Charli XCX: Alone Together review – immersive look at a pop star’s isolation

Bradley Bell and Pablo Jones-Soler’s intimate documentary on English singer-songwriter Charlotte Aitchison (aka Charli XCX) takes us back to the earliest days of quarantine, when celebs were singing along to “Imagine” and pop stars were performing on Instagram live. The result, Charli XCX: Alone Together, is an intriguing chronicle of the symbiotic relationship between Charli and her fans (known as The Angels) after she set out to create an album in isolation.

Eighteen days into lockdown, the pop star grew restless in her L.A. home and decided to set herself a challenge: to make an entire record in five weeks. The result was How I'm Feeling Now, an eleven-track album packed with hyper-pop anthems. The documentary’s focus, however, lies elsewhere: it's a raw portrait that sees Charli baring her creative process (something she believes to be as precious as her soul) from the moment she announced the project to her fans over Zoom, to writing sessions, music video shoots, and the day of release.

Alongside Taylor Swift’s Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Session and Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, Alone Together joins a recent influx of films about the processes driving some of the biggest musical artists of the day. Yet, for a documentary hinged solely on Charli, the film is remarkably self-effacing. Capturing her music-making process on a camcorder results in a vlog-style format. The candid nature of the film results in conversations on the impact of quarantine on mental health, particularly for Charli’s fanbase of queer adolescents trying to take their big first steps in the world.

Increasingly aware of the turbulent situations of her cherished fans, Charli ushers them to previews of her latest mixes and listens to their lyric contributions. It is here that the film fully discards any resemblance to a branded album promotion, Charli blurring the already thinning line between influencer, celebrity, and pop star through her interactions with fans. While there is missed opportunity for greater dialogue surrounding the digital age’s convergence of artist and audience – conversations are brief as to account for the doc’s 67-minute runtime – Bell and Jones-Soler’s film is leaps ahead of its counterparts thanks to its depiction of chosen family through fandom.

But even that closely-held longing for shared experience becomes frustrating in isolation. Charli stares into the camcorder to address her struggles with self-belief and reiterate lessons from therapy sessions. Even with the support of her fanbase and her desire to document the process, the attention occasionally proves too much. “It’s so hard to fucking focus because I know that you’re watching,” she says. “It’s actually driving me crazy!” Then she turns off the camera.

Charli XCX: Alone Together was screened as part of the BFI Flare Film Festival 2022. The film is released in UK cinemas on 14 April.