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Ariana Grande Short Film "Brighter Days Ahead" Gave Us X-Men Vibes

Ariana Grande and Christian Breslauer's touching and heartfelt short film "Brighter Days Ahead" got us thinking about the X-Men. Seriously.

Just so there's no confusion right out of the gate, Ariana Grande won us over for good as Piccola Grande, aka the Pickle Fairy of Hope, during the second season of Dave Holstein's Jim Carrey-starring Showtime series Kidding (see above for a brief look since it seems that Showtime may have pulled any additional official clips). But when we checked out her and Christian Breslauer's short film "Brighter Days Ahead," we couldn't help but think of one thing. The X-Men – specifically, Prof. Xavier's Cerebro (his device for being able to detect/track/communicate with mutants from around the world). We're assuming there may have been some kind of visual influence there – if not, then that's a fantastic coincidence.

For those new to Grande, Eternal Sunshine was her seventh studio album and was released in March 2024. A little more than a year later (today, to be exact) Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead – and that included the short film that we're discussing.  Set seventy years after the music video for "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)," Grande's Peaches is at Brighter Days Inc., where she's given the opportunity to relive a number of her most cherished memories for the final time. It's a beautiful short film that hits your "feels" in places you didn't know your "feels" had. But the only way that opening where Peaches is wheeled into the area to relive her memories wouldn't remind you of the X-Men is if you never saw the X-Men. We were legit surprised that Peaches didn't put a metallic device on her head. Here's a look at the short film, followed by the official overview:

Seventy years have passed since we last saw Peaches (played by Ariana Grande). Now, she finds herself once again in the waiting room of Brighter Days Inc., but this time for a very different appointment. The company now offers advanced memory restoration, allowing her to revisit a curated selection of moments from her life—both cherished and painful. As Peaches embarks on this immersive journey, we watch her confront and heal certain wounds (personal and professional alike) that have made her who she is today. She reconnects with her younger self who had been patiently in the wings for over a decade, as she works her way through the challenges of fame (she is the daughter of the very famous Brighter Days Inc. founder/doctor), personal sensationalism (resulting in being torn apart by stray cats), and generational trauma. In the end, with the help of her loved ones and art, she is able to come home to herself. She would do anything to experience it all again. However, there's one catch: once a memory is relived, it is erased forever.

Set against the music of eternal sunshine deluxe: brighter days ahead, and directed by frequent collaborators Christian Breslauer and Ariana Grande, this film explores love, loss, growth, and the fleeting nature of memory, delivering a heartfelt cinematic experience that closes the door on this eternal sunshine album era.

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