Living in The Moment’ Where Reality Meets Fiction

The Moment, a first-time full-length feature from photographer and music video director Aidan Zamiri, chronicles a half-fictionalized version of pop music’s most critically acclaimed moment in the 2020s. Charli XCX’s album Brat was sweeping hip circles come summer 2024; what else was new? She’d been beloved by those people for a decade, straddling both pop-star glamour and down-to-earth “realness” prized by her stans, who viewed her as an antidote to who-knows-what: Taylor Swift? Drake?

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The Moment ★★★ (3/5 stars)
Directed by: Aidan Zamiri
Written by: Aidan Zamiri and Bertie Brandes (story by Charli XCX)
Starring: Charli XCX, Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Jamie Demetriou, Hailey Benton Gates, Isaac Powell, Alexander Skarsgård
Running time: 103 mins

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I always assumed she was a cult star simply because she wasn’t famous enough to be a full star (full disclosure: I worked for SPIN in 2013 and attended a company holiday party where she performed) rather than because of any particular anti-hero traits. She won steady acclaim and had some good minor hits (“Stay Away,” “Boys”) and occasionally a hot record (2017’s futuristic mixtape Pop2), but she was never an artist I thought about, in terms of identity or persona or what she might mean. Perhaps that was why she was poised to blow up far beyond those parameters now: a pop star people weren’t sick of, how’s that for a concept?

Suffocated by every-second updates about media exploits of Kanye West, Lana Del Rey, Drake, and Swift, not to mention countless other “influencers” and reality stars with even less artistic inclination, we are ready for a different type of lower-maintenance pop-star. A guileless clubgirl with reliable hooks makes sense as a low-concept pop ideal.

That’s what we thought we were getting. The simple cover of Brat with its lime background and four Arial-narrowed letters was a feint, though. The album has attitude, especially on the irresistible first single “Von Dutch” and her own neologisms like “that’s so Julia,” from the even more successful hit “360.” But it also demonstrates an understanding of how to use the pop mean-girl persona as a mask. On the album she lets us behind hers: insecurities relating to her connection to Swift (and perhaps her relatively modest sales) and odd interactions with Lorde that Charli perceived to be sour.

Suddenly Charli’s perceived realness was embodied and her moderate success read as both an ideal and as a mirror of middle-class fans. For those latter, she was both a heroine and an underdog, replacing people like Katy Perry, who lost the masses toward the end of the 2010s. This repositioning, ironically, made Charli a bigger star than she’d been since she briefly dented the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014 on Iggy Azalea’s chart-topping “Fancy” and her own top-10 “Boom Clap.”

The year 2024 will be forever linked with Brat Summer, when Kamala Harris co-opted Charli’s offhand “kamala IS brat” tweet, Brat topped every year-end list and won Grammys at a show where she also performed. The iconic minimalism of its cover was in loads of people’s social media avatars and memes.

That brings us to The Moment, one of pop history’s most fascinating answers to the eternal conundrum of how an entertainer can safely follow up an unexpected runaway success. It’s not an album, but a film, and a “mockumentary” at that, directed loudly by Zamiri with screenplay assistance from satirist-journalist Bertie Brandes based on Charli’s own idea. It hits the line where reality meets fiction, with Charli playing herself as a cool character who gets twitchy whenever one of her handlers mentions the plot’s chief concern: how to extend Brat Summer, conceivably forever.

Because Charli is actually a savvy, well-edited artist, the movie is neither a piece of fluff nor an indulgence. It’s what HBO Max’s godawful Weeknd vehicle The Idol should have been (Charli pal Rachel Sennott appears in both). The modern aesthetic is typical Uncut Gems/A24 style with constant strobe effects and glassyeyed close-ups, but it’s a real movie, with thought and direction, not just a vanity project. Charli’s own acting is nonchalant, with a British dryness, that works for the cringe comedy of the first half of the movie.

The Moment is at its best when it just simmers in its Spinal Tap bag. One makeup artist is overheard saying she won’t get sick “because I’ve only been eating pears.” Someone else wonders if contracting scurvy would be on brand if her skin turns Brat green. A chauffeur who doesn’t recognize his semifamous passenger needs her help spelling her name because only Charlie Puth is coming up in his impromptu Spotify search. Some of the best lines in the film are blink-and-you’ll-miss-them murmurs like “Charli, do you want to make a green KitKat?” and an exchange that goes: “I’m sorry they exploded your luggage.” “Again?”

When Charli’s label wants her to sign off on a green Brat credit card aimed at queer youth, she initially demurs at marketing that panders so crassly to her newly swelled fanbase, before she eventually caves. “Bratcoin” is also pitched at one point.

The conflicting responsibilities of a pop star (making money for her label and emotional connections with fans) present rich opportunities for satire. The ongoing exploitation of parasocial fan relationships show up at a meet-and-greet promo event for the Brat credit card where, in a tragicomic rendezvous, one fan gives Charli a drawing and says “I tried to kill myself.”

Few actors are better at conveying “this ominous white guy is going to be a slimy POS” than Alexander Skarsgård. He plays Zamiri’s dark shadow and Charli’s antagonist Johannes, the would-be director of a concert film documenting the Brat tour, which gradually becomes another obstacle for Charli’s vision.

Their divergent creative visions lead to an inevitable and impressive awkwardness and tension building with Johannes trying to take control of the tour’s direction. Charli’s increasingly shut-out creative director Celeste (Hailey Moreau Gates) is especially impressive as a stoic pillar of quiet rage, just one more victim of Johannes’ microaggressions.

Where The Moment pivots into something still solid but less interesting is when it leaves fictionalized reality behind halfway through and spirals into an abject fantasy. A chance encounter with Kylie Jenner leads Charli to melt down, give into label pressure, and go full shill for the Brat credit card,

Though Celeste explains that “the people coming to these shows are not that interested in having children and some of them don’t even speak to their father,” Charli lets Johannes replace their adult-oriented vision for the tour with a more family-friendly aesthetic.

However, the film can’t swerve away from a ludicrous third act that culminates in an unnecessary Charli monologue saying in so many words: “maybe the real Brat was the friends we made along the way.” When her fans start exploiting a loophole with the credit card that leads to the company’s bankruptcy, she becomes the scapegoat and inexplicable riots that result are interspersed with montages of TV footage of former supporters like Stephen Colbert turning XCX into a punchline.

It ends with too much woe-is-her for it to be a great film, but it’s still a good one. The movie mimics its own sellout trajectory by starting out with abrasive, disjointed visuals and closing with a finale where the Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” soundtracks her eventual tour film debut on Amazon. The likable underdog survives, which is probably how she wants it anyway.