Materialists: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal fizzle in new rom-com
Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal make Materialists fabulous to look at – but the movie doesn't quite know what it wants to be.
Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in the Materialists.
MATERIALISTS (M)
**1/2
General release.
Purely on the basis of the talent assembled, Materialists should have been a hit in every sense of the word.
First of all, you've got just about the best-looking love triangle possible: a radiant Dakota Johnson (as a fancypants New York professional matchmaker) pondering which of the duelling dreamboats Pedro Pascal (rich, tall and handsome) or Chris Evans (broke, tall and handsome) should ultimately prove worthy of her affections.
Secondly, behind the cameras, you have filmmaker Celine Song, who wowed audiences worldwide in 2023 with her multi-Oscar-nominated romantic drama Past Lives.
However, for a multitude of reasons, Materialists can only find fizzle where the sizzle should be. While hardly unwatchable, the movie seems perpetually unsure about what it wants to be.
Sometimes it is an undeniably likeable, if lightweight romantic comedy. At other times, it aspires to something heavier, as it explores the same storytelling planes traversed by Past Lives.
Most viewers will quickly pick up on Materialists' tentative tendencies, and become all the more frustrated with the obvious uncertainty on display.
Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) and his alien buddy Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly) in Pixar's Elio.
ELIO (PG)
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi
Starring: the voices of Zoe Saldana, Yonas Kibreab, Brad Garrett, Shirley Henderson.
***1/2
Finding a better place in outer space
In recent times, younger audiences have been both underestimated and underserviced by the major movie studios.
However, the box-office figures of 2025 so far suggest the tide may finally be turning for the better. A majority of the biggest releases of the year have delivered the goods to kids in all the right ways.
If children weren't already spoiled for choice right now – as you read this, the top two movies worldwide are top-notch live-action remakes of Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon – the welcome arrival of a quality new effort from Pixar Animation seals that deal emphatically.
This pleasingly imaginative combo of science fiction, light comedy and mild drama doesn't quite reach the lofty heights scaled by Pixar's best-known works. Nevertheless, its capacity to provoke real thought and genuine happiness should not be taken for granted.
As the story begins, Elio (voiced convincingly by newcomer Yonas Kibreab) is still getting over the recent passing of his parents.
This intelligent and sensitive 11-year-old is now in the care of his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldana), an officer in the US Air Force Space Command tasked with mapping and tracking debris in deep space.
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SUBSCRIBER ONLY
The around-the-clock pressures of her job have left Olga out of her depth when it comes to properly looking after Elio. The only thing that makes her space-obsessed nephew happy is when she brings him along to work.
It is during one of these visits that Elio learns of a possible attempt at radio communication from an alien presence several galaxies away from here.
Without Olga noticing, Elio figures out a way to respond to the message, and is instantly transported to a fascinating intergalactic realm known as the Communiverse.
The only way to describe the Communiverse is that it functions as a United Nations for the bulk of the known universe. Its colourful multitude of members are sufficiently impressed by Elio's arrival to assume he is a prominent leader back on Earth, and appoint him to be our planet's first representative at the Communiverse.
Understandably, Elio's sudden disappearance at home means that Olga must spearhead a search for her adventurous charge. Meanwhile, Elio finds himself a central figure in a Communiverse power struggle orchestrated by the warmongering Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett).
Intelligently scripted and playfully realised, Elio never fails to engage and entertain its target audience with ease. As usual, Pixar's animation team come into their own when illustrating the Communiverse and the vividly rendered alien beings that call it home.
Elio is in cinemas now.
Camile Rutherford in the French rom-com Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.
JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE (M)
***1/2
Selected cinemas.
Charming and stylish, yet refreshingly unpretentious, this rom-com-ish affair from France is definitely worth checking out. Camile Rutherford stars in the lead role of Agathe, a woman in her early 30s caught in something of a rut, both professionally and personally.
Her job in a revered Parisian bookstore is a protective cocoon which in subtle ways has inhibited her ambitions as a writer, while also smothering her chances of forming a loving relationship.
Though a platonic bond with co-worker Felix (Pablo Pauly) does flicker with the potential for something deeper, it is his encouragement of Agathe's literary aspirations that sends the movie in an unexpected direction.
Once Agathe is accepted into a Jane Austen-themed writing workshop in England, she finds herself experiencing the same dilemmas, contradictions and opportunities for love that traditionally beset a typical Austen heroine.
A familiarity with Austen's books is hardly necessary to enjoy this sprightly, inventive and cannily observed tale, which highlights both its rookie writer-director Laura Piani and leading lady Rutherford as names to watch in the future.
Originally published as Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal are the best-looking love triangle ever in Materialists
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And while waiting for her breakout film Past Lives to debut, she did. That film is Materialists, a modern-day love story starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans that's now showing in cinemas. Johnson is the matchmaker presented with two different types of men for herself: one a poor struggling actor and ex-boyfriend; the other a wealthy "unicorn". The internet has already drawn battle lines. 25 HOTTEST POPCORN MOVIES THIS WINTER Past Lives, Song's stunning debut, explored not only love and longing but the very idea that our romantic choices, right or wrong, bring lifelong consequences. Compared to that soulful film, Materialists might look suspiciously like it could be glossy, superficial and ... OK, loads of fun! But perhaps a bit more Bridget Jones than Celine Song. That doesn't mean the experience rings hollow. Just as Past Lives wasn't really about a love triangle, Materialists is about something more than the question of which guy is the "correct" choice. It's a smart rom-com that tries to be honest about life and still leave us smiling. Song and Johnson spoke recently about the film, falling in love and the modern marketplace of dating. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity. Question: How did you find each other? SONG: We met up thinking that we were just going to get to know each other and be friends and I walked away from that conversation - this is just from my perspective - but I think I was still sitting there when I texted my producers and the studio being like, "I think I've found my Lucy." That's how casting works for me, it's always about falling in love. It's very connected to what we talk about in the film. Like, there's no mathematical anything. It just the feeling that you get talking to someone and you're like, oh I just know. JOHNSON: I knew you had this movie that you were about to start making. I was basically told it was too late. I was like, but I really want to meet her because she's so smart, and I've seen interviews and obviously had seen Past Lives. I wanted to talk and get to know her as an artist and a person and so I went into this being like there's no chance that I'll be in this movie, but maybe she'll make another one. We just had such a good time talking, I didn't even know that I was someone she was thinking about. A few weeks later we spoke. It was very romantic. Q: Where do we meet Lucy in life? JOHNSON: She's sort of at the top of her game in her work and is very disconnected from her heart and focused on being a perfectionist and getting people to get married. On the surface, you see her as a very transactional person and not really invested in people's souls, but she actually is and really does want the best for them. She's also on her own journey of trying to figure out what it is she wants for herself in this life, and, essentially, do you fight for the thing that you think you want, or do you fight for that thing that you know you need? Is that right, Celine? SONG: That's so good. Q: What are you trying to say through the two men in her life? SONG: It was never going to be a conversation about which flavor of a person. It's actually so much more about this marketplace of dating that all of us live in if you're single, and also the marketplace that Dakota's character is navigating. She knows the math better than anyone else in the film. She's an excellent matchmaker. Pedro plays somebody who is probably, in straight dating, someone of the highest possible value. Chris' character, in the spectrum in the marketplace of values of dating, is someone who is of the lowest value possible. I find them to be such adorable characters, very worthy of an adoration. Lucy knows exactly where they fall in the stock market of men. It's actually about the way that the math around that is going to blow up. HAVE YOU SEEN THESE YET? JOHNSON: Celine speaks so eloquently about the marketplace of dating and I glitch at those words because I'm like, you can't explain love that way. But that's actually how people are. Marriage used to be a business deal. It was like, my father wants your cows and my mother needs your wheat and whatever. It was a trade-off. But now there's all these books about how we expect our partner to fulfill every single aspect of our needs. And the world being dominated by social media, people don't meet in real life anymore. They don't behave normally in public. People are in a very strange place in evolution, and I think the difference between these two characters and these two men, sure they are different ends of the spectrum in terms of like technical value, materialistic value. But also each of them have the opposite in terms of psycho-spiritual value and emotional value and what they can offer the other person in terms of soul evolution and growth. Perhaps because she works in this world of trying to understand people and what they want, she's forced to go more inward and really interrogate herself and say, what do I really want and what is actually important in this life? Is it how much money I have or is it how truly loved I am? SONG: To me, it's about this contradiction, right? It's this thing of how we talk about what we want in our partner, when we're asked to use language to describe it, and how we literally, spiritually fall in love. The gap between those two things is terrifyingly big. To me, that's where the mystery of the film is. AP/AAP Before Celine Song was an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, she was a playwright in New York who needed day jobs to pay rent. That's how she found herself as a professional matchmaker. What may have begun as a purely transactional gig, a way for her to keep making her art in an expensive city, taught her more about people's wants and needs and the true contents of their hearts than she could have ever imagined. "I always wanted to write something about it because there seemed to be a story in it that is massive and very epic in proportion," Song said. "It affects every human being on Earth." And while waiting for her breakout film Past Lives to debut, she did. That film is Materialists, a modern-day love story starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans that's now showing in cinemas. Johnson is the matchmaker presented with two different types of men for herself: one a poor struggling actor and ex-boyfriend; the other a wealthy "unicorn". The internet has already drawn battle lines. 25 HOTTEST POPCORN MOVIES THIS WINTER Past Lives, Song's stunning debut, explored not only love and longing but the very idea that our romantic choices, right or wrong, bring lifelong consequences. Compared to that soulful film, Materialists might look suspiciously like it could be glossy, superficial and ... OK, loads of fun! But perhaps a bit more Bridget Jones than Celine Song. That doesn't mean the experience rings hollow. Just as Past Lives wasn't really about a love triangle, Materialists is about something more than the question of which guy is the "correct" choice. It's a smart rom-com that tries to be honest about life and still leave us smiling. Song and Johnson spoke recently about the film, falling in love and the modern marketplace of dating. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity. Question: How did you find each other? SONG: We met up thinking that we were just going to get to know each other and be friends and I walked away from that conversation - this is just from my perspective - but I think I was still sitting there when I texted my producers and the studio being like, "I think I've found my Lucy." That's how casting works for me, it's always about falling in love. It's very connected to what we talk about in the film. Like, there's no mathematical anything. It just the feeling that you get talking to someone and you're like, oh I just know. JOHNSON: I knew you had this movie that you were about to start making. I was basically told it was too late. I was like, but I really want to meet her because she's so smart, and I've seen interviews and obviously had seen Past Lives. I wanted to talk and get to know her as an artist and a person and so I went into this being like there's no chance that I'll be in this movie, but maybe she'll make another one. We just had such a good time talking, I didn't even know that I was someone she was thinking about. A few weeks later we spoke. It was very romantic. Q: Where do we meet Lucy in life? JOHNSON: She's sort of at the top of her game in her work and is very disconnected from her heart and focused on being a perfectionist and getting people to get married. On the surface, you see her as a very transactional person and not really invested in people's souls, but she actually is and really does want the best for them. She's also on her own journey of trying to figure out what it is she wants for herself in this life, and, essentially, do you fight for the thing that you think you want, or do you fight for that thing that you know you need? Is that right, Celine? SONG: That's so good. Q: What are you trying to say through the two men in her life? SONG: It was never going to be a conversation about which flavor of a person. It's actually so much more about this marketplace of dating that all of us live in if you're single, and also the marketplace that Dakota's character is navigating. She knows the math better than anyone else in the film. She's an excellent matchmaker. Pedro plays somebody who is probably, in straight dating, someone of the highest possible value. Chris' character, in the spectrum in the marketplace of values of dating, is someone who is of the lowest value possible. I find them to be such adorable characters, very worthy of an adoration. Lucy knows exactly where they fall in the stock market of men. It's actually about the way that the math around that is going to blow up. HAVE YOU SEEN THESE YET? JOHNSON: Celine speaks so eloquently about the marketplace of dating and I glitch at those words because I'm like, you can't explain love that way. But that's actually how people are. Marriage used to be a business deal. It was like, my father wants your cows and my mother needs your wheat and whatever. It was a trade-off. But now there's all these books about how we expect our partner to fulfill every single aspect of our needs. And the world being dominated by social media, people don't meet in real life anymore. They don't behave normally in public. People are in a very strange place in evolution, and I think the difference between these two characters and these two men, sure they are different ends of the spectrum in terms of like technical value, materialistic value. But also each of them have the opposite in terms of psycho-spiritual value and emotional value and what they can offer the other person in terms of soul evolution and growth. Perhaps because she works in this world of trying to understand people and what they want, she's forced to go more inward and really interrogate herself and say, what do I really want and what is actually important in this life? Is it how much money I have or is it how truly loved I am? SONG: To me, it's about this contradiction, right? It's this thing of how we talk about what we want in our partner, when we're asked to use language to describe it, and how we literally, spiritually fall in love. The gap between those two things is terrifyingly big. To me, that's where the mystery of the film is. AP/AAP Before Celine Song was an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, she was a playwright in New York who needed day jobs to pay rent. That's how she found herself as a professional matchmaker. What may have begun as a purely transactional gig, a way for her to keep making her art in an expensive city, taught her more about people's wants and needs and the true contents of their hearts than she could have ever imagined. "I always wanted to write something about it because there seemed to be a story in it that is massive and very epic in proportion," Song said. "It affects every human being on Earth." And while waiting for her breakout film Past Lives to debut, she did. That film is Materialists, a modern-day love story starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans that's now showing in cinemas. Johnson is the matchmaker presented with two different types of men for herself: one a poor struggling actor and ex-boyfriend; the other a wealthy "unicorn". The internet has already drawn battle lines. 25 HOTTEST POPCORN MOVIES THIS WINTER Past Lives, Song's stunning debut, explored not only love and longing but the very idea that our romantic choices, right or wrong, bring lifelong consequences. Compared to that soulful film, Materialists might look suspiciously like it could be glossy, superficial and ... OK, loads of fun! But perhaps a bit more Bridget Jones than Celine Song. That doesn't mean the experience rings hollow. Just as Past Lives wasn't really about a love triangle, Materialists is about something more than the question of which guy is the "correct" choice. It's a smart rom-com that tries to be honest about life and still leave us smiling. Song and Johnson spoke recently about the film, falling in love and the modern marketplace of dating. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity. Question: How did you find each other? SONG: We met up thinking that we were just going to get to know each other and be friends and I walked away from that conversation - this is just from my perspective - but I think I was still sitting there when I texted my producers and the studio being like, "I think I've found my Lucy." That's how casting works for me, it's always about falling in love. It's very connected to what we talk about in the film. Like, there's no mathematical anything. It just the feeling that you get talking to someone and you're like, oh I just know. JOHNSON: I knew you had this movie that you were about to start making. I was basically told it was too late. I was like, but I really want to meet her because she's so smart, and I've seen interviews and obviously had seen Past Lives. I wanted to talk and get to know her as an artist and a person and so I went into this being like there's no chance that I'll be in this movie, but maybe she'll make another one. We just had such a good time talking, I didn't even know that I was someone she was thinking about. A few weeks later we spoke. It was very romantic. Q: Where do we meet Lucy in life? JOHNSON: She's sort of at the top of her game in her work and is very disconnected from her heart and focused on being a perfectionist and getting people to get married. On the surface, you see her as a very transactional person and not really invested in people's souls, but she actually is and really does want the best for them. She's also on her own journey of trying to figure out what it is she wants for herself in this life, and, essentially, do you fight for the thing that you think you want, or do you fight for that thing that you know you need? Is that right, Celine? SONG: That's so good. Q: What are you trying to say through the two men in her life? SONG: It was never going to be a conversation about which flavor of a person. It's actually so much more about this marketplace of dating that all of us live in if you're single, and also the marketplace that Dakota's character is navigating. She knows the math better than anyone else in the film. She's an excellent matchmaker. Pedro plays somebody who is probably, in straight dating, someone of the highest possible value. Chris' character, in the spectrum in the marketplace of values of dating, is someone who is of the lowest value possible. I find them to be such adorable characters, very worthy of an adoration. Lucy knows exactly where they fall in the stock market of men. It's actually about the way that the math around that is going to blow up. HAVE YOU SEEN THESE YET? JOHNSON: Celine speaks so eloquently about the marketplace of dating and I glitch at those words because I'm like, you can't explain love that way. But that's actually how people are. Marriage used to be a business deal. It was like, my father wants your cows and my mother needs your wheat and whatever. It was a trade-off. But now there's all these books about how we expect our partner to fulfill every single aspect of our needs. And the world being dominated by social media, people don't meet in real life anymore. They don't behave normally in public. People are in a very strange place in evolution, and I think the difference between these two characters and these two men, sure they are different ends of the spectrum in terms of like technical value, materialistic value. But also each of them have the opposite in terms of psycho-spiritual value and emotional value and what they can offer the other person in terms of soul evolution and growth. Perhaps because she works in this world of trying to understand people and what they want, she's forced to go more inward and really interrogate herself and say, what do I really want and what is actually important in this life? Is it how much money I have or is it how truly loved I am? SONG: To me, it's about this contradiction, right? It's this thing of how we talk about what we want in our partner, when we're asked to use language to describe it, and how we literally, spiritually fall in love. The gap between those two things is terrifyingly big. To me, that's where the mystery of the film is. AP/AAP
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- Courier-Mail
‘Thank you Australia': Katy Perry fights back tears in Aussie farewell
Don't miss out on the headlines from Music Tours. Followed categories will be added to My News. An emotional Katy Perry was seen fighting back tears onstage as she thanked fans following her split from Orlando Bloom. The singer's upset came as Orlando, 48, shared cryptic posts on Instagram following the breakdown of their relationship. Katy, 40 is currently on her world tour and has put on a brave face despite her ongoing separation from Orlando. It was revealed last week how the A-list couple had parted ways after nine-years together. But while he headed off to Jeff Bezos' wedding in Italy, Katy has remained on tour. As she brought her final show in Australia to a close she began to well up. Making a heart with her fingers, Katy's voice started to crack as she addressed the crowd. 'Thank you Australia for always being there for me,' she said, clearly fighting back tears. MORE: 'Drastic': Who gets what in Katy, Bloom split Meanwhile, Katy's ex-Orlando took to Instagram to share a series of cryptic posts. Hinting at his life taking a new direction, one read: 'Each day is a new beginning. 'What we do today is what matters most.' While the other also talked about change, and said: 'The important thing is to take the first step. 'Bravely overcoming one small fear gives you the courage to take on the next.' Katy Perry has had a rough time in Australia. Picture: David Crosling It came from the heart. Photo: X MORE: 'Greedy' Katy Perry slammed for 'unforgivable' act It's been an emotional week for both Katy and Orlando. Last week, The Sun reported how the star couple held crisis talks to try to save their relationship after leading increasingly separate lives. An insider said: 'No one has decided it's definitely the end of the road for Katy and Orlando. 'They both love each other, but they have been living different lives for at least a year and in different mindsets.' The insider added: 'They have barely been together for a decent amount of time, without distractions, for many, many months.' Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in March. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File Just days after news of their break-up broke, Orlando 'made his debut as a single man' at Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's wedding. At the three-day celebration he was seen embracing Kim Kardashian and chatting to Sydney Sweeney. Katy and Orlando started dating in 2016 and got engaged three years later. They share four-year-old daughter Daisy. This story first appeared in The Sun and was republished with permission. Originally published as 'Thank you Australia': Katy Perry fights back tears in Aussie farewell
