Latest news with #romanticDrama
Daily Mail
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I'm a matchmaker... here's what Dakota Johnson's movie Materialists gets wrong
Celine Song's romantic drama Materialists has proven to be an unexpectedly divisive movie - and it shone a spotlight on matchmakers and what they actually do. The film centers around Lucy, played by Dakota Johnson, a matchmaker living in New York City, who is caught between an old flame and new love interest, played by Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal. Professional matchmaker Maria Avgitidi, who has been been in the business for almost 20 years, told the Daily Mail that while there are many parts of the movie that are accurate, some are extremely far-fetched. 'In the trailer, people are listing off numbers, and that is very accurate,' she dished. 'People will come in, and they'll say, "I want [my man] to be this high. I want [him] to have a full head of hair. I want [him] to not have cats, because I'm allergic to cats," like that is very accurate in the initial call,' she acknowledged. However, Maria, who has around '4,000 marriages' under her belt, said her relationship wins are not as thoroughly celebrated as the matchmakers at Adore, the fictional service in the film. 'I don't have cake parties like they do in the trailer. That's never happened,' she laughed. Maria also shared that as a matchmaker, she doesn't attend the weddings on the couple's she set up. 'As a matchmaker, the job is first and second dates, and then goodbye,' she shared. 'It's now your job to be a good boyfriend, good girlfriend, whatever it is. 'I have been invited to several weddings, but at the same time there is this professional personal boundary that I don't want to cross.' 'I'm not your friend. I'm your service provider,' she declared. 'It's kind of like If you invited your personal trainer.' One thing Maria acknowledged that the film did get right was the burn-out rate of matchmakers. 'If you're a matchmaker, you have to discover what your emotional bandwidth is, and the kind of clients you can take,' she advised. And for those who hire a matchmaker, she stressed the importance of connecting with each other before you start looking for a partner. 'Your first match has to be with your matchmaker,' Maria pointed out. Lauren Daddis, a senior matchmaker at Three Day Rule said there were 'definitely' parts of the movie resonated with her, and other parts that were 'pure Hollywood.' Maria, who has around '4,000 marriages' under her belt, said her relationship wins are not as thoroughly celebrated as the matchmakers at Adore, the fictional service in the film I run a matchmaking service. These are red flags people miss - and green flags to help find love 'Some of the truths: I have a lot of high-achieving clients seeking love. Many successful people do turn to matchmaking because they're short on time, they value privacy and they want something more curated than the dating apps offer,' she explained. Lauren said the scenes between Lucy and her clients in the film struck a chord with her. 'It demonstrated the emotional complexity behind the scenes,' she continued. 'Even the most accomplished, successful, confident clients come with vulnerabilities, doubts and attachment issues - real matchmaking often involves helping clients move past these things,' the matchmaker pointed out. However there were a few parts that Lauren admitted made her want to 'crawl out my skin.' 'Every time Lucy said "You are going to meet the love of your life. I can promise you that,"' she reflected. 'The movie makes it seem like a perfect match is always one introduction away — in reality, it's often a process of learning, refinement, and growth,' she pointed out. 'Some matches hit quickly, but the real work is in setting the foundation for something that lasts.'
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nanni Moretti Teaming With Louis Garrel, Jasmine Trinca on New Film
Palme d'Or-winning Italian director Nanni Moretti (The Son's Room, We Have a Pope) is teaming up with French star Louis Garrel (Little Women, The Dreamers) and Italian actress Jasmine Trinca (The Gunman) for his new film, the romantic drama Succederà questa notte (It Will Happen Tonight). The feature, loosely based on the short story collection Hungry Heart (Lev Raev) by Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo, is set to begin shooting in Spain and Italy this fall. Moretti adapted Nevo's novel Three Floors Up as the 2021 film Three Floors. More from The Hollywood Reporter Kim Woodburn, British Reality TV Star Best Known for 'How Clean Is Your House,' Dies at 83 Melanie Rumani, BBC Studios and UKTV Global Head of Acquisitions, Dies at 50 'Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Cinematic Cut' Debut Marks KVIFF Expansion Into Gaming World Trinca made her feature debut in Moretti's The Son's Room in 2001, but this will be their first collaboration since The Caiman in 2006. The Italian actress has been splitting her time between features, including Léa Todorov's Maria Montessori and Ildikó Enyedi's The Story of My Wife (2021), and TV work, appearing in acclaimed Italian series La Storia and The Art of Joy (both 2024). Succederà questa notte will be Moretti's first collaboration with Garrel. The French actor is coming off recent French blockbusters The Three Musketeers, parts 1 and 2, and Quentin Dupieux's 2024 Cannes festival opener The Second Act. The Italian auteur has been looking for a project to work on with Garrel for several years now. In 2023, the pair staged a series of viral Instagram skits to promote the Garrel-directed crime comedy The Innocent, which screened at Moretti's Nuovo Sacher cinema in Rome. The film's cast includes Angela Finocchiaro, Elena Lietti, Antonio De Matteo, Andrea Lattanzi, Hippolyte Girardot, Pietro Ragusa, and Paolo Sassanelli. Moretti, who often appears in his own films, will have a cameo. Moretti adapted Nevo's short story collection together with co-screenwriters Federica Pontremoli and Valia Santella, intertwining the book's separate stories about the various bonds — familial, political, social and romantic — that both restrict and liberate, into a single narrative. Sacher Film and Fandango are producing in collaboration with Rai Cinema. Italian daily Il Messaggero first broke the news of Moretti's new film. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
CBC
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Can Past Lives director Celine Song make another great love triangle movie?
Canadian director Celine Song is back with her sophomore film, Materialists. The romantic drama follows a high-end matchmaker (Dakota Johnson) in a love triangle with her wealthy client (Pedro Pascal) and her broke ex-boyfriend (Chris Evans). This film comes after Song received a best picture nomination for her debut film, Past Lives, which is also about a love triangle. Today on Commotion, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud discusses with entertainment reporter Jackson Weaver and film critics Sarah-Tai Black and Rachel Ho if Materialists lives up to Song's past work. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion on two other new films, Boxcutter, and the live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Elamin: Rachel, when you think about this movie and what Celine Song is trying to do here, what do you like about this story that Celine Song's trying to tell? Rachel: I think that there's a really long and rich history in literature and cinema of these romantic relationship things. Like, what do women want? What do people want? What do you want from a relationship? Jane Austen did a lot of it. We had the really quirky stuff with Cary Grant and the Golden Age. It's all about feels in the '80s and '90s and the 2000s. Those rom-coms were less about the idea of women being property, or people being property, or relationships — or marriage, more specifically — being a business proposition. The '80s,'90s, 2000s, it was more about chemistry, it was more about: do you actually love somebody? Which is a wild notion. And then Celine kind of brings it back to what it was before, which is a very age-old question, an age-old predicament of: do you marry for love or do you marry for convenience? Do you marry for security for life, for the safety of being in a partnership like that, [that's] usually economic? So I enjoy that her film adds to that. I think that it's a very realistic way of looking at relationships in 2025, to an extent. I do think that as much as it didn't quite work for me, I think it is a good addition to that really rich tradition of looking at relationships and how they are in a very specific time period. And I think that you could definitely time stamp that thought — the mentality that a lot of the characters have — with 2025. Elamin: Sarah-Tai, what do you make of the chemistry between Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans? Sarah-Tai: Chris is obviously one of people's favourite Chrises, he's in the Chris trifecta. Pedro Pascal is the it-boy of the moment — besides being obviously conventionally attractive and all that, he's incredibly charming, like this man could charm like a rubber plant, some people are just good at being likable in relation to people in space and in language. The one thing is that Dakota Johnson is not any of those things. I'm not trying to be mean! I find her offensiveness as a nepo baby actually so inoffensive. Like she could be so much worse, but she's not. She could be so much better, but she's not. I think she's really a two-note actor. I think she has slightly improved over the years. But she just doesn't have a lot of chemistry with Chris and Pedro on screen here. I think Chris and Pedro actually have more chemistry with each other. Dakota Johnson — I might be projecting here because, like Chris Evans's character, I'm a poor boy — doesn't really have that quality as an actor where you can get past the patina surrounding her performances to something more sincere. Like, I don't know, maybe she's just had too comfortable of a life. But the thing about this film is that it really demands, in specific moments, an ability to perform that sincerity, especially because this is a film that so many of the thematics are specifically about the insincerities of dating and romance. And there's something also about Celine Song's filmmaking style and writing style that really necessitates having an actor who can sit in stillness, who can sit in prolonged moments. And sadly, Dakota Johnson just doesn't have that for me. And I think that that is actually a huge part of why the film wasn't a success for me personally. Elamin: Rachel started us off by laying out some of the things that this movie's trying to grapple with. Maybe it's closer to Age of Innocence than it is to When Harry Met Sally. There's something about, "Hey, what is this institution of marriage for?" That's a hard question to ask in a rom-com, and yet this movie is being advertised as a rom-com. Jackson, is that misleading for this movie to be positioned that way? Jackson: First off, yeah, because there's almost no "com" in this rom-com. There's one scene involving Pedro Pascal in a kitchen crouching, that's funny. But other than that, there's not really any comedy in this rom-com. And also I think it deals with the artificialities of romance in the modern day in a way that I think actually works in one of Dakota Johnson's two notes because she is inaccessible and she's artificial as a character, which works with her — I agree — nepo acting style. She's inaccessible until maybe a switch at the end. But I do think that there's a depth here, kind of a meta-analysis on how materialistic relationships actually can be and how they are business commodities. And they literally speak about them in this Aaron Sorkin-esque finance bro talk, about like, "What assets do you have? What debts do you have in love?" And when you have that kind of baked into Celine Song's, I guess, filmography now after Past Lives, it does, I think, make it something other than a rom-com, at least in the first half.
Geek Tyrant
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Charming Trailer For The Lana Condor and Andrew Koji Romance WORTH THE WAIT — GeekTyrant
Tubi has released the trailer for an indie romantic drama titled Worth the Wait , which is a charming-looking film that follows the 'lives of multiple Asian-American strangers fatefully intertwine as they navigate budding love, confront loss, and encounter old flames.' The tagline for the film reads: "Life is unpredictable enough. You need someone who's really in it with you.' The movie is directed by Tom Lin, aka Tom Shuyu Lin, director of the movies Winds of September , Starry Starry Night , Zinnia Flower, and The Garden of Evening Mists . The ensemble cast includes Lana Condor, Andrew Koji, Ross Butler, Sung Kang, Elodie Yung, Karena Ka-Yan Lam, Osric Chau, Ali Fumiko Whitney, Ricky He, and Kheng Hua Tan. The story is based on the personal story of writers Dan Mark and Rachel Tan. Lin said: "We had such a great time making the picture. I'm so excited that Worth the Wait is going to be available to Tubi audiences who can easily come & enjoy what we've proudly made.' The movie is now streaming on Tubi.
Khaleej Times
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell-starrer 'A Big Bold Beautiful Journey' drops trailer
The romantic drama A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, released its first trailer earlier this week. The film, directed by Pachinko and After Yang filmmaker Kogonada, is written by The Menu co-writer Seth Reiss. It will release in theatres on September 19, distributed by Sony's Columbia Pictures. In the movie, Robbie and Farrell play Sarah and David—two strangers who meet at a friend's wedding. The two reconnect unexpectedly after a strange GPS-like signal brings them together again. They then go on a journey through time, using mysterious doors that transport them to key moments from their pasts. As they revisit old memories, they begin to connect and understand each other deeply. View this post on Instagram A post shared by A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (@bigboldbeautifuljourney) According to Deadline, Kogonada, while speaking about the film earlier at CinemaCon, said, " Big Bold Beautiful Journey is the kind of film I would want to watch in a packed theatre... At its heart, it is two people reconciling with their past to find love in the present." The cast also includes Kevin Kline, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lily Rabe, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lucy Thomas, Hamish Linklater, Billy Magnussen, Sarah Gadon, Brandon Perea and Yuvi Hecht. This marks Robbie's first acting role since Barbie and Farrell's since The Penguin. Big Bold Beautiful Journey is produced by Bradley Thomas, Ryan Friedkin, Seth Reiss, and Youree Henley. Kogonada and others, including Ilene Feldman and Ori Eisen, serve as executive producers.
