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 thought of brat lastly coming to a shuthowever breaking apart is tough 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 through Coachella’s blinking LED display screen.
That second turns into The Second; a function 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 moments round A Full 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 moviesZamiri co-wrote the script for a hypermodern mockumentary with Bertie Brandes, based mostly on Charli’s whirlwind summer season of 2024 and the anxieties that developed out of out of the blue turning into probably the most in-demand pop star on this planet. Given the ever present nature of the live performance documentary (Taylor Swift alone has made six previously six years) it’s novel to see a musician making an attempt to do one thing completely different with the format, quite than merely package deal 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, unique artist while you’re surrounded by folks all clamouring for a piece of your success.
The trope is acquainted – well-known folks 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 Spiceworldthis isn’t hagiography or an try to look #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 other of a transformative function, Charli has enjoyable with it, keen 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 vibrant colors, emulating the brat tour’s branding. Earlier than the principle 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 looks 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 model Poppi.)
This nervousness manifests in The Second when Charli takes a model cope with a bank card firm “aimed toward queer younger folks” to be able to finance the glitzy live performance movie the label expect, with douchebro filmmaker Johannes Godwin (Alexander Skarsgård, having a ball) behind the digicam. In her panicked pursuit of perfection Charli throws her long-time good friend and collaborator Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates) underneath the bus, betraying the artistic 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 quite the way during which it’s performed. Charli trades membership classics for cute coordinated choreography and inexperienced glitter, poking mild enjoyable on the approach brat itself grew to become co-opted by others to the purpose it misplaced all that means (Granted Charli didn’t assist herself generally). The Second doesn’t provide any methods for navigating the capitalist hellscape that has turn out to be the artistic industries – Charli’s messy and impulsive and doesn’t at all times get it proper. Whereas that is, satirically sufficient, very #relatable, it does kind of really feel lik a cop-out that lets boardroom bros off a little simple. 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 because of the quantity of characters who want introducing.
Whereas it nonetheless feels a little early to cross ultimate judgement on Charli’s performing (she’s received a busy yr, lining up appearances in I Need Your Intercourse, Eruption, Faces of Dying and the brand new Takeshi Miike movie), she’s actually received glorious style in co-stars, from Skarsgãrd and Benton Gates to Jamie Demetriou and Kate Berlant. Even Kylie Jenner manages to provide a good efficiency, one thing hitherto thought unattainable. It’s simply as properly the forged are on prime kind – the vast majority of the movie is ready 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 looks like a particular step in the proper course for the world of movie tie-ins; quite 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 up to date interval piece captures among the madness that was brat summer season – however crucially reminds us there’s one thing to be stated for figuring out when to go away the occasion.