Materialist Girls 💍✨
modern love, relationships, and John, my beloved
Welcome to hyperfix’d - a low-stakes publication where I share everything and anything I’m excited about, with anyone who will listen. New York can’t seem to make up its mind on what season it wants to be in, but the je ne sais quoi of summer beginning is finally in the air. A new HAIM album is here, SZA is Interview’s latest cover girl, and I’m basically in LA. ⭐️ Without further ado, here’s new hyperfix’d:
Materialists 🎬
A24’s highly anticipated Materialists is a true return to the romantic comedy, with a contemplative twist. Celine Song’s sophomore feature thoughtfully breaks down the double-edged standards of heteronormative dating in one of the world’s most financially superfluous cities, by way of an iconic love triangle - Challengers for the twenty/thirty-something modern corporate girls, if you will.
Materialists follows by-the-book matchmaker Lucy (Dakota Johnson), who finds herself at a crossroads between the perfect on-paper bachelor Harry (Pedro Pascal), and her old flame John (Chris Evans), an actor and cater waiter1 living paycheck to paycheck.2 As a chronically single, commitment-fearing lover girl who has been fortunate to live out their twenties in New York, I too, like Lucy, oftentimes feel as if I’m ‘just a girl that works.’ There’s a bittersweet reality that accompanies dating in your late twenties, knowing more than ever what you want, but feeling stifled by one’s own and others’ expectations, a challenge of trusting your heart and mind.
Ever the playwright, Celine Song has a lot to say about relationships - drawn to ‘quintessential love stories that are committed to two seemingly conflicted truths about love,’ her thoughtful dialogue is a nostalgic exploration of how we can become shielded by the novel conventions of modern dating. On one hand, we don’t choose who we fall in love with, on the other, it’s difficult to separate romance from its material reality. Song excels at lovingly expressing intimacy through physicality as well as her prose, every glance and physical exchange beautifully measured in its intentionality.
Dakota Johnson makes for an exceptional protagonist, akin to a grown Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada, with just as desirable of a wardrobe. Her ability to so effortlessly just be herself, and still deliver something of interest every time should be studied,3 her choices of when to be more grounded or vulnerable make for an intricate character study. A great rom-com, of course, isn’t complete without great music - the Materialists soundtrack offers a timeless blend of love ballads old and new,4 featuring original songs from Japanese Breakfast, Baby Rose, and more.
As more discussion surrounding Materialists unfolds, it’s become apparent that not everyone loved it as much as I did. It’s no When Harry Met Sally, as few films are, but I believe the greatest romantic comedies are those that inspire discourse. Have we forgotten about Tom Hanks’ menacing act in You’ve Got Mail? We should be arguing about who Lucy should have ended up with, and we should be side-eyeing her West Village one-bedroom that’s well beyond her salary. I love it when a film knows what it stands for and takes big swings with it, knowing it may not pay off for everyone but posing ideas with such conviction that makes it impossible for audiences not to embrace them. There’s a plot point towards the end of the film (you’ll know it when you see it) that is so ridiculous but makes for one of the film’s most entertaining moments.
In one of the film’s final scenes, two characters reconcile a burgeoning relationship in front of the steps of a brownstone, almost identical to the one where Past Lives’ Nora and Hae Sung shared their emotional farewell - as one door closes in a restless city, another is always bound to open. Materialists is a film that knows its worth - an elevated comedy revitalized for novel times, that takes the best of Nora Ephron and Jane Austen’s romanticized worlds and adds a little spice of its own. In theatres.
Oh, Hi! 🎬
What a time to be alive, to see Logan Lerman, the white boy of our millennium, on the big screen again. I saw Oh, Hi!, the new pseudo thriller meets romantic comedy from Sophie Brooks and Molly Gordon, at Tribeca Film Festival’s Closing Night, and had so much fun seeing it in a packed cinema.
Oh, Hi! (the title is intentional, and you’ll know it when you see it) takes the stakes of softboys and crazy ex-girlfriends to absurd limits, after Isaac (Logan Lerman) tells Iris (Molly Gordon) that he doesn’t want an exclusive relationship amid their romantic weekend getaway. Brooks’ sophomore screenplay is densely funny and ingeniously stupid, one that genuinely kept me on the edge of my seat - its plot so ridiculous on paper, but paying off brilliantly in practice. Co-starring John Reynolds (Search Party) and Geraldine Viswanathan (Drive Away Dolls), who continue to prove that they are some of the funniest people alive. In theatres July 25.
Carrie & Lowell, Sufjan Stevens 💿
I love being reminded of a perfect album, especially one that has stood the test of time. Listening to Carrie & Lowell ten years later is like hearing it for the first time - the kind of soft, spiritual catharsis that engulfs you whole, Sufjan Stevens’ reverent storytelling feels just as intimate and breathtakingly beautiful at twenty-seven, as it did at seventeen. 🤍
As someone who works with cater waiters regularly, this detail specifically spoke to me.
Like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, Materialists dares to ask ‘What if Chris Evans had roommates, debt, and was no longer perceived as conventionally hot?’
Dakota Johnson, the original ‘go girl, give us nothing.’
As soon as I heard Harry Nilsson’s I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City, I knew we were cooking with gas.
as a member of the “just a girl that works” club, I will be adding this to my watchlist.