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...

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