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Materialists writer-director Celine Song is not amused by moviegoers who have described the film as “broke man propaganda” online.
In an interview with Refinery29 shared on TikTok on Friday, Aug. 8, Song, 36, responded to a question about online reviews that describe the romance between Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans’ characters as “broke man propaganda.”
“Thank you for asking me about it. I think that it doesn’t make me laugh, because it really is disappointing to me,” Song said.
“I think that there is a very real confusion about feminism and the history of feminism. Through intersectionality, so much of feminism has been about anti-corporate and anti-capitalist and of course 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,” Song responded.
“The thing that’s very important to me is to stress that poverty is not the fault of the poor,” she continued. “And I think that given that, it is very brutal. 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.’ ”
Materialists stars Johnson, 35, as a New York City matchmaker named Lucy whose own love life is thrown for a loop when she meets a wealthy man named Harry (Pedro Pascal) at a wedding who quickly grows smitten with her. The same night, she coincidentally reconnects with her ex-boyfriend John, a struggling actor who works a catering job at the wedding.
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Spoiler alert: The movie follows Lucy as she dates Harry, a rich financier, while rekindling her connection with John years after they broke up due to financial stress. Ultimately, Lucy breaks up with Harry and gets back together with John. The film ends with them getting married at a courthouse.
“There is something about the classism of that, the kind of hatred of poverty, the hatred of poor people, who, again, it’s not their fault that they’re poor,” Song told Refinery29 of the “broke man propaganda” discussion surrounding the film.
“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. So it doesn’t make me laugh, actually.”
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“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,” she added. “The whole movie is about fighting the way that capitalism is trying to colonize our hearts and colonize love.”
In July 2025, multiple outlets reported that Song will next write a sequel to Julia Roberts and Dermot Mulroney’s 1997 rom-com My Best Friend’s Wedding.
Materialists debuted in theaters in June, and it is now available to rent or own on digital.
