Director: Peter Ohs
Stars: Charli xcx, Lena Góra, Jeremy O. Harris
With more movie appearances slated in 2026 than anyone else working (it seems like), An obligatory visit to the Criterion closet checked off, soundtrack work for “Wuthering Heights” and Mother Mary already under her belt, and one Martin Scorsese gracing the cover of a forthcoming album named ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ (the other two pillars represented by John Cale and Marc Jacobs), Charli xcx wants you to know she’s a cineaste. If 2024 had brat summer, 2026 continues to be her movie year, and maybe its a mode that’s here to stay. It wouldn’t be the worst thing. Generally, so far, she’s been a welcome presence on our screens. Peter Ohs’ nimble latest Erupcja has been a little delayed getting to us, but arrives slap-bang in the middle of her busiest year as the strongest case for Charli the Actor yet.
A breezy, diaristic love triangle sketched out in barely 70 minutes, Erupcja presents romantic kismet as a natural force between vivacious Londoner Bethany (Charli xcx) and Warsaw flower shop owner Nel (Lena Góra), irrepressibly connected soulmates whose scattered meetings over the last decade have coincided with the eruptions of major volcanoes the world over. Bethany arrives back in Warsaw after some time away on a getaway with her boyfriend Rob (Will Madden), a well-meaning but inspired romantic who hopes to pop the question during their stay. Well aware of his plans, Bethany repeatedly absconds from his company to run into Nel, sometimes even stalking her. Meanwhile, in Italy, Etna explodes into life.
Ohs presents his sketch with a jaunty, episodic flare reminiscent of French New Wave trailblazers such as Éric Rohmer or Jacques Rivette, or – laterly – the kind of lo-fi yarns peddled pleasingly by Hong Sang-soo. Ohs pocks his miniature with pastel coloured chapter stops, giving the work a bright storybook vibe, something echoed in the breathy doodles of Charles Watson and Isabella Summers’ music.
Erupcja plays lightly with notions of responsibility – and of responsibility shrugged off. Instead of confronting Rob with the difficult truth that she doesn’t want to get married, Bethany is deliberately evasive, toying with the open and unresolved flirtation between her and Nel. Coincidences mount up in the narrative, but the characters are aware of their uncanniness, and even question them, helping Erupcja to skirt around the otherwise inevitable sense of contrivance. Rob – a tragi-comic self-serious dullard who insists on saying “Warsaw, Poland” in a running bit redolent of the movie’s humour – poopoos the import of coincidence, even uses Google to bolster his argument, but the film feels ineffably against him, enjoying the magic and romanticism of fate over his squarely ordered world.
In spite of the brief running time and her relative absence from the back end of the picture, Charli xcx and Ohs make a multi-dimensional character out of Bethany, who might have seemed little more than a knowing extension of the pop star’s extant party-girl persona. That side manifests comfortably, but Bethany’s sincere appreciation for 19th century art reflects in her disappointment in the city’s commitment to modernisation. She’s a smart and soulful cookie, if not a wholly mature one. Charli equits herself well, appears grounded but not unconfident, fitting into Ohs’ small troupe (all main actors are credited as writers, suggestive of a mumblecore-esque modus operandi on set). And for veterans of Polish cinema there’s even a surprise appearance from the seldom-seen Agata Trzebuchowska in a small but pivotal role.
Like so many travelogue tales of romantic complication and indecision, there’s a featherweight quality to Erupcja that it can’t escape, nor does it care to. This is a small and playful feature, witty not just in observations of patternistic behaviour, but in how it engages the audience. An oppressive rumble that might be an earthquake or volcano arriving on the soundtrack early on is revealed to be a wheeled suitcase rolling over patterned paving. This moment plays as a humorous misdirect, but we later understand it is Bethany’s arrival in Warsaw; catalyst for the modest dramatic shake-ups Ohs documents over the next hour. That everyone else is left to tidy-up, explain and reconstitute while she disappears again only strengthens the wry suggestion that she’s the unwitting natural disaster that the others have to navigate. But this is never not sweet. Erupcja is a cute ditty on varying personal agendas criss-crossing one another at one of life’s little intersections.
The Lost Highway Hotel 