Why ‘Materialists' director Celine Song thinks love is a marketplace

San Francisco Chronicle​

13-06-2025

In Celine Song's latest movie 'Materialists,' a New York City matchmaker navigates the politics of love.
'You're not ugly — you just don't have money,' says Lucy, portrayed by Dakota Johnson, exhaling cigarette smoke into the New York City air from a fire escape.
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'Materialists' (R) is in theaters Friday, June 13.
Song's debut film, 2023's 'Past Lives,' rocked audiences with its soft yet devastating spotlight on what it's like to love your husband and your childhood sweetheart the way you love adjoining parts of your own soul. But her follow-up feature takes on a whole new love triangle, one plagued by questions of vanity, class and self-worth.
Now for the second time in a row, the writer-director delivers on the wounding nuances of modern love.
Like Johnson's Lucy, Song worked for a matchmaking agency in New York. Her clientele was more honest with her about what they wanted in a partner than with their own friends and therapists, she said. And their priorities — height, money and a low body mass index — are the ugly truths central to 'Materialists.'
The Chronicle met with Song at the Langham hotel in Manhattan the day after the 'Materialists' premiere to discuss love, commodification and where the two meet.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: A big theme in this movie is value. Where does the idea derive from in your own life?
A: If somebody says, 'I really need to date somebody who's above 6 feet tall,' it all comes down to, 'Because that makes me feel valuable — that makes me feel like I am worthy of love from somebody who everybody considers valuable.' It comes down to that: 'I don't want to walk into a party with somebody who is 5-foot-6.' So I think that's why the conversation about value really showed up.
I worked as a matchmaker for six months, and I learned so much about how people describe the person they want to be partnered with for the rest of their life. It's amazing, because it's all numbers: height, weight, income.
Q: How would you describe the characters' relationship with self-love, self-worth?
A: I think that all three of them are struggling with self-worth, which is common in modern life and modern dating. Another part of the problem is this objectification and commodification of the self and of each other.
In 'Pride and Prejudice' or in Victorian romance, this marriage market used to happen in salons or garden parties, where people talk about everybody's value: their worth in silver, their property. That kind of marketplace has existed forever. But now, this objectification and commodification has become so accessible and global. (Song gestures to her phone screen.)
Q: I recently saw photos of Kris Jenner's new face — not sure if you saw too. I'm curious what you think about the access to plastic surgery and how it bears weight on dating and love.
A: It's terrifying. I feel like there is a really insidious language around taking care of yourself or 'self-improvement.' But this language is really about increasing your value in the marketplace. To me, what's really scary is how cheap Botox is getting. And what's insidious is that it's like, well, everybody is doing it. Those are your competitors in the dating market, and they're doing it. So aren't you doing it?
Q: Two characters in 'Materialists' have had plastic surgery and struggle with self-worth, but they're also trying to find love. Do you think you have to have self-love before you find a partner, or are you someone who believes 'We can figure this out together'?
A: I met my husband when I was 24, so we were too young to really get to this world of value. I don't know if anybody is that secure when you're in your 20s. But what's amazing is that when you ask somebody who loves you why they love you, their answer will never have anything to do with your market value. It's never going to have anything to do with height or weight. It will always be like, 'I just do.' It's just simple.
So in that way, I already know that the marketplace is not real. But now you have access to the global dating market on Instagram, so the problem is that now you're going to start evaluating and objectifying yourself in relation to everybody else, which is really common.
Q: So much of this movie is about the math of dating and the failure of that math. What do you think ultimately brings people together?
A: It's completely mysterious to me why one person feels something for another person. All you can hope for is that you do, and part of that is being open to that person. It's much easier to be cynical, isn't it? But the truth is that it's a very brave thing to say, 'No, I want love. I believe in it. It might be right around the corner.' And the truth is that it might be right around the corner. That's actually true.
Q: Both of your movies, 'Materialists' and 'Past Lives,' explore love triangles that can't last, so you set up a portion of your audience for disappointment. Do you like doing that?
A: I want it to be a revelation for the audience members themselves. It usually speaks more about who you are as a person watching it than it does about the characters. Many people might walk away from the film being like, 'I would have made that decision differently.' But the truth is, Lucy is not you. You're you.
Q: What hope is there for single people?
A: Well, there's advice in the film. … When love happens and is offered to you, you just need the bravery to be able to say yes. I think that's the only thing we can hope for.