Materialists Blu-ray Review

Materialists arrives on Blu-ray in a 1080p high-definition presentation sourced from 35mm, retaining a fine, organic grain structure. Texture is abundant and overall sharpness is consistent, with details often razor crisp across faces, fabrics, and the immaculately dressed sets. The digital grade is deliberate: skin tones skew warmly while environments lean cool, and scene-to-scene balance can swing accordingly—by design. Colors are vividly realized, particularly the soft whites that define the polished interiors. Contrast is lively, and although black levels are slightly faded intentionally, image depth remains serviceable without truly inky shadows.

Grain management is generally strong, but the encode shows stress in busier imagery where noise intrudes and marginally saps fine detail. Outside those bursts of complexity, clarity holds steady and the filmic texture reads cleanly. Skin tones appear healthy with a touch of red, maintaining naturalism within the warmer grading choices. The result is a handsome, film-faithful 1080p transfer that honors the cinematography’s pristine, soft-lit aesthetic while acknowledging minor compression limitations in the most demanding sequences.

Materialists arrives with a Dolby Atmos mix that prioritizes clarity and atmosphere over showmanship. Surround activity is consistent, with side and rear channels delivering a wide bed of ambient detail—nature in the opening passages, and later the urban hustle of New York, including traffic and crowd chatter. Height channels are selectively engaged rather than pervasive, adding lift to exterior spaces and set pieces like an office celebration and the wedding sequence. Dialogue is exceptionally clean and stable across scenes, even as environments grow denser.

Music is a standout element of the track. The score and source cues are expansively staged, often blooming from the front soundstage into the surrounds, with crescendos subtly migrating to the heights and rear channels for scale. Low-end support is present and controlled, providing rhythmic weight without masking vocals. While the overall presentation isn’t radically different from a well-authored 5.1 mix, Atmos adds dimensionality that complements this dialogue-driven romance’s attentive sound design. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are included.

A compact, focused set of extras centers on process and theme. The Celine Song commentary is substantive, mapping story construction, performance direction, and restrained staging. Two concise featurettes add context: a making-of that foregrounds the film’s modern-romance calculus and a music piece charting song development. Overall scope is modest yet coherent, with clean HD presentations. Packaging is A24’s standard DigiPack with art cards inside the sleeve.

Extras included in this disc:

• Filmmaker Commentary: Writer-director Celine Song delivers an informative track on narrative choices, character dynamics, pacing, and visual economy.
• The Math of Modern Love: Making Materialists: HD (16:46) making-of; cast and crew reflections, somewhat self-congratulatory, on themes and production.
• Composer Deep Dive: HD (10:56) with Japanese Breakfast on crafting the film’s song, with a nod to the end-credits use of John Prine’s In Spite of Ourselves.

Materialists, directed by Celine Song, follows professional matchmaker Lucy Mason (Dakota Johnson), who treats dating like a data problem—optimizing height, income, zip codes, and “fit”—until a wedding meet-cute with private equity star Harry Castillo (Pedro Pascal) collides with the reappearance of her ex, struggling actor John Pitts (Chris Evans). As Lucy toggles between the affluent “unicorn” and the messy, familiar past, the triangle exposes her own contradictions: a strategist of connection who can’t connect, and a romantic skeptic tempted by the certainty of numbers.

Critics note a tonal wobble: cheeky prehistoric bookends and a sitcom-adjacent setup give way to a mostly sober drama about marketized intimacy. The film’s algorithmic satire is sharp—clients reduce love to résumés—yet the script often retreats to conventional beats and an expected endgame. Chemistry proves elusive; Pascal’s charisma sparks intermittently, but many scenes play cool and deliberate, mirroring Lucy’s calculated worldview. Visually, it’s a handsomely photographed, quiet piece, more contemplative than sweeping, with humor arising from uncomfortable truths rather than gags. The height-and-wealth fixation underscores the title’s social critique, even as the film vacillates between cynicism and a late appeal to “true love.” Engaging in ideas but emotionally distant, it’s a thoughtful, conflicted deconstruction of the rom-com’s fantasy economy.

Materialists blends a sweet, lightly satirical opening with a more serious examination of modern dating’s algorithmic grind, resulting in tonal variance that some will find uneven. The film poses engaging questions about recycled rom-com tropes and human attraction, even as its narrative occasionally opts for easy resolutions that blunt its sharper ideas. Performances are consistently appealing, giving the story warmth and momentum despite these inconsistencies, and the overall craft maintains clear mainstream appeal.

The Blu-ray presentation is strong. Shot on 35mm, the feature benefits from richly rendered texture and natural color, with clean contrast that preserves detail without harshness. The image looks filmic and refined, and the audio track supports crisp dialogue and a well-balanced score, enhancing immersion without overstatement. Packaging aside, the technical merits alone make this disc a solid option for viewers interested in the movie’s themes and in a polished home presentation that looks and sounds terrific.