‘Erupcja’ review: Is Charli XCX charting her path to movie stardom?

Forget brat summer — Charli XCX is working on film star fall. Following hot on the heels of playing herself in the Gen Z comedy series Overcompensating, the British pop star hit the Venice film festival with 100 Nights of Hero, a fashion-forward fantasy romance from Julia Jackman. Then came the Toronto International Film Festival, where she appears in two more provocative films, Romain Gavras’ eco-politics satire Sacrifice and Peter Ohs’ Warsaw-set sapphic romance Erupcja. 

The dynamic party girl seems to be aiming her incredible energy at movie stardom. Yet Erupcja proves a shrewd choice in this quest, as it’s a slimly plotted character drama with few characters and nothing in the way of flashy spectacle. 

Essentially, there’s nowhere for Charli to hide. Co-starring with Polish American actress Lena Góra, the pop star must not only create a stirring onscreen chemistry, but also a shoulder a story of romance that is electric and reckless. 

Props to Charli. She nails it. 

Erupcja offers an intriguing love triangle. 

In modern Warsaw, a British tourist named Bethany (XCX) and her boyfriend Rob (Will Madden) arrive for a romantic getaway. You see, Bethany claims Warsaw is more romantic than Paris. But while Rob is eager to plot a course of swoon-worthy activities leading to a proposal, Bethany seems distracted. Unbeknownst to her beau, Bethany’s been here before. Several times, actually, and in each of them she got ensnared with a local florist named Nel (Góra). 

Before she even knows Bethany is back, Nel seems to sense a change in the air. Who they are to each other will spill out over a fitful few days of stolen hours, hard drugs, and smirky sapphic longing. However, voiceover from an omniscient narrator (Jacek Zubiel), who is frank and nonjudgmental about these mixed-up lovers, gives sharper context of how these two collide and repel like magnets being flipped over.

As they bounce from nightclubs to house parties to Nel’s apartment, they collide with other free spirits, like American painter Claude (Jeremy O. Harris). Meanwhile, poor Rob is repeatedly left in the dust, bewildered. 

Charli XCX is mesmerizing in Erupcja. 

Ohs, who last helmed the wry dark comedy The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick, builds a romance that is surreal and earthy, in the way of the French New Wave. His lovers are not glamorous or falling into dynamic or dreamy sex scenes. They’re bumping around Warsaw with passion but little direction, fitting for the way his films are made. 

Once he’s chosen a location, Ohs casts actors who will become collaborators in building the story scene by scene. He’s got an outline, and then he, his crew, and the cast build while shooting. In this case, this makes for scenes that are clumsy but intimate, as if we’re voyeurs, spying on a couple with more to say than either would ever dare. Góra and XCX create characters who share a wild streak, but have very different style and energy. 

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Guarded, Nel projects a gives-no-fucks attitude, but is quick to expose her soft heart when love comes up. She believes in second chances — and third chances and even fifth chances. And Bethany will take them all.

In unremarkable baggy T-shirts and shorts, Bethany has a cool confidence, but it quavers when a smiling, oblivious Rob proposes one agenda after another. Through the narrative voiceover that helps give subtle scenes of little dialogue more shape, one thing becomes very clear: Bethany is not in Warsaw for Nel as much as she’s there to run away from Rob. 

Erupcja relishes those romances not made to last. 

The Polish-language title translates to “eruption,” reflecting the strange phenomenon that helps Nel and Bethany’s relationship burst forth again and again. Every time they get together, a volcano erupts. It’s a bizarre joke between them that allows to escape their boring routines and everyday choices and be wild, reckless, and free. 

While Rob begins as an almost comically clueless boyfriend, Ohs and his ensemble give space for him to be a fleshed-out figure, whose heartbreak hits as Nel and Bethany reconnect. In that, both women have a chance for self-reflection. Is what they have fated? Is it a series of flings? Is it romantic? Toxic? Both? 

Shot with the kinetic yet poised cool of the French New Wave, this Polish production feels timeless. Its scenes playing out with enough specificity for audiences to hook in, but enough ambiguity that they can feel like a dream. There’s a touch of fairy tale to that. Ohs keeps his characters curious and fluid, refusing to shove them into easy-to-define roles of hero and villain. Instead, Erupcja embraces the feral nature of love, messy and wondrous. 

In the end, Erupcja is a thundering rumble of drama and romance, leaving its audience excited and rattled. 

Erupjca was reviewed out of the World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.