By John Corrado
Charli XCX stars as a version of herself in The Moment, an A24 film that is neither concert movie or documentary, but rather a sort of docu-fiction hybrid that follows the British pop star on her Brat stadium tour. Or at least a version of all of these things.
The film comes to us from music video director Aidan Zamiri, who is now making his feature debut. Zamiri has done a couple videos with the pop star, and developed this film alongside her. The project mixes elements of behind the scenes mockumentary (think This is Spinal Tap), with music industry satire and even a little Cronenbergian body horror. And it’s pretty entertaining, at least for the most part.
The film finds the fictionalized Charli XCX, like the real one, dealing with newfound success and fame from her 2024 album Brat, which created a new definition of the word, popularized an off-colour shade of green (“chartreuse”), and provided the soundtrack to a whole “Brat Summer.” Movie Charli is being pushed by record label executives to find ways to make this “Brat Summer” go on forever.
In the real world, Brat even became the backdrop of Kamala’s failed presidential campaign, which always felt like a curious fit considering the song referencing being “Brat” (“365”) is literally about doing lines of coke in the bathroom at the club, but I digress. In the movie version, Charli is being pushed to put her name on a new credit card (the “brat card,” lol), a bit of obvious commentary on greedy execs literally trying to capitalize off her fans.
In short, The Moment finds Charli struggling with being pushed to be a more commodified version of herself. The concert is being filmed by Johannes Godwin (Alexander Skarsgård), a pretentious director who tries to control every aspect of the production. If Charli XCX is the main attraction, Skarsgård is the one who steals the show with this highly amusing supporting turn.
Johannes is trying to make her concert more family friendly for streaming audiences on Amazon Prime, undercutting her reputation as being a little edgier than her fellow pop girls. He essentially wants to turn it into a version of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour (this is perhaps Charli trying to get a subtle dig in at Swift, who released her own Charli XCX diss track on The Life of a Showgirl).
This film might call to mind fellow pop star The Weeknd’s own failed project Hurry Up Tomorrow from last year. But where that film felt like a twisted, self-indulgent fantasy that ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own pretension and self-importance, The Moment is much cheekier. The entire thing is laced with the sardonic irony that can underpin Charli’s music, a flippant attitude that is worn like a defence mechanism for deeper feelings of anxiety and self-doubt.
It’s self-aware enough to work, at least as an amusing vanity project. The film finds Charli XCX playing into her persona of a shallow party girl with a vulnerable side underneath, and she is good in the role, keeping us trying to find the lines where the real and fictional versions of herself converge. Even if it occasionally feels like trolling (jokes about her fans all being young and queer should be taken in a mostly good-natured way), this is very much a film made for her followers.
The in-jokes and ironies, cloaked under a vaguely arthouse veneer, are meant to play specifically to her hip, terminally online fanbase (I’ve pumped the Brat album enough times to consider myself at least a casual admirer). It’s aimed squarely at an audience that makes up the Venn diagram of Charli XCX fans who also wear A24 merch and follow her on Letterboxd. That’s enough people to justify The Moment, and give it a mild recommendation.
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