For an artist as culturally omnipresent as Charli XCX, Erupcja is a fascinating first major acting vehicle; yes, depending on when you’re seeing this, she has been seen across such features as The Moment (which shouldn’t really count as she was essentially playing herself), Faces of Death and I Want Your Sex, but Erupcja was technically the first off the rank. Not because it reinvents her as a screen performer, but because it’s such an uncompromisingly left-field choice. Rather than leaning on her charisma in something overtly commercial, Pete Ohs‘ micro-budget drama embraces loose, improvised storytelling and an intentionally elusive emotional register. It’s the sort of film that feels determined to keep audiences at arm’s length, and while that approach will undoubtedly appeal to some arthouse devotees, it rarely rewards the patience it demands.
Charli plays Bethany, a London-based woman visiting Warsaw with her boyfriend Rob (Will Madden), who is quietly preparing to propose. Instead of embracing the romantic getaway, Bethany drifts toward her childhood friend Nel (Lena Góra), with whom she shares an intimate, difficult-to-define bond. Whether their connection is romantic, platonic, nostalgic or simply unresolved becomes the film’s central mystery, though Erupcja spends so much time dancing around the question that it forgets to make the uncertainty itself compelling.
Ohs favours an observational style that often resembles an improvisation exercise more than a traditionally structured narrative. Characters wander through conversations, scenes begin and end without much dramatic momentum, and significant pieces of backstory are withheld until an omnipresent narrator steps in to fill the gaps. Rather than enhancing the mystery, the narration frequently highlights how little the film trusts its own storytelling. Important emotional beats are explained instead of discovered, leaving viewers feeling as though they’re reading notes about a relationship instead of experiencing one unfold.
That looseness extends to the screenplay itself. Bethany and Nel’s history is teased repeatedly, but despite several explanations of how they met, the emotional significance of their friendship never fully crystallises. Likewise, Rob functions less as a fully realised character than as an obstacle standing between Bethany and whatever personal revelation the film is slowly circling. Everyone feels slightly underwritten, as though the performances are searching for characters that were never entirely developed.
Charli XCX, however, acquits herself well. There’s an unaffected quality to her performance that suits the film’s naturalistic style, and she avoids the self-consciousness that often accompanies musicians making the leap into leading roles. Góra also brings an understated warmth that makes Nel more engaging than the screenplay allows her to be. Together they generate enough chemistry to suggest a richer story than the one surrounding them.
There are flashes of charm elsewhere, too. The Warsaw locations are beautifully observed, giving the city an inviting, lived-in texture, while Ohs occasionally captures small, intimate moments that feel genuinely spontaneous. In those scenes, Erupcja hints at the emotionally messy character study it wants to become.
Unfortunately, those moments remain isolated. The film mistakes ambiguity for depth so often that its emotional centre never solidifies. Its symbolic detours and deliberately opaque storytelling seem convinced they’re building intrigue, but instead they create distance. By the time the film reaches its understated conclusion, it feels less like an unresolved portrait of complicated relationships than an unfinished sketch.
Erupcja deserves some credit for resisting convention and giving Charli XCX an unexpectedly understated showcase, but admirable intentions can only carry a film so far. Without stronger characters or a clearer emotional anchor, this remains an experiment that’s easier to appreciate in theory than to connect with in practice.
TWO STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Erupcja is screening as part of this year’s New Farm Queer Film Festival, running between July 30th and August 8th, 2026. For more information head to the official site here.
