Materialists director Celine Song has hit back against the comments that described her film as "broke man propaganda."
The A24 romantic film has been a solid box office success this summer. While it was mostly praised by critics and audiences, it has also received criticisms for its creative choice on Chris Evans' character, John, and for Dakota Johnson's character, Lucy, to end up with him. John was depicted in the film as a struggling actor who works as a part-time caterer and doesn't have financial stability.
What Does Celine Song Think of "Broke Man Propaganda" Criticism of Materialists?
In an interview with Refinery29, Song was asked about her thoughts on a Letterboxd review that described Materialists as "broke man propaganda."
She expressed her dismay at the comment as she saw it as "very cruel" and a troubling point of view on the issue of capitalism and classism.
"I think that it doesn’t make me laugh, because it really is disappointing to me. I think that there is a very real confusion about feminism and the history of feminism," the director said.
"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."
Song added, "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.'"
The director went on to point out how people are viewing poverty in a "very troubling" way.
"There is something about the classism of that, the kind of hatred of poverty, the hatred of poor people, who, again, it’s not their fault that they’re poor," she continued.
"I think that is a very troubling result of the way that the wealthy people have gotten into our hearts about how it’s your fault if you’re poor, you’re a bad person if you’re poor. So it doesn’t make me laugh, actually."
Song concluded by explaining what the film is all about and what she wanted to say about capitalism in romance today.
She said, "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 colonize our hearts and colonize love."
What Do the Critics and Audience Think of Materialists?
Materialists has been a solid success in both critics and audience scores and at the box office since its release in theaters last June.
The film has a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 79% while the audience score is at around 67%, which are solid numbers considering the divisive discourse and commentary on social media.
Its box office performance has also been impressive since it has already grossed $67.3 million worldwide. It has a production budget of $20 million and was produced independently.
The story focuses on a young, ambitious New York City matchmaker who finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.
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