signing a publisher. Those familiar with development have said it feels like a last ditch, all-in effort to keep the studio going, and The Verge understands there are multiple publishers interested in the game. With Tales of the Shire ready for release, Weta's Game Studio now must fight for survival in an industry trying to find its feet after two tumultuous years. Investment is much harder to come by, redundancies and closures have become commonplace. So what's next? Lawrence is charged with setting the studio's direction going forward, but there are concerns, internally and externally, about his plans. An executive vision for the game studio, revealed to The Verge in a leaked PowerPoint presentation, is that Weta will become a 'work for hire creative services business.' The presentation, delivered in late 2024, suggests the company will 'seek to have worked on five games' over the next five years. It hopes to release at least three, including Tales of the Shire. One staff member said the feeling in the studio was that this presentation was not aimed at staff but seemed to be designed to appease Weta's executives. According to a senior figure in the Australian games industry with knowledge of the strategy, this is a recipe for continued overtime and poor working conditions. 'I, and the wider industry, would love to know how Weta plans to release five games in five years at AAA quality with an A budget, without implementing crunch or exploiting their staff,' they said. We asked Weta to explain this strategy, but it did not respond. Despite the challenging environment and burnout, Tales of the Shire is still scheduled to release in July. When I asked current and former staff their enduring memories of making the game, there was a common theme: they truly care about the world they've built. Several reiterated how dedicated the development team was, striving to live up to the franchise's lofty expectations. 'I could genuinely spend hours playing my own video game, which is probably kind of rare for a developer to say,' one developer said. 'It should be a time of celebration.' In between it all, they've had to contend with periods of crunch and circumstances beyond their control. 'It is in spite of Weta Workshop's leadership that there's a video game made,' said a senior member of the development team. 'It should be a time of celebration, but there's so many people who won't get to celebrate their wins because of this fight against the odds.' Many staff said working at Weta was a lifelong dream — a career highlight. There was excitement about joining a project like Tales of the Shire, especially for those who grew up as fans of The Lord of the Rings. But some of those feelings have eroded. 'The personal pride I have felt about this company is just completely tarnished,' said one former employee. Without significant changes, current and former staff believe the problems experienced developing Tales of the Shire are destined to repeat. 'I don't have a lot of faith in what work we will have after [Tales of the Shire],' one staff member said. Another mentioned ongoing communication and management issues have been flagged with senior Weta members multiple times, but they feel as if the complaints have largely been ignored or dismissed. In the meantime, the uncertainty around the future of Weta Workshop's Game Studio and its next project has left some looking for an exit. But staff believe there is a way to break the curse and buck the trends of the past two years: invest in, and trust, people. To quote one experienced developer: 'I genuinely think that if Weta Workshop nurtured the brilliance in the studio, they could just sit back and profit.' Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Jackson Ryan Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. 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