‘Capitalism trying to colonise our hearts’: Celine Song slams elitist discourse around ‘Materialists’
Filmmaker Celine Song has expressed frustration over the classist interpretation of her recently released film “Materialists”, starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal.
Song, who earned immense praise for her debut film “Past Lives” in 2023, said the accusations that the movie promotes “broke man propaganda” has been “very cruel”.
The “broke man propaganda” is an online term used by some viewers to criticise stories where women choose emotionally compatible but financially struggling men over wealthier partners.
“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,” the filmmaker told Refinery29 in an interview.
“The Materialists” follows Lucy, played by Johnson, a high profile matchmaker who gets stuck in a love triangle with a wealthy financier Harry, played by Pascal, and John, a struggling actor and her past love. Much of the film’s critique comes from Lucy choosing to be with John over Harry in the end.
Song revealed she does not find the “broke boy propaganda” jokes on the internet funny and that her film is heavily misinterpreted.
“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.’” “There is something about the classism of that, the kind of hatred of poverty, the hatred of poor people… it’s not their fault that they’re poor,” Song said.
The whole discourse around the movie has been “disappointing”, she added.
“So much of feminism has been about anti-corporate and anti-capitalist and 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.”
“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,” the filmmaker said.
Entertainment