A ROM COM WITH SOME WEIGHT.
Somewhere above middle America, heading west to Vegas for what I think is my fifth ComplexCon (maybe fourth the COVID years warped time), I watched The Materialist
on that little seat back screen embedded in someone’s headrest. Not the most cinematic delivery system but the film held its own.
I’m not a rom com kinda dude. I’ve seen them, sure, Notting Hill was my prolly my first, watched it with my Mom in the ’90s like every other kid. But let’s be seriousthe genre rarely
gets challenged the way superhero movies do. People drag comic book films for sameness meanwhile most rom coms just change the zip code and go again.
The Materialist actually disrupts that cycle and does it quietly. Maybe intentionally. It stars three actors who’ve all played superheroes (I love the design of irony), but instead of capes,
they’re dealing with capitalism. The film openly explores the Socio economic realities inside relationships not as subtext, but as the plot.
Our main character grew up poor. She’s built her life into something more stable, more professional, and yes more financially comfortable to an extent. She once dated a struggling actor
she truly loved, adored his craft, his passion, his belief in art, but that didn’t insulate them from circumstance. Passion didn’t pay the rent. Love didn’t eliminate disparity. And somewhere before
the film begin she leaves the guy we all know as Captain America, well the White one.
Now she works for a boutique partner matching agency. I guess Tinder, if Tinder had anthropology and HR departments. She interviews women seeking men, and through those conversations you
hear the quiet criteria of modern dating height requirements, income thresholds, net worth expectations hairline non negotiables.
At first you laugh but then you realize this is the math of attraction in late capitalism. The film doesn’t point fingers. It just lets the discomfort sit there.
This is getting long so I’ll cut it here. But honestly? The Materialist surprised me. It might actually mark a real evolution of the rom com grounded, contemporary, uncomfortably honest.
Worth the watch. Especially at 35,000 feet with nowhere to run from your own reflections except a very small restroom.