Celine Song
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
A real Broadcast News influence, for example, would have led Lucy to end up with neither John nor Harry, but leaving in the back of a taxi cab.
One wishes she’d leaned more Nora Ephron than Broadcast News.
Yet, on another occasion, she relates how some men spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a painful surgery to increase their height by up to six inches, a procedure I had only previously heard of in Andrew Niccol’s 1997 dystopian sci-fi movie Gattaca (a quick trip to Mar-A-Lago suggests that the compulsion for such dysmorphic butchery is more symptomatic of female rather than male pathology).
Hint: if you saw “Gattaca” (1997), you can guess, and Song is brilliant for coming up with a rare, not commonly known, factoid.
And Lucy’s problem is the eternal Pretty in Pink conundrum; does being a penniless loser rule a guy out?
I noticed how Lucy gets along well with her boss, Violet (Marin Ireland), at the matchmaking agency, similar to how Andie connected with Iona at the record shop in… nah.
The film carries echoes of other movies like Wong Kar-wai's “In the Mood for Love,” Richard Linklater's “Before Sunrise,” and David Lean's “The Passionate Friends,” but “Past Lives” so confidently belongs to Song—the way she envelopes the settings around her characters, how carefully she constructs their relationship over the years, and how quickly she returns that excited feeling to their conversations after years of silence.
Except for the Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell romcom, Anyone But You, and the Jennifer Lawrence star vehicle, No Hard Feelings, the 2020s have been a relatively dire decade for theatrically released romcoms.
Yet the rom-com has been making a comeback as of late, thanks in large part to box office successes like "Anyone But You" as well as genre mashups like this year's "Heart Eyes."
Anyone But You and Babygirl were mere starters, just hearty enough to whet one’s appetite without spoiling dinner.
The Worst Person in the World (2021)
Directed by Joachim Trier
influenced Materialists (2025)
Themes Music
Sounds trite, but think of a story cut in the same cloth as recent offerings like Joachim Trier’s Norwegian quarter-life crisis drama The Worst Person in the World…
Perhaps taking a cue from Joachim Trier's inspired use of Harry Nilsson on the soundtrack of another not-quite-rom-com, The Worst Person in the World, Song plays out those honeymoon-phase scenes to “I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City,” one of a handful of choice needle-drops.
Like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Celine Song’s sophomore effort opens during The Dawn of Man.
It’s an art film dressed up as The Notebook.
(I genuinely enjoy The Notebook, so don’t come at me. You know what I mean, don’t act like you don’t).
We’ve seen elements of this tale as old as time in The Notebook, Sweet Home Alabama, Made of Honor, and more.
Challengers (2024)
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
influenced Past Lives (2023), Materialists (2025)
Plot
The premise rhymes with Past Lives, also a prestige romantic dramedy about a love triangle between a South Korean emigrée, her childhood sweetheart and her American husband. (Song shares this three-way writing trait with her own husband Justin Kuritzkes, who wrote the screenplays for 2024’s Challengers and Queer.) Where Song’s debut was selectively sympathetic, Materialists feels totally bereft of warmth.
We still lack (and clamor for) the details regarding what went down during Song and Challengers/Queer scribe Justin Kuritzkes’ courtship…
With a script penned by playwright Justin Kuritzkes (who also happens to be married to Past Lives writer-director Celine Song), the barbing nature of the dialogue is mirrored not only by the high-octane back and forth on the tennis court, but also the high-octane soundtrack—provided by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross—to match.
While this isn't a tale taken from actuality, Kuritzkes is the husband of filmmaker Celine Song, whose Oscar-nominated 2023 debut Past Lives not only leapt into another complicated love triangle but was loosely drawn from her own experiences.
Written by Justin Kuritzkes (the husband of celebrated Past Lives writer/director Celine Song), Challengers explores the complicated relationship between three young tennis players.
It should be noted that Challengers was written by playwright and novelist Justin Kuritzkes, who lately is best known for being the husband of Past Lives writer-director Celine Song.
Will Smith stars in this earlier variation on the "single matchmaker" premise, playing a dating coach who's more adept at solving his clients' romantic problems than his own.
In this case, the backdrop is Bushwick, going off the fact that John invites them to come for a drink “around the corner” at what turns out to be Birdy’s. The same bar prominently featured in another A24 movie, A Different Man…
One could argue that Oscar darlings like Poor Things and Anora do count as romantic comedies, but it’s hard to compare those films to the likes of Notting Hill or 10 Things I Hate About You.
The subtle nature of that acting style reminds me of Oscar winner Mikey Madison (God, that feels good to say) in Anora, where Ani uses her corporate stripper voice in her daily life until her walls collapse.
It’s the constant, from Agnes Ayres swooning over Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik to Han and Leia’s barbed flirtations.
This film harkens back to the great romantic cinema of the 30’s and 40’s with Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, Johnson and Evans have that spark.
This film harkens back to the great romantic cinema of the 30’s and 40’s with Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, Johnson and Evans have that spark.
It’s the constant, from Agnes Ayres swooning over Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik to Han and Leia’s barbed flirtations.
I felt like Cher in “Moonstruck” (a truly no-bull romcom) when she slapped a love-drunk Nic Cage and told him to snap out of it.
…her sensibility is too sanitised and understated—too Asian (and Canadian?)—to give the film the charge of When Harry Met Sally… (1989)…
With Song listing some personal all-time love triangles like Broadcast News and The Age of Innocence on her inspiration board for Materialists, the film fell short of those expectations.
As Lucy moves between John and Harry, the film resists clear resolutions, surfacing problems without easy fixes and drawing parallels to the emotional messiness of one of the most honest rom-coms from the turn of the century: My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997).