Charli XCX: Alone Together review – ‘A fascinating portrait of the artist in lockdown’

Words: Jamie Tabberer; pictures: Supplied

Do you harbour secret dreams of being a pop star? I used to. In my fantasy world, Rihanna’s ‘SOS’ was my debut single, and my first era was very provocative and featured a lot of leather.

I’m a 35-year-old man. It could still happen, right?

That said, if Charli XCX’s making-of-an-album documentary Alone Together has taught me anything, it’s that being a pop star – or at least, one of her critically-acclaimed status – is harder work than I thought.

Screening as part of BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, the documentary charts the making of 2020’s How I’m Feeling Now; Charli’s envelope-pushing LP recorded during Covid-19-induced lockdown with the help of an utterly devoted fanbase.

That the star – who recently appeared on the digital cover of Attitude’s sibling publication, Rolling Stone UK – begins the process with barely a concept, but produces an entire body of work in the timeframe promised (imagine the focus required!) makes for an unusually compelling rising action. Crucially, you don’t need to be a member of the Charli fan club, or even a pop aficionado, to relate. Anyone who’s ever faced down an intimidating deadline will feel seen and triggered in equal measure.

We’ve seen content of this ilk before with tour documentaries – ‘will XYZ and their army of helpers beat the clock and put on the show of a lifetime?’ – but this is different. It’s almost strangely intimate: Charli, stuck at home in LA, adrift with her boyfriend and two managers. And that’s it. Save for her 3.9 million Instagram followers, of course, an evidently outsized portion of whom are LGBTQ and utterly devoted to their queen. Their fervent enthusiasm, whether on Zoom or in the comments, makes the doc more digestible; I for one am not quite ready to relive the darkest days of the pandemic.That said, the artist’s mental health struggles and crises of confidence are documented, making for raw, uncomfortably personal footage that lends the film depth and power. It feels valuable in a way that Katy Perry’s surreal four-day YouTube marathon to promote 2017’s Witness didn’t and is thankfully worlds apart from the stage-managed cosiness of Vogue’s 73 Questions.

Fan involvement in creative decisions can be an eyeroll-inducing façade, of course, and lead to undesirable consequences. (I remember when the Spice Girls got theirs to name their third album: the abysmal and inaccurate Forever was not my choice).

But this is the real deal, with followers, for instance, finetuning lyrics in real-time during an Instagram Live song-writing session and weighing on decisions around remixes and picture-selection. It’s fascinating and very, very real.

But for the love of god, don’t watch this if you need a break from your smarthphone. From text typed across the frame, to the sight of a screen within the screen you’re watching to the sound of notification alerts, the edit overdoes it with stylistic techno wizardry to the point of tedium.

Charli XCX: Alone Together will be available to stream on BFI Player from 16 March. It is in cinemas for a nationwide special presentation on 14 April

Attitude’s new-look March/April issue is out now.