Don't call "Materialists" a rom-com

Back when America’s greatest straight-shooter, Wendy Williams, had her daily talk show — or, “The Before Times,” as I like to call it — there were a multitude of regular bits Williams would do for her audience that frequent viewers lived for. One of the best oft-repeated Wendy-isms was sparked when she’d recall something from her fascinating, checkered past. Williams would look into the camera, mime taking a drag from a cigarette, throw her head back and say, “I have lived!”

Watching “Materialists,” Celine Song’s star-studded, highly anticipated follow-up to her 2023 debut, “Past Lives,” it’s hard not to imagine the writer-director working over her laptop late at night, deep into her screenplay, lighting up a Marlboro Red and uttering the same three words. Song’s film is, after all, marvelously layered and rife with realism. Her simple, unvarnished honesty stings in all the right ways, even in a time when most of us go to the movies looking for a break from the weariness of everyday life. With the way “Materialists” has been marketed — with the classic voiceover narration in its trailer and simple, no-frills poster — many viewers who are looking for that reprieve might feel a bit duped. Wasn’t this supposed to be a fresh, elevated take on the romantic comedy, where Dakota Johnson must grapple with the impossible decision of choosing between Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans? A movie where the perennially single New York matchmaker has finally met her match in two highly eligible bachelors?