1 week ago Behind 'Splitsville,' the year’s funniest relationship comedy

Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona star in the slapstick relationship comedy “Splitsville,” which opens in theaters Friday

Politics

1 week ago Splitsville review – open marriage comedy is a silly, scrappy and sex

Dakota Johnson leads a raucous look at two couples exploring ethical non-monogamy in a messy yet entertaining rideIf you have spent any time on a dating app in hetero-world, you’ve probably encountered the type: enthusiastic, communicative, “partnered” with someone but “open” and very eager to talk about it. Or, rather, explain it – how it works, what the rules are, why it’s right for them. There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with ethical non-monogamy – actually, there can be a lot right – nor should there be any universal expectations of romantic relationships besides mutual respect. But the reputation of ENMs in the straight dating world, however rightly earned, is suspect: expected condescension, mutually projected emotional superiority. Perhaps right in principle but also often annoying, and thus ripe for comedic skewering.Enter Splitsville, a new so-called “unromantic comedy” from longtime friends and writing partners Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino about a four...

Politics

1 week ago Love as a business deal? Whales, unicorns and why Materialists and Anora have a lot in common

Both films explore the forfeiting of love for the financial security of a rich man. Sadly, the theme resonates for many in these straitened economic times“Marriage is a business deal and it always has been.” So says Dakota Johnson’s Lucy, an elite Manhattan matchmaker in Celine Song’s second feature, Materialists. Lucy may be a modern woman, but her world looks eerily similar to the marriage mart of Jane Austen’s day. For Lucy and her clients, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Or rather, a “high quality woman”, as Lucy would unironically put it.Materialists drops us head first into a world where coupling off with a partner is a purely financial endeavour; where foolish notions of love are not merely ignored, but deemed to be irrelevant; where women must choose passion or practicality. Continue reading...

Economics

2 w. ago Cinemagoers tutted – but in Materialists, I finally saw a true reflection of today’s dating market | Elle Hunt

The brutal reality is that if you don’t come from money, the best way to boost your finances is through a relationshipOn Sunday I took myself, with a slight hangover, to see a preview screening of Materialists, the long-awaited new film by Celine Song. Dakota Johnson plays Lucy, a matchmaker with a talent for pairing her exacting clients with someone who ticks most of their boxes and is also likely to accept them. She is less cupid, more market analyst – capable of seeing through her singletons’ self-serving bluster and spin to appraise their actual worth – then matching it with someone of equivalent value.A thirtysomething woman of only average good looks, for instance, can’t hope to land a “unicorn” – a 6ft-tall high earner with his original hairline. Unicorns want to date twentysomethings – and they can get them, too.Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago ‘I charge upwards of £100k’: What it’s really like to be a millionaire matchmaker

Celine Song’s new romcom ‘Materialists’ follows Dakota Johnson as a high-flying matchmaker. Lydia Spencer-Elliott chats to real-life professional cupid Inga Verbeeck about how she finds love for the rich and famous

Economics

2 w. ago Materialists review – Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in a movie that can’t decide if it’s a romcom, a farce, or a dark drama

Celine Song’s follow-up to ‘Past Lives’ has divided audiences in the US, but its wavering tone might also be the point

Politics

2 w. ago Materialists review – Dakota Johnson torn between Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans in charming romcom

Johnson plays a matchmaker who has to choose between wealthy new suitor Pascal and broke ex Evans, but the outcome feels a little undramaticSay you are a single woman in New York and you are, in the words of the song, torn between two lovers: two handsome, intelligent, nice guys – one very poor and one very rich. All things being equal, who do you go for? The answer in real life is very different, in fact diametrically opposed, to the answer in a film. Few movie heroines have the candour of Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, who admitted to falling in love with Mr Darcy on seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.But this is the choice, which never quite ascends to the state of a dilemma, in this charming and watchable – yet for me somehow anticlimactic – romantic comedy-drama from South Korean-Canadian film-maker Celine Song: a love-triangle confection to follow the much realer, truer love triangle of Song’s much acclaimed debut Past Lives. When the decision is...

Politics

3 w. ago Dakota Johnson’s biggest problem? Movies not as strange and funny as she is

The star of ‘Madame Web’ and ‘Materialists’ has proven she’s a droll, eccentric, and inscrutable presence off screen, writes Louis Chilton. Why does Hollywood seem unable to bottle that?

Politics

3 w. ago Materialists review: All the beautiful people, none of the feeling

The central love triangle between Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans could have been romcom catnip — instead, it ends up feeling firmly two-dimensional

Politics

4 w. ago Top South Dakota official apologizes for releasing voter data

South Dakota secretary of state Monae Johnson is apologizing for accidentally revealing sensitive voter registration data about thousands of residents last month

Politics

last month ‘Everybody’s starved of affection’: Past Lives director Celine Song on the brutal dating scene and her realistic new romcom

The writer-director’s debut film earned critical acclaim and Oscar nods for its portrayal of loves lost and rekindled. Her follow-up stars Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans in a romance about dating across the class divide‘Our financial literacy is so fucked,” says Celine Song. We’re having breakfast in Manhattan on a sunny Saturday in early July, a few weeks after her new film, Materialists, has opened in New York City. She’s wearing a charmingly ironic outfit: a T-shirt that says “HOWDY” and a baseball cap that says “Big” (she’s petite, 5ft 4in, for the record) – but she speaks with almost disarming earnestness.She’s frustrated, she tells me, that people have described one of the characters in her film, a private equity manager with a $12m apartment, as a “billionaire”. “If you’re a billionaire, your big apartment is not $12m!” she exclaims. “The average income of an American adult is $35,000. What that means is half of America makes less than $35,000. Three times that ...

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