S Viswanath

“Love is an ancient mystery. It is a thing you cannot quantify. No matter how hard you try. I would describe it as being struck by lightning. It is, to put it in Korean – in-yun (providence), specifically, in the context of relationships. It suggests that encounters between people, even seemingly random ones, are the result of connections built over past lives. The concept is often tied to the idea of reincarnation and the belief that relationships are preordained..” Celine Song.  

Think Celine Song nee Song Ha-Young. Think Past Lives. The 2023 moody, maudlin mediation on love and longing, in the age of social media and long distance relationships. Having set the bar high for herself in her very first foray Song had won adulating legion of audiences raising expectations of an encore, with her sophomore sojourn.

Korea born, Canadian director, and screenwriter, New York City resident, her adapted home,  was on a ‘song’ soaking in the sterling success following her “Past Lives” winning wealth of accolade and adulation, hoisting her on the coveted creative cinematic pedestal. It is, thus, with avowed and avid sense of anticipation one lovingly looked forward to Song’s “Materialists.”

Alack! Celine’s faltering “Materialists” fails her platoon of proud following, as also discerning critics who saw in Song another new age aspirational, modernist filmmaker rising on cinema coliseum.

In ‘Past Lives’ semi-autobiographical romantic saga, Song featured two bosom childhood pals transitioning over 24 years contemplating the nature of their relationship, pursuing different paths – in life and in work. In ‘Materialists’ Celine choses to dissect dealings of New York City matchmaker running her dating business called Adore, as she sets up her clients with prospective and ‘perfect fit’ dates, while herself hemmed betwixt two beaus.

The debonair and dashing, suave and wealthy financial investor Harry, who almost stalks and solicits her in her own game. While a simple, struggling cater waiter and theatre actor John, flame of past, waits in the wings to waltz back into her indecisive life. 

“Dating takes a lot of effort, a lot of trial and error, a ton of risk and pain. Love is easy. It walks into our life sometimes. Love is the last surviving ideology.” to which Harry retorts “you are lost. Just go where love is,” Lucy, Song’s alter ego, answering Harry in the film, observing I choose to market a man whileHarry quips “you are love. Just go where love is.”

“Dating is a game. We are all playing so that one day we can find love within it. The thing is what is happening the game is it is numbers oriented. Age, height, weight, wealth. Just statistics. This is what trouble me. The dating. And the pursuit of love. The way we commodify and objectify each other. Treat each other as merchandise. The truth is merchandise cannot fall in love with a merchandise, It is all transactional,” says Song in her interview with CBC News.

‘Past Lives’ had several luminous layers embedded in it. Ruminating on love, loss, cultural identity, immigration, when Nora, reconnects with her childhood crush Hae Sung, each reflecting the trail they had not taken, turning the film into a deeply soulful cupid saga.

Song returns to familiar terrain in ‘Materialists.’ Only this time dissecting the concept of love and perception of romance in the highly transactional universe, authoritatively asserting that most often than not, folks today, take to dating weighing it more for materialistic takeaways that it presents than from the heart.

As a result, people’s courtship turning pretentious more like consumerist commodities where prestige and perks matter and privilege it entails before saying ‘I do’ to each other at the altar.

While Lucy, the hawker of romantic rendezvous,  helps her over anxious clients navigate the tick boxes of ‘perfect match’ you witness how Lucy herself is caught in a state of indecision as to whether ‘material’ benefits matter most or true love and understanding of a benign, caring shoulder to lean on, one should settle for, assessing oneself with avaricious prudence.

While the 2023 ‘Past Lives’ was fulsome in engaging audiences and having them deeply invested in its reassessment of relationships, the 117 min ‘Materialists’ however, turns hollow and humdrum la affaire leaving one tad disappointed while hoping to experience and enthral in the promise and pleasure ‘Past Lives’ held.

What is missing in Song’s ‘Materialists’ a rueful and reality check audit of modern courtship and ideal idea of romance and matrimony in a universe sozzled on status and security, is the subtlety and evocative narrative of ‘Past Lives’.

The sum and substance in Song’s wistful triangular rom-com ‘Materialists’ don’t measure up to admirable subtle and evocative cinematic experience which ‘Past Lives’ enabled audiences to connect with as the two protagonists undertook their emotional journeys at a deeper and personal level. Thereby, leaving much to be desired.

True, in this digital domain age of social platforms aplenty, dating apps and portals, the traditional prevalence of family elders or close acquaintances clique mediated practice have undergone a 360 degree transformation with working women, a rising leisure community, mass migrations among others, becoming the new disruptive trends for people to break from the past practices.

Like with her first feature, wherein Celine sourced the film’s narrative structure and thematic concerns on disintegration of culture and immigrants longing for home they have left for better prospects, in Materialists too we learn Song took to six months hands on experience as a matchmaker in New York that led to the film.

As a result, in the absence of good things one noticed and sang paean about in ‘Past Lives’ renders Materialists, somewhat artificial, belaboured, too cliched and contrived. Thus, while Past Lives still coveted and held one in thrall as the two past childhood mates reconnect and reflect upon the life gone by, despite its apparent pitfalls.  

Materialists being different in mood, social milieu and thematic tonality, is unable to match the near perfection of ‘Past Lives’ to have one rooted to the goings on as men and women seek to couple for lifetime after a brief dating courtship to explore each other’s compatibilities and commonalities to make a marriage of their dates with ‘I do.’

However, with filmmaker father and an illustrator and graphic designer mother, Céline Song has still many miles to travel and talent to speak for herself in the years to arrive. In that lies the fervent hope Song will come up with another class act like ‘Past Lives’ for paeans to peal again at her artistry and aesthetic engagement with cinema. Until then, let’s await, a resurrected and reinvigorated Celine Song.

S VISWANATH is a veteran film critic who officiates as JURY at several National & International Film Festivals. He deputises as CHIEF CINEMA CURATOR/PROGRAMMER & CREATIVE ADVISOR for Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes). He also curates & advises on the selection of shorts & documentaries for Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF). Mr Viswanath is the author of “RANDOM REFLECTIONS: A Kaleidoscopic Musings on Kannada Cinema”.