The Moment felt like the perfect combination of Spice World and Josie and the Pussycats commenting on the movement getting too big, too monumental and too commercialized and away from the artist at its center. It serves as a perfect foil to Charli xcx’s Alone Together, which was a very raw, vulnerable look into her artistry and how she was feeling (then, not now, if you will). By challenging the expectations of what made brat work so well, Charli arises to the moment to deliver a defiant goodbye to brat summer. There will never be another Camelot.  

The Moment is a fascinating look at not just the artist Charli xcx but at how audiences consume music. With brat, Charli xcx took the entire world by storm, achieving something quite few artists ever achieve. The brat era dominated the culture in a way there are very few things to even compare it to. From brat summer to that specific shade of green, it was bigger than the music, it was a culture shift. Charli’s music has always been a specific type of pop music, hyperpop brought to its height by A.G. Cook (composer on The Moment), Sophie, GFOTY, Hannah Diamond and Charli. While many have been familiar with hyperpop, brat took this to new heights. A soft launch with the tracks, ‘Von Dutch’ and ‘360’ ahead of the album release that ended up taking the world by storm. From SNL sketches on what is brat to every major corporation changing their logo temporarily to that green lowercase Arial that became iconic overnight. What’s funny about all of this original Charli’s angels, Charli’s team and the brat herself, is that none of this was truly intentional and Charli along with her creative team knew her real fans would get it. Charli felt fans had a strange relationship with ownership of the female artists they stan, why do female artists have to be on their cover art? From the very conception of the album brat, Charli was challenging audiences with an almost voyeuristic commentary on pop culture, fans, and Charli herself. From the very first single’s video, the camera serves as the antagonist and the rest of brat summer, Charli pushed back at the audience’s, and in turn the camera’s, expectations. Pop music stans, and honestly, pop culture in general, wants to be fed the same art in the same style until they get bored and move on to the next thing. What does that do to the artist? How can they sustain their artistry in an ecosystem that refuses to challenge them? 

This all builds up to The Moment, which is Charli’s way of officially ending the era. Brat summer is not forever. There’s always going to be another album, another tour, but the whole point is that brat was bigger than any of that and the audience is part of that. As the film addresses, many artists would have ended on a note with a concert film, the end of an era. Charli had many shows to choose from with both Sweat and brat tours and even her Boiler Room sets that could have been repurposed. Aidan Zamiri, co-writer and director, is a frequent xcx collaborator and speaking the same visual language pays off in spades here. The camera is at odds with Charli throughout the film, it feels invasive and unsure of what is next with her mood, the tour and what everyone around her is asking. The chaos of it all is overwhelming and the camera never allows a moment for her or the audience to breathe. There is no space when you’re being pulled in fifty directions. It’s not played for you to feel bad for her, it’s quite the opposite. This creation of Charli is meant to be not likable, she’s not always easy to watch or understand. She’s quite shallow and tuned out of those she’s been closest to, all intentional here and I think general audiences will struggle to see that. The overworked, sad pop star has been done before but with a pseudo version of Charli at the center it allows her and the film to confront the expectations from fans (and her critics). Charli is at odds with her longtime creative partner Celeste (a brilliant Hailey Benton Gates), who I can’t help but hope is named after the iconic Vox Lux pop diva. Charli’s circle grows and grows and instead of leaning into those who know her best, Celeste, she throws her hands up and bows to the label. A familiar trope from films about pop stars (Glitter, Josie and the Pussycats, Beyond the Lights) but in The Moment it feels different as Charli is navigating a project that has only been successful due to her integral involvement in the creation and vision of what brat is. The album cover, the styling, the strobe, the production and lyrics are all derived from Charli and her closest collaborators, no oversight from ‘the man’ or the label. Explaining brat to someone became a joke, even the previously mentioned SNL sketch, you either got brat or you didn’t. There was just a vibe, it just was. The attitude of this explanation became a joke in itself, and Charli was aware of it all. Where The Moment succeeds is Charli’s self-awareness of how silly this ‘edginess’ became. In the film, Charli says she knows it’s not chic to be the last one at the party, but she hates going home. It’s an interesting conversation of what many think brat was about, just partying but how this specific club scene her tour brought to the world in a fresh way was the sense of community on the inside. The film is obviously a fictional take so you don’t see her husband, George, (but cameo from the ring), to know she has her family, this entire venture is focused on the projections of what Charli is to others, both fans and outsiders.

The over-commodification of pop culture has been on a rise since the 2020 pandemic. People searching for that sense of community within a fandom was brought back in a major way and almost every pop star, and/or movie, has leaned into it. Merch is nothing new, but brat was a whole new wave because it could simply just be green for people to think, ‘oh that’s brat.’ Combining that with excessive brand deals you see celebrities take on, from Doritos to vitamins, The Moment sees Charli partner with a bank for a brat green credit card targeted at ‘younger gay communities’ that spirals out of her control answering the question, ‘what does a pop singer know about banking?’ It displays counter to the team around someone just cashing in on deals without wondering, is this something the talent should be pushing? Are we just taking a check? What purpose does this serve? The way we all groan when we see a paid partnership tag on Instagram pushed as a laugh here but a smart commentary on why it works with some artists (the comment about ‘her fans just think it’s funny’ really sent me to space, we really just bend over for our favorites and their teams absolutely know that). 

The Moment is primarily built with xcx world names (Rachel Sennott, Rish Shah, Kate Berlant, Julia Fox briefly) but the standouts aside from Charli are definitely Alexander Skarsgård and surprisingly, Kylie Jenner. Having a Swedish man have zero pulse on pop music and culture is quite funny and definitely intentional and Skarsgård seems to have the time of his life being both silently brimming with vitriol and hilariously bizarre; the actor is always quite hilarious to those familiar with his work and interview circuits, but he’s allowed to really play that up here in one of his best borderline comedic (?) roles since On Becoming a God. Jenner only has one scene and it’s a highlight of the film for its writing but she’s actually incredible in it. Jenner embodies self-awareness with a natural screen presence and her charisma to make you understand where Charli is coming from in that moment. One can actually hope this is the start of a film career for her. Not one thing in this film would work without Charli genuinely being a good actress and that she is, the real deal. The brat herself not only can bring the emotion to the screen but can land punchlines and also be the punchline. Charli’s debut album was titled ‘True Romance’ after the 1993 film, which stars Patricia Arquette, sister of The Moment’s Rosanna Arquette. Charli’s album before brat was titled ‘Crash,’ which Charli stated was inspired sonically and visually by David Cronenberg’s film of the same name. She has long yearned to be involved with films, even stated Gregg Araki’s smiley face led to the stylization of ‘brat’ in lowercase. From scoring films to original songs, she’s been leading to this, well, moment and she absolutely shines here. Playing yourself, as Jay Kelly said, is the most difficult thing of all and playing a not entirely likable version of yourself has to be a challenge. 

What makes The Moment work is the film being both self-aware and challenging the expectations. It’s a hard place to try to land because this film is not for the audience you think it is. This film puts up a mirror to the fans that have joined Charli’s angels. The audience full of Urban Outfitters brat shirts and hats felt slightly defensive if they weren’t getting the point (and I say this as a girl with at least 3 Charli UO shirts). Would we stream a concert from Amazon? Would we defend our fave not disclosing terms and conditions on a credit card? Where do we draw the line, brat perfume? Or what about brat jewelry? We bought the phone cases, the Ikea inspired bag, the lower back tattoos. What is too much? When is the artist aware and just trying to pay the bills? Are we responsible for allowing an artist to partake in their own over-commodification? The Moment isn’t just pointing the finger at Charli’s label for demanding more of the same but for us not allowing the artist room to just continue what made us like them in the first place. 

The Moment felt like the perfect combination of Spice World and Josie and the Pussycats commenting on the movement getting too big, too monumental and too commercialized and away from the artist at its center. It serves as a perfect foil to Charli’s Alone Together, which was a very raw, vulnerable look into her artistry and how she was feeling (then, not now, if you will). By challenging the expectations of what made brat work so well, Charli arises to the moment to deliver a defiant goodbye to brat summer. There will never be another Camelot.  

Grade: B+

Oscar Prospects:
Likely: None
Should be Considered: Best Original Score, Best Cinematography

Where to Watch: In Select Theaters