Materialists · reception & legacy

How Materialists has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Sold in summer 2025 as A24's glossy star-triangle rom-com, it landed to solid critic reviews but a famously grumpy B- CinemaScore from date-night audiences who wanted Nora Ephron and got something sadder and thornier about money; a year on, the 'it was never supposed to be a rom-com' defense has largely won, and it's settled in as the follow-up that proved Past Lives wasn't a fluke.

What's debated

The forever-fight is whether the marketing lied — anti-rom-com about the brutal math of dating, or a rom-com that forgot to be fun — with a side skirmish over which corner of the love triangle she should have picked.

Its footprint

It became the movie of 2025 dating discourse: 'unicorn,' checkbox-speak about height and income, and the leg-lengthening-surgery reveal all escaped the film and colonized dating-app conversation, memes, and a thousand think-pieces about marrying for love versus a portfolio.

Where it stands

Too young for canon but a certified Letterboxd discourse magnet — the 2025 release everyone had a take on, logged less as a favourite than as an argument you had to enter.

Named by the director

Influences Celine Song has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• Phantom Thread (2017) — Song called it one of the best romantic comedies of the past decade and among the most authentically romantic films ever, praising its vulnerability.
• The Age of Innocence (1993) — Named on her published list of films that inspired Materialists — love constrained by money and social rules.
• Pride & Prejudice (2005) — She cited it (famous hand-flex included) among the romances that shaped the film's marriage-as-economics worldview.
• Howards End (1992) — Included on her official Letterboxd list of films that inspired Materialists.
• Nora Ephron — Song named Ephron's romantic comedies among the touchstones she was consciously working with and against.