Somewhere in the course of cinematic history, romcoms dumbed down, going from sharp-witted screwballs to frothy, delusional fairytales. Celine Song, the director of the poignant and phenomenally accomplished Past Lives, seeks to rectify that with this thought-provoking look at the dating scene which boasts a starry cast and style in spades. Dakota Johnson plays matchmaker Lucy, a slick yet cynical operator who can take credit for nine marriages and yet remains single herself, with snagging an obscenely rich husband now top of her own agenda.

At the wedding of a couple she brought together, she connects with Harry (Pedro Pascal), the groom’s wealthy brother, before bumping into her jobbing actor ex John (Chris Evans) who is working there as a waiter. Through Lucy’s callously transactional matches, which expose eye-watering levels of prejudice amongst participants, Song impressively skewers the business of dating; Lucy pairs people up with mathematical precision, despite admitting that love is, by its very nature, simple. A side plot involving a match that goes wrong (featuring Succession’s Zoe Winters) explores the dark side of the game, whilst waking Lucy up to her own superficiality.

For all its sumptuousness and smarts, Materialists fails to create particularly credible characters, who often feel like a mouthpiece for the ideas; the film has so much to say about men, women and the toxicity of modern dating that it is near constantly trying to say it, with little time for the story to breathe. Both Harry and John feel underdrawn, while Lucy is offputtingly shallow, despite Johnson’s sparkling screen presence. But the film can also be effervescently entertaining and its interrogatory nature is to be applauded. Frequently provocative and pretty funny, it’s a welcome injection of intelligence in a genre which has for too long been fixated on formula.

Materialists is in cinemas now.