Director Celine Song has hit out at criticism levied at her film Materialists, in particular a Letterboxd reviewer who called it “broke man propaganda”.
The romantic drama stars Dakota Johnson as Lucy, a professional matchmaker who is torn between a wealthy man who can provide for her (Pedro Pascal), and her financially struggling ex, John (Chris Evans), with whom she shares a deep connection.
During an interview with Refinery29, the comment on the social media platform calling it “broke man propaganda” was read to the filmmaker, with the interviewer asking if it made her laugh.
“I think that it doesn’t make me laugh, because it really is disappointing to me,” Song replied. “I think that there is a very real confusion about feminism and the history of feminism. Through intersectionality, so much of feminism has been about anti-corporate and anti-capitalist and, of course, it was always at the forefront of fighting capitalism, so I’m very concerned about the way that we talk about people who are poor”.
@refinery29 Is the movie Materialists just broke man propaganda? 🎥💬 Celine Song breaks down why that idea is actually anti-feminist and why it matters. What did you think of Materialists? 👀 #Materialists #CelineSong #Feminism #A24
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She continued: “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.
“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’”.
She concluded: “It makes me feel very concerned that anybody would talk about my movie and my characters and to really think about it in such classist terms. The whole movie is about fighting the way that capitalism is trying to colonise our hearts and colonise love”.
NME’s four star review of the film told readers to “prepare to fall head over heels for this smart, sexy rom-com”, adding: As the title suggests, Materialists shows just how tick-box men and women can be when it comes to finding a partner nowadays”.
