Nurazizah, Najla (2026) ROMANCE AS RESISTANCE WITHIN CAPITALIST LOGIC IN MATERIALISTS (2025). Undergraduate thesis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya.

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Abstract

This thesis examines how romance appears in Celine Song's Materialists (2025) as
an argument against capitalist logic. This study argues that the film both depicts
and resists the capitalist structuring of romantic life by analyzing its intrinsic and
extrinsic parts using Max Weber's idea of capitalist rationalization as its theoretical
framework. Harry and John are the idealized capitalist partner and the emotionally
genuine but financially unstable choice, in contrast, while Lucy, a high-end
matchmaker in New York City, represents the rationalized subject of capitalism by
viewing relationships through material calculation. Lucy's final choice of John over
Harry and her resignation from a lucrative job promotion are acts of resistance, a
rejection of capitalist rationality in favor of emotional truth. The thesis claims that
Materialists (2025) depicts love as an object of opposition and reinterpretation of
capitalist logic rather than as an extension of it, building on Weber's idea of the
"iron cage" in capitalist society.
Keywords: capitalism, rationalization, resistance, romance.

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