The Moment Doesn’t Take Charli XCX Seriously, & Neither Should We

Mild spoilers ahead. Charli XCX hates being famous. She’s also terrified of becoming irrelevant. She loves pop music but couldn’t care less about being a pop star. She thinks the word “cunt” is cool, but “bitch” is cringe. Well, at least this is the Charli XCX we see in The Moment, a satirical mockumentary that takes aim at the music industry, standom, and how both treat the artists at their center. As a heightened version of herself in the Aidan Zamiri-directed film, Charli XCX is at once a decisive musician who knows exactly what her image should be, and a distressed pop pawn torn between label requests and capitalistic endeavors to turn her viral “brat summer” into a booming brand. The Moment, which premiered this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, finds Charli XCX at a crossroads; she’s ready to say goodbye to her seminal 2024 album Brat but anxious about what comes after your entire career has been whittled into a neon(ish) shade of green and an indescribable aesthetic. What happens when you become a punchline? 

The answer, according to Charli and the team behind A24's The Moment, is to start making the jokes yourself. The Moment is at its best when it doesn’t take itself seriously, when it leans into being a searing commentary on fame and stardom, and when it makes fun of Brat Summer, a concept that (aside from the music, which was very good) already feels like it was a fever dream/ recession indicator of a lost era, even though it was just about 20 months ago. Brat Summer existed in the “post-pandemic” rarified space of hopefulness America seemed to have before Trump was re-elected, when partying was back, and our feeds felt less dystopian. Lest we forget, a core tenet of the Brat era was that it was fun, and for the most part, The Moment is too. The film takes us back to 2024, right before Charli XCX is to tour the album, when the Brat phenomenon is on its last legs. The film is ruthless in its depiction of record execs, the business side of the music industry, and the commodification of artists — as it should be. As her image is being chopped, skewed, and sold for parts, Charli (a genuinely good actor) toggles between aloof disinterest and manic frustration. So how much of the real Charli XCX is in The Moment? 

“The thing about Charli is… she’s so authentically herself, and she’s not afraid to open up and show you all the moving parts inside of her,” Charli’s co-star, Isaac Powell, said on the Sundance red carpet at the premiere of The Moment. “I felt like I got to know the real [Charli] and you’ll see the real her in this movie. She’s an open book. I don’t think anyone will be surprised by anything.”

The most surprising thing about The Moment isn’t who Charli is — or isn’t — pretending to be, but who she says she’s not. Charli XCX isn’t the kind of pop star who likes pyrotechnics or stunts where she’s suspended in the air wearing sparkles and harnessed to an apparatus. Sound familiar? Charli XCX is probably never going to confirm or deny if the jabs at packaged pop princesses that are made in the film are direct hits on Taylor Swift (who allegedly dissed Charli on her most recent album), but it was surprising to me how unsubtle they were. Swift has produced many over-the-top concert films. When a trailer for Charli XCX’s fake music film drops in The Moment, it looks like it’s ripped from the Disney Plus discover page trying to redirect you to watch the Eras Tour. It’s very Swift-coded to say the least. But Swift isn’t the only pop star to make a concert doc, and she’s not the only one who dons a sequinned mic and suspends in the air over her fans during her acts. She’s not the only billionaire poster child for how pop music has become a marketing machine more concerned with bottom lines than quality music. It could just be a coincidence, right?  — or Charli XCX and Taylor Swift are engaged in a pop star petty-off. I, for one, am here for it. If Swift can (allegedly) throw shots at Charli XCX, why shouldn’t she shoot back? 

The Moment star Tish Weinstock said the confusion over what is a performance and what’s not in the film is the point. “The fact that it’s all a performance is very telling,” Weinstock said at the premiere. “I think the tension lies in trying to find out the truth. Do you ever know anyone? Every day people are performing who they are, and this movie is a commentary on that.”

Charli’s performance of who she is in The Moment isn’t always a flattering one. When she blows off her creative director (played excellently by Hailey Benton Gates, giving a nuanced, exasperated yet restrained performance that sometimes outshines its material) in the middle of tour rehearsals to go to a wellness spa in Ibiza, Charli XCX is being a brat — and not in the coked-out, absurdist chic way she intended. Charli is running from fame, and she runs into Kylie Jenner, naturally (Rachel Sennott and Julia Fox also deliver strong cameos). It’s a bit on the nose to include a Kardashian, the first family of being famous for fame’s sake, but somehow it works. Jenner surprisingly holds her own while presumably also playing a heightened version of herself. She’s passive aggressively pissed at Charli for stealing the in-demand director Kylie and her sister (she didn’t specify which one) wanted for their own project. This causes Charli to spiral, and to call her team demanding they give the hotshot director, who has been tapped for Charli’s concert film, anything he wants. The director, Johannes, is played by Alexander Skarsgärd who is having the time of his life in this role.

Johannes acts as a stand-in for all the shitty men women in music have to deal with, the ones who condescend, belittle, mansplain, and gaslight. He does all that cloaked in therapy speak and bad clothes. Skarsgärd is truly hilarious — albeit disturbing — in the role. It’s in the scenes with Johannes, the gaggle of other bros, and Rosanna Arquette’s clueless record executive, who each are attempting to sell, monopolize and destroy Charli’s image, that the movie finds its footing. The movie is a ridiculous takedown of how silly this industry is, and how unserious Brat Summer was. When she’s at her most self-deprecating, The Moment’s Charli XCX is extremely likeable, and the world she’s critiquing is all about extremes. 

“Fame is sacrificing your privacy but also getting everything that you want,” Weinstock said when asked to describe fame and the film’s explanation of it. “Deal with it.” 

As Charli XCX deals with it, she’s grappling with having it all while wanting none of it. The last act of the film could be interpreted as a sincere rumination on the mental toil of massive success, and the loss of creative freedom, but it’s also where the movie’s message gets muddled. It may seem hard to feel bad for someone who got everything she wanted, but the genuine emotions that Charli the actress delivers help you root for this anti-heroine, even when you’re rooting for her multi-million dollar Brat credit card deal not to fall through. The viewer gets just as caught up in the allure of Chari XCX as the parasocial stans she’s referencing. But Charli XCX is taking the piss out of herself, her fans, and their co-dependency. She can leave the sincerity for the sparkly pop stars. 

Deadline called The Moment a “spiritual sequel to Spice World” and I’ll go further and call it Spice World meets Uncut Gems. Complimentary! Ultimately, Charli XCX’s fans will love her irreverent approach and newcomers will be endeared by her self awareness. There’s a scene near the beginning of the film where Charli asks one of her team members if something related to Brat Summer was too cringe. They reply, “It’s all cringe.” Making a meta anti-concert film to say goodbye to an era that had cable news debating whether the Vice President was “brat” is a little cringe. The Moment’s Charli XCX would lean into it. Sure, it’s all cringe, but cringe sells, and that’s all that matters.