Erupcja Movie Review
Erupcja follows Nel, a florist in Warsaw, as she’s visited by her childhood friend Bethany and her new boyfriend. Soon, the romantic lives of these two women begin to get complicated.
Originally premiering back on September 4th of last year at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), however, this is the film’s first screening in the United States, which was at South by Southwest (SXSW) on March 12th. Erupcja marks director Peter Oh’s seventh feature film, having previously directed I Send You This Place (2012), Love and Work (2014), Everything Beautiful Is Far Away (2017), Youngstown (2021), Jethica (2022), and The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick (2025). The cast for this film includes Charli XCX, Lena Góra, Will Madden, Jeremy O. Harris, Agata Trzebuchowska, Maja Michnacka, Jan Lubaczewski, Jacek Zubiel, Marcin Malisz, and Anton Kolbasko. In addition to directing the film, Peter Oh also wrote the script alongside the stars of the film, Charli XCX and Lena Góra. This is the first time the three of them have worked together on a project. Following her explosive year of 2024, Charli XCX starred in 3 movies during 2025 (Erupcja, Sacrifice, and 100 Nights of Hero); however, this was the only film she was credited as a writer for.
Eruption! That’s the English translation of this title, and it truly captured the feelings encapsulated in the build-up, the peak, and the aftermath of a volcanic eruption. Charli XCX gives exactly what you’d expect from her and more; this film shows that she’s not just a party girl, but she has range. It’s through her decisions, fueled by emotions and superstition, that she turns into the catalyst that puts the plot into gear. However, this isn’t to say that she’s carrying the whole weight of the film on her back; on the contrary, the film wouldn’t have been as amazing without the other two main actors: Lena Góra and Will Madden. The weird relationships between all three are so crucial to the movie, and the actors play their parts perfectly throughout the whole film. All three of these characters embody people I have met before; they aren’t just fictional characters for the film, but real, living, breathing people who could exist in the real world.
Speaking of the real world, Peter Oh’s direction of the film is magnificent and really contributes to this feeling of the film being a real story. Every single decision seems intentional, but also not obvious. There wasn’t any part of the film where something or someone’s actions didn’t make sense, but that doesn’t mean I could guess everything that was going to happen before it did. Furthermore, hearing the director talk after the film brought a lot of clarity as to why I felt these things during the film. Peter Oh stated how he was inspired by a lot of 70s crime films, and that can be seen in the constant use of the shaky cam, the lingering shots, and the grain of the film. He truly made the audience feel like they were bystanders, watching the whole situation erupt, and seeing how that same eruption that felt so good and so freeing in the moment can leave everyone else around it with a sense of melancholy and realization. I can’t recommend this movie enough; this borderline slice-of-life film may not be one that everyone loves, but everyone will find themselves relating to at least one of the themes of the film.
