This review contains spoilers for “The Moment.”
In June 2024, there was a recognized cultural shift when Charli xcx’s album, “Brat,” was released, and the world was tinted electric green.
“Brat” introduced many to Charli, though she has been releasing music since 2013. Before her debut album “True Romance,” Charli launched her music career by DJing in the London rave scene at age 14. Select breakout hits like “I Love It” with Swedish duo Icona Pop, “Fancy” with Iggy Azalea, and “Boom Clap” aided in Charli’s rise to moderate mainstream fame. Meanwhile, her experimental hyperpop albums drew a dedicated following. In 2022, Charli released “Crash,” a phenomenal, high-production pop album that she has since described to NPR as “particularly kind of playing into the idea of what a stereotypical pop star is often kind of deemed to be.”
“Brat” was intended to be music that resonated with a select group, a release that juxtaposed the label-catering quality of its predecessor. Instead, the entire world bought into the 15 authentic, at times deeply vulnerable, club-pop tracks. The “Sweat” tour—a collaborative project with Troye Sivan—a star-studded remix album, a second arena tour, and a Grammy performance kept everyone watching. For the aforementioned dedicated following, the rapid success that Charli experienced was an exhale, “Finally.” Fans extrapolated beyond the album release, and it evolved into an era that had an unprecedented impact. To varying degrees, we all experienced “Brat summer.”
Written and directed by Aidan Zamiri, “The Moment” echoes the feverish fascination that emanated from “Brat.” It examines the cultural ripples of the phenomenon, but mainly focuses on the pressure that Charli was inundated with during bratmania. The film is a mockumentary, fictionalizing many aspects of the aftermath of Brat summer, but it remains rooted in Charli attempting to preserve her authenticity while capitalizing on the uncontested hype the album accrued. The film’s tagline, “The moment and none of it happened, but maybe some of it did,” not only aligns with the Brat rhetoric but is representative of the fictionalized narrative in which very real critiques of the music industry are masked by campy cinematic elements.
The lyric, “First thing you’re bound to the album/ then you’re locked into the promo/ Next thing three years have gone by (scared to run out of time)” from “I think about it all the time” featuring Bon Iver, encapsulates the pulsing, relentless, and frankly stressful pace of “The Moment.” The film follows Charli’s preparation for her Brat arena tour, and captures a tumultuous collaboration with Johannes Godwin (Alexander Skarsgård) as he plans a concert film. Godwin’s influence seeps into the process, and Charli and her creative director, Celeste Moreau Collins (Hailey Benton Gates), lose grasp of what “Brat” meant to them. Concepts, visuals, and lighting details are lost to Godwin’s vision of a family-friendly, Amazon Studios concert.
The film feels like 103 minutes of distilled “Brat.” There is subtle comedic timing and delivery that somehow feels at home when juxtaposed with tasteful moments of vulnerability. There are glimpses into what an evening partying with Charli xcx might feel like, and there are many, many cigarettes. The most compelling part of the film for me was Charli and Collins’ relationship. An early scene shows them casually swapping ideas for the tour over glasses of wine, shot from the outside of Charli’s window, foreshadowing the industry oversight that is in the queue. As pressure builds, and more people become eager to get within arm’s reach of Brat’s fame, there is strain on the two women’s relationship, and a disconnect forms when Charli succumbs to the desire of the label, of Godwin, of every voice but her own. Following a bank fraud scandal, several gasp-inducing celebrity cameos, and a brief death scare in true mockumentary fashion, Charli sends Collins a voice memo detailing her feelings about the entire “Brat” experience. Sitting in the theater, I had full-body chills—and then “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve started playing. A superb filmmaking choice that I confidently attribute to Charli’s history as a cinephile.
According to a handful of Letterboxd reviews, many were shocked and disappointed by “The Moment,” criticizing the ending and the acting capabilities of the chosen cast. The irony of people who claim to be fans of Charli and “Brat” loudly projecting their dissatisfaction is laughable. The idea of preserving individuality was so lost on everyone that Charli made a film about it, and yet still. “The Moment” is a bold swing at an industry that is seemingly always seeking to suppress the singularity of artists. For something fictionalized, it is piercingly honest. I can’t wait to see what Charli does next.