If you have even a passing interest in Materialists, it’s been virtually impossible to avoid seeing spoilers for the end; but if you’re even a casual consumer of rom-coms, you’ll see it coming anyway.

Some viewers have labeled the film as ‘broke man propaganda,’ citing how money does not matter in love as per the film’s storyline. Writer and director Celine Song has now reacted to the criticism, saying that she is disappointed with the way some audience members are perceiving the theme. She said in an interview with Refinery29:

Celine Song defends 'Materialists' amid claims that it promotes “broke man propaganda,” calling the remarks classist.

The Past Lives director used to be a matchmaker like Dakota Johnson's character in her new film, and she tells Yahoo UK how the experience shaped Materialists.

Celine Song says her latest romantic drama 'Materialists' is about "fighting the way that capitalism is trying to colonize our hearts and colonize love"

Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans star in Celine Song's latest love-triangle story that teaches us about the perils of perfectionism

Celine Song, the talented writer-director behind the romance movie Materialists, is speaking out against critics who have described her film as broke man propaganda. In a recent

Rather than perceiving these qualifiers and quantifiers as backwards, they see this as par for the course when looking for life partners, or more fondly, “grave buddies,” as coined by Celine Song’s “Materialists” (2025).

"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 filmmaker says.