Charli XCX reacted after fans on social media described the trailer for Emerald Fennell’s film Wuthering Heights as the “matcha dubai chocolate labubu of film,” NME reported. The Saltburn director is reworking Emily Brontë’s classic, and Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi star as the doomed couple Catherine and Heathcliff. The first trailer, released on Wednesday (3 September), faced harsh criticism — from anachronistic costumes to overt eroticism.

The sexually charged excerpt is scored with a new version of Charli’s song “Everything Is Romantic.” Shortly after its release, the singer announced that the film will include “new original songs from me” and wished everyone an “early Valentine’s” ahead of the premiere, scheduled for 14 February next year. Reactions on social media were polarized — Charli shared a screenshot of a tweet that read: “‘Wuthering Heights’ starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, with a soundtrack by Charli XCX, is somehow the ‘matcha dubai chocolate labubu’ of cinema,” and, backing the post with a Kate Bush track, added tersely: “hope you like it!”

The fleeting trends that propelled the popularity of “Labubu” and “Dubai chocolate” reflect a cultural shift in which “all ideas and aesthetics are just atoms that break apart and mix,” at the heart of the dissatisfaction among some viewers who feel the trailer departs sharply from the source text through a highly sexualized interpretation. At a test screening last month, viewers reacted strongly to the graphic sexual scenes, and some online comments likened the material to “soft porn.”

Elordi’s casting as Heathcliff provoked significant criticism because in the novel the character is described as “dark-skinned” — an argument that raised questions about ethnic fidelity in casting. The intimate scenes in Wuthering Heights also echo Fennell’s previous provocations: Saltburn contained a scandalous scene in which Barry Keoghan’s character, Oliver Quick, drinks water from Felix’s bath — a role played by Jacob Elordi.

In April Elordi revealed that he had considered taking a break from acting until Fennell invited him to join her new project. Meanwhile, lead actress Margot Robbie has reportedly been negotiating to produce and star in a remake of Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman in a Tim Burton-directed version. | BGNES