Celine Song is speaking out on how rom-coms are written off by critics and audiences alike. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker was asked by the Southampton Playhouse Artistic Director Eric Kohn why there are fewer rom-coms made today (although Song’s sophomore film “Materialists” is decidedly not one of them). Song told the Southampton Playhouse that the lack of romance genre films is in part due to “misogyny,” specifically by deeming the features merely “chick flicks.”
“There has been this diminishing of the genre by calling them ‘chick flicks,’” Song said. “I think about this in terms of what I’d consider the middle class of movies. Either you can make a movie for so much money that you have to make so much money back, or the movie is being made for festivals under $2 million where it’s for some people and the goal is to go through the journey of accolades and all those other things.”
She continued, “Generally speaking, there are so few movies that fit into whatever category mine is. It’s a theatrical film, not for streaming. It’s an R-rated romantic dramedy and not based on a book. It’s an original story. It has these great actors in it and the genre has been historically dismissed as chick flick.”
That dismissal is in part due to the patriarchal undermining of films that are largely written and directed by women; Song also stated that people are also fearful of examining their own relationship to the idea of love, which is at the (literal) heart of the rom-com genre.
“A few reasons, one of which is misogyny. But there’s another part of it. Romance is something that we’re all embarrassed to be obsessed with,” Song said. “OK, fine, it’s a chick flick. That’s often said as if it’s not a serious movie. I always think, well, that’s sad in a couple of ways. You’re saying chicks are not serious people. Secondly, it’s not the concern of serious people to think about love and dating. But serious people do it, too. They’re very troubled by love and dating. Ask any serious person. And so it’s a genre that is dismissed. People are scared of it. […] True love is a difficult thing for people. When I say it, adults look at me like I’m Santa Claus. But true love is the only thing that is real. I don’t know why true love is any less real than a Birkin bag or a Maserati. True love has endured throughout time. It’s a thing that is so ancient.”
Song cited how the American way of looking at (and for) love is starkly different from other cultures’ approaches to courtship and self-worth. “As a Canadian, as a bit of an outsider, I see the way that Americans think of themselves as merchandise that is built into the DNA of the country,” Song said, with the theme of people as “merchandise” being throughout the aptly-titled “Materialists.”
“My actors were so beautifully attuned to this,” Song said of the cast, which consists of Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans. “Who [better] understands ‘I’m not merchandise, I’m a person’ than Chris, Dakota, and Pedro. Pedro gets treated like he’s ‘The Mandalorian’ and Chris gets treated like Captain America. He’s a different person. Dakota was in ’50 Shades of Grey.’ Talk about objectification!”
She added, “They wanted to do this movie not because it’s a fun rom-com. They get offered rom-coms all the time. They wanted to make this particular movie with me because they wanted to talk about the way we brutalize ourselves and don’t treat ourselves like real people. Only when we’re people are we actually capable of love.”