Erupcja ft charli xcx

Stagnation is a train station I didn't anticipate to get stuck on, but it happened. Just like volcano eruptions, periods of stagnation are relatively unpredictable.

I followed the BRAT green brick road to an indie movie theater in my neighborhood to watch the indie romantic drama co-written and produced by Charli xcx herself. Erupcja (directed by Pete Ohs) is Charli's debut acting role, but despite her strobe light driven and iconic stage presence in music, she wanted to keep her character (Bethany) intentionally low-key, neutral and not over-encompassing.

She travels to Warsaw, Poland to reconnect with an old friend she had met on a school field trip when she was sixteen. Back then, a volcano erupted in Iceland which led her to be stuck in Poland for a month, creating new experiences and forging new relationships...one in particular with a girl named Nel, played by Lena Góra.

It suddenly became a running inside joke between the two that whenever they get together, a volcano erupts and so follows the existencial choas that accompanies it...boyfriends, partners, friends and others are left behind as the girls enter a stage of trance from which they cannot shake from. They forget the world and follow the bender, the noise of the underground parties, the strobe lights are their guide posts and the magnitude of their sexual tension of "will they, won't they" is very imminent.

This time, it's no different. A volcano erupts in Italy and Bethany follows the destiny that the unsettling dust has laid out for her. She follows Nel as she closes up her flower shop for the day and heads home...and just like a scene from a 1980s John Hughes film, Bethany calls downstairs for Nel to let her upstairs. Nel comes out onto the balcony and can't believe her eyes. Bethany hasn't called once; she just kind of came and went with the volcanic dust leaving Nel dazed and perplexed the last time. Reluctantly, Nel lets Bethany to come up.

Bethany is on this trip with her fiance whom she left back at the Airbnb to pay Nel a visit.

"With him...the Earth doesn't shake," Bethany says which indicates that she is having second thoughts about her significant other. It is later revealed that she is suspecting a proposal looming over her and this volcanic eruption, which has delayed her flight home back to London, is coming at a perfect time to find herself again.

The movie is fully narrated by Jacek Zubiel, who brings a very dry and observational tone into the development of the story.

Charli's performance is surprisingly restrained. She doesn't try to dominate the screen. Instead, she lets things sit, which makes the tension feel more real. She also exhibits a lot of nonchalance as it relates to leaving her fiance behind, mysterious and closed off as she doesn't bother to return his incessant calls.

Her fiance Rob, played by Will Madden, is actually really sweet and he goes out of his way to satisfy his fiance ensuring she has the best time in Warsaw, but as Bethany slowly detaches herself from the relationship and then casually disappears from Nel's apartment after a sequence of heavy partying, Rob needs answers.

He stumbles into Claude's apartment, the artist that they had met the day prior and came to his house party where the spark between Nel and Bethany had been reignited. Claude doesn't have all the answers, so he calls Nel and she instructs him to bring Rob over to her flower shop where she will explain thia volcanic eruption cosmic theory.

Things are slowly starting to make sense for Rob, but not really. He brings Claude and Nel over to the iconic Mermaid Statue where he was going to propose. This monument is a symbolic spot for many; for us Poles it represents strength and perseverance. It may not be the Parisian Eiffel Tower, but it speaks volumes to the representation of Bethany's personality too. She is aloof, but at the same time, extremely independent, strong willed and moving to the beat of her own drum.

The couple leaves Warsaw separately; Rob is heart broken, but almost accepting of everything that has unfolded and Bethany spends a week roaming around Poland before she finally boards a train to head to the Frederick Chopin International Airport in Warsaw to board a flight back home.

The whole movie has a hazy, almost dreamlike energy. It's intimate, a little messy, and sometimes frusturating and out of order...kind of like a small apartment in the heart of Warsaw. It's presented as a metaphor for what relationships in your 30s can feel like; albeit a little bit complicated, a little too raw, maybe a little bit too honest layered with bits of melancholia and a longing for simplicity.

As a long esteemed viewer of Polish cinema, it captures the essence of what Polish movies leave you with; a contemplative thought, an open interpretation, a sort of "fill in the blank" phenomenon...it's definitely not for everyone. The movie, conceptually, moves slow and may seem unfinished, but that in and of itself is the essence of Polish cinematography: ambiguity and lots of emotional subtext.

To catch a sneak peek of the movie, check out the trailer below: