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Materialists – Film Review

Cast: Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, Chris Evans, Zoë Winters

Director: Celine Song

Synopsis: In the hustle and bustle of New York City, a matchmaker finds herself torn between a wealthy and charming financier and her ex…

Review: What if two people who at one time in their lives were deeply in love and were seemingly destined to be together, only for their trajectories to split? This was the philosophical question that beat at the heart of Celine Song’s reflective and heart-achingly beautiful directorial debut, Past Lives, and how those two people reckon with what might have been had their lives taken a different direction. Love is very much at the centre of her follow-up, grounded in the world of dating and matchmaking, with the vibrant and lively atmosphere of the city that never sleeps again serving as the backdrop.

Lucy Mason (Johnson) is a self-proclaimed “eternal bachelorette” matchmaker working for ADORE, providing dating services for high-paying clientele. She has seen incredible success in her career, having matched nine couples who tied the knot. However, she insists she won’t walk down the aisle herself unless she meets someone wealthy. At a client’s wedding, she encounters the groom’s brother Harry (Pascal) and also runs into her ex-boyfriend, John, who works as a waiter for a catering firm while trying to become an actor. Lucy faces a dilemma between starting a promising new relationship with Harry or rekindling the romance with her old flame.

As was the case with her directorial debut, Song delves much deeper beyond the surface of what one might expect from a typical romantic comedy where two souls meet and fall in love with each other. This is encapsulated through an unconventional opening scene that is bound to catch some people off guard, yet it completely illustrates the nature of the story. Humanity’s age-old adventure to find connection, passion, romance and the hope of finding the special person we would like to fall head over heels in love with and wish to spend the rest of our lives with. Sometimes it’s a case of being in the right place at the right time and everything falls effortlessly into place.

However, in the modern world, finding a partner often reduces to persistent scrolling through apps, all in the hope of discovering that elusive dream match. But what truly defines the “perfect someone”? Is it their job, height, hobbies, or the music they listen to? Or perhaps even more specific criteria than that? The dating world is competitive and cutthroat, where everything on a profile has to be flawless in a world where people are filled to the brim with flaws and imperfections. Can a matchmaker really effectively use these various criteria to connect individuals with their ideal partners? This is the central question that Song addresses with unwavering honesty.

Johnson is an actor whose choice of projects (as she herself will tell you) has left a lot to be desired in recent years. It was clear that she had talent, but just needed the right script, and with those aligning, she gives one of her best performances as Lucy. Working in the field of matchmaking requires someone to be cool, calm and collected and the ultimate professional, even when dealing with picky and demanding clients. However, she remains unflustered in her attempts to find partners for that “check all the boxes”. Yet despite her success, she struggles to find the right partner for herself, even when someone as charming and downright handsome as Harry enters her life and goes out of his way to woo her. Pascal makes full use of his limited screentime and brings effortless suave and smouldering good looks. John may not have the same level of wealth as the other man trying to win Lucy’s heart, but Evans also brings charisma and charm aplenty.

When depicting love triangles on screen, human nature often leads us to root for one side to prevail over the other. However, Song’s script takes a balanced approach and allows the audience to understand the perspectives of all parties involved. It would be easy to assume Lucy would go for the man who has all the wealth in the world, but it is considerably more nuanced and complicated. There is, however, a subplot featuring one of Lucy’s clients, Sophie (Winters), which highlights the challenges and all too real dangers women, in particular, can face when dating a male partner and the risk of that partner getting abusive and or violent. While this may hit too close to home for some, it needed to be addressed, and more screentime could have been given to exploring this peril of the dating minefield.

It doesn’t quite pack the emotionally devastating punch as Past Lives, but take nothing away from what Celine Song has achieved. With only her second film, here is a director quickly gaining a reputation for bringing thoughtful and mature romances to the screen. Stories filled with resonant storytelling that make us pause and reflect on our lives, the people we love, and how do we possibly go about finding the one we are looking for in such a crazy, chaotic world where people are motivated by money and material possessions? A universal struggle that humanity has been grappling with throughout the aeons of human history, even for folks as mesmerisingly attractive as its three leading characters.

Bolstered by three excellent performances from its bewitchingly beautiful cast, Materialists offers a sincere and unflinching look at the complicated maze of online dating and humanity’s eternal quest to find romance in an increasingly avaricious world.

Bad Times at the El Royale – Film Review

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Chris Hemsworth

Director: Drew Goddard

Synopsis: The once famous El Royale hotel in Lake Tahoe has become a shadow of its former self. However, when a bunch of mysterious individuals all check into the hotel on the same day, it promises to be an eventful evening…

Review: If a film pitches itself as a mystery/thriller, there has got to be an almost immediate moment in the first few minutes that grabs the audience’s attention and ensure they become subsequently absorbed into the ensuing suspense of the unfolding drama. Within the opening moments of writer/director Drew Goddard’s second directorial effort, you get just a taste of the drama and intrigue of what’s to come, with more than a few dashes of neo-noir thrown in for good measure.

It is 1960s America, and the titular El Royale hotel has, shall we say, seen better days. However things begin to take a turn for the interesting when an unusual collection of folks all rock up looking for some lodgings. It doesn’t however take long before things begin to unravel and our guests may not be who they appear to be. These guests consist of a Priest (Bridges) , a singer trying to catch her break (Erivo) , a smarmy salesman (Hamm) and a woman (Johnson), whose identity is initially withheld. There’s something immediately suspicious about each member of this cast, as to who they really are, and what secrets they’re hiding.

Every member of this cast is on their best form, and there is not one performance that feels out of place. However somewhat unsurprisingly, Jeff Bridges is leading the way, being his usual charismatic self in a role that (probably) was exclusively written with him in mind. A relative newcomer, Cynthia Erivo shines very brightly as a singer who really hits those notes both in terms of her incredible singing ability and her performance. Yet the scene stealer in all of this is Chris Hemsworth, once again not shy in showing the world his muscles. He gives an astonishing performance, the likes of which we haven’t really seen from him before, certainly a world away from his work in the realm of Norse mythology.

Welcome to the El Royale ab show….

A quick glance at Goddard’s resume shows some impressive projects, such as the scribe of The Martian, the show-runner of season 1 of Netflix’s Daredevil, and his directorial debut The Cabin in the Woods. It is a resume not to be sneezed at. For the remarkable array of acting talent he has assembled here, his screenplay is ambitious to say the least in the way it chooses to present itself to the audience. It seems apparent that Goddard was inspired by Quentin Tarantino, and the ways that the latter has used to tell some of his stories, to great effect.

It is smart and ambitious story-telling on Goddard’s part, but there are instances where the momentum that is being built in a certain scene is lost, as the perspective of the story changes. This can, and does have an extremely negative impact on the film’s pacing, which is just a tad problematic for a film that centres on a mystery. Nevertheless, despite that problematic pacing, the film really starts to click once we reach that all important third act and everything that these interwoven stories have been building towards comes to an exciting, and nerve-shredding climax.

When such original pieces of work like this come along, something that is increasingly rare these days, they must not be overlooked. However, for all of its originality with its premise, its eclectic array of characters and very colourful and stylish production design, that potential is never fully realised. Hence, those who check-in to the El Royale, may just check out with not as much satisfaction as they almost certainly would want to.

Goddard turns on the style with some lavish production design and a unique bunch of characters, but the screenplay just feels too ambitious for its own good, and is at certain points a case of style over substance.