At one point in Materialists, Celine Song’s new film about a matchmaker torn between the perfect guy and her struggling ex, Lucy (played by Dakota Johnson) goes to see a play with her new boyfriend (Pedro Pascal). The show, if you catch the flyer hanging outside the small theater, is by Song, too. It begins with a couple on their second date and follows the course of their lives.
As an artist, Song knows her way around a love story. She explored the subject as a young playwright as well in her 2023 Oscar-nominated debut feature, Past Lives, about a married woman living in New York who rekindles a close friendship from her childhood in Korea.
