‘Materialists’ Director Celine Song on Her Film’s Success and Debate

Celine Song was waiting for it. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker was in London, a few months after her sophomore feature Materialists had bowed to critical and commercial success in the U.S. — and spurred dozens of thinkpieces about its depictions of modern dating, capitalism, and gender roles (okay, and leg-lengthening surgery). She’d noticed a pattern in reactions to her New York-set rom-dramedy’s love triangle that surprised her: Viewers were sympathizing more with Harry (Pedro Pascal), a wealthy financier courting matchmaker Lucy (Dakota Johnson), than John (Chris Evans), Lucy’s old flame still living with roommates while struggling to make it as an actor. 

“For most of the world in late capitalism, it’s like, ‘No, the way that Harry lives, where it’s about wealth accumulation, is actually the one that makes more sense,’” Song says. She wanted someone to let her know they had this perspective — because she wanted to respond, on the record. “The whole time I was like, ‘Just try me,’” she says now, grinning. “I’ll tell you what I think.”

In promoting the European release, she got her wish. One on-camera exchange between Song and a Refinery29 journalist, who asked Song to react to the cheeky claim that Materialists is “broke man propaganda,” went especially viral. “The thing that’s very important to me is to stress that poverty is not the fault of the poor — and I think that given that, it is very brutal.” Song told the reporter. “I find it very cruel to talk about John as a character who loves Lucy, and who is a beautiful character being played beautifully by Chris — to talk about him in such cruel terms as ‘broke boy’ or ‘broke man.’”

I’m speaking with Song three months out from that quote. The Empire State Building hovers in the back of Song’s Zoom window, capturing her favorite view from her apartment. Zohran Mamdani has just been elected mayor of her city, fueled by an inequality-focused campaign very relevant to the director and to her film’s themes. And without prompting, Song brings up that “broke man propaganda” exchange for me in response to my question about her film’s striking success, having grossed $108 million worldwide on a $20 million budget. To her, it says it all.  

“I’m able to be fearless because I’m not full of shit,” she says. “That’s how it feels to me, always. What am I afraid of? I know that I stand by every single thing that I make and every single thing that I believe in. I didn’t make this movie for jokes.”

In conversation, Song beams with assurance. She knows the movie she made, she knows why it resonated, and she knows what she wanted to say with it. The film is written to the anxious and, yes, materialistic beats of the here and now. “The way that the characters talk is actually pretty reflective of the way that we talk — maybe not even online, but just between our friends,” Song says. “It’s like, ‘Well, how was your Tinder date?’ Then they’ll be like, ‘He’s so short.’ It’s meant to feel quite exposing of the way that we have let the marketplace of the world seep into our hearts.” Song, her actors, and her crew were in constant dialogue about their own romantic lives, prioritizing a level of vulnerable, authentic experience to inform Materialists’ complex modern spirit. 

“The process of making it has to embody what the movie is,” Song says. “The making of it will reflect how it connects to the audience.” 

Among rising filmmakers, Song, previously best known as an acclaimed playwright, is in rare company. Her debut movie, Past Lives, was the hit of 2023’s Sundance and scored Oscar noms for best picture and screenplay. To follow that up with one of 2025’s highest-grossing releases for original films, in a year where good box-office news has been increasingly hard to find? “There’s been so much discussion right now in our world about how many things aren’t working,” says producer Christine Vachon. “But I have a kid in her mid 20s and a lot of our employees are in their mid 20s. Being around people that age, you really got a sense that this was the kind of movie that was going to hit a bullseye with them.”

While Song was heartened by the commercial response to Materialists, she says repeatedly in our conversation that “everything good comes with something bad” — another idea of the movie, and one she relates back to her own commercial success. “I don’t like it when audience members know how the movie’s doing,” she says. “The movie wasn’t made so that it can make a certain rich group richer. The movie exists so the movie can be itself.” She connects this bag to the slogan for Mamdani’s successful mayoral campaign: “Our city is not for sale.” 

“Every inch of our attention is being eaten up, is completely being colonized by corporate interests — everybody’s just trying to sell you something,” Song says. “So anytime a movie is interested in just being itself, I do think that it can sneak into people’s hearts.” 

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In a fiery speech at the Academy Women’s Luncheon on Tuesday, Kristen Stewart lambasted Hollywood’s treatment of female filmmakers, echoing new studies showing that following an immediate post-#MeToo bump, the industry is again simply not backing movies helmed by women. “The backsliding from our brief moment of progress is statistically devastating,” Stewart said. “Such a pitiful number of films from the past year have been made by women.” The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield recently pointed out that only three 2025 studio movies were directed by women, while only one specialty film helmed by a woman cracked the top 100 at the box office: Materialists.

“Whenever a film is directed by a woman or is female-forward in any way, its box-office success is always treated like, ‘Who saw that coming?’” Vachon tells me. “That’s always so confounding because there’s a history of those kinds of movies doing very well if they’re executed as well as this one.”

Song felt that dynamic in the lead-up to Materialists. “There is this severe underestimation that is very infuriating, but on the other hand, it’s so easy to surprise people,” she says. “Everybody was so surprised by Materialists. I was like, ‘Why are you so surprised?’” Song felt in sync with the same backers who steered her Past Lives success. “We made the movie responsibly. We understood how to set it up for success,” says producer David Hinojosa. “Every domino was set up very carefully.” And Song felt steadfast support from A24, who gave the film a commercial summer release — unlike Past Lives, Materialists bypassed festivals — and didn’t intervene with her vision. “A24 didn’t underestimate the female audience,” she says. “They didn’t underestimate romance.” 

Sources close to A24 say that the movie has “redefined” its genre’s expectations for the studio going forward, particularly given its massive showing overseas. It’s a bright light for the studio in 2025 as other follow-ups from its homegrown filmmakers, like Ari Aster (Eddington) and Benny Safdie (The Smashing Machine), struggled to find traction relative to their budgets. Combined, their two movies have made less than half of Materialists’ worldwide haul, and both cost more. 

Song hopes there’s a lesson for the industry in seeing that her movie worked. “It’s a love story, but it’s about being a modern woman. I know that there is an audience for that, that wants to feel seen in it and feel very connected,” she says. “It’s not hard to believe that a movie like this makes this kind of money and cultural impact. It’s so crazy because I don’t know how many times it has to be proven for people to believe it on the next one.” 

When Song first tried breaking into film, she was taken aback by “how deep this systematic misogyny” ran in the industry, having come from the (relatively) egalitarian theater world. “You start making movies like the boys, for the film bros, or you have to just accept that there is a part of it where you’re going to constantly be underestimated and undercut,” she says.

So far, Song has consistently chosen the latter path. It’s paying off. “Until the movie is actually out in the world, there’s no way to know,” Song continues. “Now that it’s out, I’m like, ‘No, actually I can ask the audience to be as openhearted as I am. That to me is the thing that guides me throughout all of it. The audience met Materialists with a total open heart. What I feel confident in is that, as long as I’m showing up, the audience is always going to be open-hearted. That’s the north star of my work moving forward.”