Charli XCX's bid to launch an acting career with her indie film Erupcja has received a tepid reaction from critics, ahead of its release in UK cinemas this week. The hitmaker, 33, landed a leading role in the film alongside Will Madden, marking her acting debut on the big screen.
Plot and Premise
Charli plays Bethany, a holidaymaker in Warsaw with her boyfriend Rob, portrayed by actor Will Madden. During her time there, she hopes to reconnect with a former lover before deciding whether to settle down and marry her current boyfriend.
Critical Reception
Despite heavily promoting the film when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, critics have shared mixed reviews. The Times' Kevin Maher was particularly unimpressed, awarding the film just one star and branding it '71 minutes of agonising navel-gazing.' He wrote: 'This is the third Charli XCX movie in as many months, after The Moment and 100 Nights of Hero, and the performances are not exactly, well, flowering. Acting is not easy, good acting is extremely difficult, and being famous certainly doesn't help.'
Writing in The Irish Independent, Chris Wasser said: '[Director Peter] Ohs is an experimental filmmaker and doesn't always finish a script before he shoots. It shows, and Erupcja – a collaborative exercise that promises plenty but delivers little – is clearly making itself up as it goes along. A frustrating watch, but Charli XCX – a quietly captivating performer – will have better screen days, I'm sure.'
However, others were more complimentary of Charli's acting work. Empire's Ben Travis awarded the film four stars, writing: 'It's a film that proves she may well have a future in movies, the sort of cool underground Euro-picture that she herself would log on her eclectic Letterboxd page. There's style here — a boxy aspect ratio, colourful interstitials, volcano cutaways — and a drolly funny voiceover that lends wry humour to the drama. But the film's greatest asset, its compelling core? It's Charli, baby.'
Tara Brady penned a four-star review in The Irish Times, where she said: 'The film's greatest asset is its freewheeling atmosphere. Shot, edited and directed by Ohs, Erupcja unfolds through fragments, chance encounters, wanderings and passing moods. Jacek Zubiel's cryptic Polish-language voiceover echoes the folksy ruminations of Sam Elliott in The Big Lebowski, while bursts of music and saturated colour cast a dreamy spell.'
Charli's Music Career Continues
While Charli, who plays Bethany in the 2025 Pete Ohs directed drama, is steadfastly forging a film career, she hasn't forgotten her music roots. On Monday, the beauty confirmed the name and the release date for her follow-up to 2024's Brat album. Alluding to the directions her career is taking her, the multi-talented star took to Instagram to upload a black and white image of musician John Cale, fashion designer Marc Jacobs and film director Martin Scorsese. Charli penned alongside this: 'My new album Music, Fashion, Film is out July 24th. 11 songs, 30 minutes, 5 seconds. available to pre order now, love you xx.'
Her post was met with a plethora of excited comments from her fans and showbiz pals, including Olivia Rodrigo who remarked: 'hell yeah.'
Personal Life and Upcoming Projects
Charli's big news comes after she made a series of rare comments about her husband George Daniel as she posed up a storm in a stunning British Vogue photoshoot in April. The singer, 33, whose real name is Charlotte Emma Aitchison, looked sensational as she graced the cover of the magazine's May issue, where she opened up about how her writing has been influenced by her new husband. Charli married The 1975 drummer George Daniel on Saturday 19 July 2025 in an intimate ceremony at Hackney Town Hall in London. The couple, who announced their engagement in November 2023, later held a second, larger wedding celebration in Sicily, Italy, on September 14, 2025.
Now, newly married, with movie roles rolling in and millions of fans in her thrall, Charli is embracing a bold new era, revealing she is working on a rock-inspired album shaped in part by her relationship. Speaking to British Vogue, she said: 'I don't really want to write songs about my husband forever. I'm not sure how interesting that is, and he knows that. If I write about our relationship, I'm probably only really interested in writing about some of the more obscure feelings of being married.'
The hitmaker also revealed she and her closest collaborators secretly worked on her eighth studio album in Paris during Fashion Week in October 2025. Explaining the decision, she said the team were drawn to the city's energy: 'We knew we wanted to go to Paris to do it. We knew it would be this very hectic, rich time and we like creating in that kind of atmosphere.'
