It’s way too early in Celine Song’s career to make any sweeping judgments based on one acclaimed debut and only the scantest details of her newest effort, to be clear, but is the “Past Lives” filmmaker well on her way to carving out a niche for adult-minded, original romance movies? One can certainly hope since audiences have been practically starving for studio-programmed romances and romantic comedies throughout the last several years. It’s bizarre, particularly in light of the success of recent movies like “Crazy Rich Asians” and, in 2023 alone, both “Anyone But You” and “No Hard Feelings.” All three boasted genuine movie stars as the leads, catered to a demographic (primarily women and the date-night crowd) who haven’t had tons of moviegoing options lately and broke through at the box office in emphatic fashion.
With “Past Lives” rocketing to the center of the Academy Awards conversation, A24 and Hollywood as a whole would be well-served by simply giving filmmakers like Song all the space, budget, and time needed to keep things cooking. While a Best Picture win is probably a long shot at this point, you just know that A24 is raring to splash “From the Oscar-nominated director of ‘Past Lives'” all over the marketing for “The Materialists” whenever the film is ready to come out. On that topic, Variety also notes that the film is scheduled to begin production as early as this May. Celine Song is returning to help save romance in movies all over again — you absolutely love to see it.