On June 7 2024 Charli XCX unleashed a monster. Inexperienced, imply and solely 41:23 minutes lengthy, ‘brat’ wasn’t simply an album – it was a whole summer season. After which it was a international phenomenon that dominated popular culture lengthy after the leaves turned golden. Throughout her Coachella efficiency a full 10 months later Charli floated the idea of brat finally coming to a close, however breaking apart is difficult to do, particularly when your in a single day success has been six studio albums within the making. “I JUST WANT THIS MOMENT TO LAST FOREVER” Charli admitted by way of Coachella’s blinking LED display screen.
That second turns into The Second; a characteristic movie collaboration between Charli and Aidan Zamiri, recognized for his expansive and spectacular credentials starting from a substantial music video directing CV to staging the advertising and marketing moments round A Complete Unknown and Marty Supreme. Zamiri’s a savvy multi-hyphenate who understands the intersection of artwork and promoting – after serving to the singer develop brat’s visible id and directing music videos, Zamiri co-wrote the script for a hypermodern mockumentary with Bertie Brandes, primarily based on Charli’s whirlwind summer season of 2024 and the anxieties that developed out of abruptly turning into essentially the most in-demand pop star on the earth. Given the ever present nature of the live performance documentary (Taylor Swift alone has made six prior to now six years) it’s novel to see a musician making an attempt to do one thing totally different with the format, moderately than merely bundle a tour up and promote it again to punters at a premium. The Second will get meta with it, documenting Charli’s anxieties round her file label demanding a live performance movie to capitalise on the success of brat and the pressures of making an attempt to stay an impartial, authentic artist once you’re surrounded by individuals all clamouring for a piece of your success.
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The trope is acquainted – well-known individuals have been lamenting their grand struggling on-screen for many years – however Charli – enjoying a considerably fictionalised model of herself – is refreshingly self-aware. Drawing on the likes of This Is Spinal Faucet, Popstar: By no means Cease By no means Stopping and Spiceworld, this isn’t hagiography or an try to seem #relatable. She stops round London and Ibiza in her signature black boots and sun shades, rolling her eyes and self-deprived. Whereas it’s the alternative of a transformative function, Charli has enjoyable with it, prepared to the touch on her insecurities and hang-ups about superstardom however stopping simply shy of navel-gazing. Extra focus is given to a different subject effecting the star: how do you keep genuine in a world the place you’re inspired to monetise each component of your life?
Talking to that query: The Second opens with strobe lights, thumping music and vivid colors, emulating the brat tour’s branding. Earlier than the primary credit crawl a bunch of brand name logos (Aperol Spritz, Starface, Beats by Dre) flash previous like they’re getting producer credit. It reads like a humorous gag about model partnerships (one thing Charli herself has by no means shied away from) however because the movie ticks by it’s very clear these firms are certainly affiliated with the movie. Product placement is nothing new, and The Second freely admits its monetary affiliations – topical, given the declare this week that Warner Brothers reportedly paid 2000 influencers to hype up Wuthering Heights on social media. Charli et al sneaking some spon-con and gags about its ubiquity into The Second seems like an acknowledgement that musicians and actors are as a lot manufacturers ambassadors now as they’re artists. (Charli is at present starring alongside Rachel Senott – additionally seen in The Second – in a new advert for US soda brand Poppi.)
This nervousness manifests in The Second when Charli takes a model take care of a bank card firm “aimed toward queer younger individuals” with the intention to finance the glitzy live performance movie the label predict, with douchebro filmmaker Johannes Godwin (Alexander Skarsgård, having a ball) behind the digicam. In her panicked pursuit of perfection Charli throws her long-time buddy and collaborator Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates) beneath the bus, betraying the creative imaginative and prescient they developed collectively for one thing extra mainstream and marketable. It’s not the act of promoting out that’s being debated, however moderately the way through which it’s completed. Charli trades membership classics for cute coordinated choreography and inexperienced glitter, poking gentle enjoyable on the approach brat itself turned co-opted by others to the purpose it misplaced all which means (Granted Charli didn’t help herself sometimes). The Second doesn’t supply any methods for navigating the capitalist hellscape that has change into the creative industries – Charli’s messy and impulsive and doesn’t at all times get it proper. Whereas that is, paradoxically sufficient, very #relatable, it does kind of really feel lik a cop-out that lets boardroom bros off a little straightforward. The ill-fated bank card subplot is launched early and unravels late – the third act feels a little rushed, whereas the primary is barely ramshackle as a result of quantity of characters who want introducing.
Whereas it nonetheless feels a little early to cross ultimate judgement on Charli’s appearing (she’s acquired a busy yr, lining up appearances in I Need Your Intercourse, Erupcja, Faces of Demise and the brand new Takeshi Miike movie), she’s actually acquired glorious style in co-stars, from Skarsgãrd and Benton Gates to Jamie Demetriou and Kate Berlant. Even Kylie Jenner manages to present a good efficiency, one thing hitherto thought not possible. It’s simply as properly the solid are on prime kind – nearly all of the movie is about in an east London industrial area whereas Charli rehearses her tour choreo, leaving little to the viewers when it comes to visible intrigue.
However The Second seems like a particular step in the precise route for the world of movie tie-ins; moderately than regurgitating the brat tour or lamenting relatability on-screen whereas surrounded by cash, Zamirii and Charli needle on the absurdity of the leisure trade, and by extension, their half in it. Refusing to take itself too significantly, this spirited modern interval piece captures among the madness that was brat summer season – however crucially reminds us there’s one thing to be mentioned for figuring out when to depart the occasion.
