Time: 103 Minutes
Age Rating: R16 – Drug use & offensive language
Cast:
Charli XCX as a Charli XCX
Rosanna Arquette as Tammy Pitman
Kate Berlant as Molly Jean Bush
Jamie Demetriou as Tim Potts
Hailey Benton Gates as Celeste Moreau Collins
Isaac Powell as Lloyd Randall
Alexander Skarsgård as Johannes Godwin
Director: Aidan Zamiri

I should probably begin this review by clarifying some things. I know of Charli XCX, and I was certainly aware of her very popular and successful album Brat, but I’m not that familiar with her. I remember listening to a few of her songs, but didn’t remember what they sounded like, and was only familiar with ‘Brat Summer’ in the sense that seemingly everyone loved the album. Despite this, I was curious about The Moment, which appeared to be a meta film where Charli is playing a fictionalised version of herself. Perhaps it’s because of my lack of knowledge and distance from the subject, but I found that it actually worked for me.

As I said before, I really liked The Moment despite not really knowing a ton about Charli XCX. Honestly, you don’t really need to know much about her to get into the movie. The film establishes Charli as a pop star who had massive success with a popular album named Brat, resulting in a cultural phenomenon named Brat Summer. It’s very easy to follow from that point. The Moment is about all that she’s going through during this phenomenon, with it being a nightmare behind closed doors despite the glamour and fame on the outside. It acts as a satire on the music industry, capitalist greed, current pop culture and is especially about sudden success being taken advantage of and being compromised by corporations for the sake of profit. We see this mainly with a concert film director trying to change Brat to be something more palatable and commercial than what it was in the first place. The viewing experience is fittingly uncomfortable and stressful, but The Moment is also entertaining and even funny at points, especially many of the scenes involving Alexander Skarsgard. Unsurprisingly with it being about Charli XCX essentially making a movie about Brat, it’s very self aware, and I thought that the satirical mockumentary style really worked for it. The Moment tries to do multiple things at once and gets a little messy as a result. On top of the nightmare of what it means to be a pop star, it tries to also make a statement about Brat Summer, and while I got some of it, most of it is really only effectively conveyed in the last 3-5 minutes in which Charli actually just straight up says it.

Charli XCX does very well playing a fictionalised version of herself. She’s more than willing to present herself as complex, rash, vulnerable and even unlikeable at points. I’m interested to see her act more. Hailey Gates is also amazing in her part too. The biggest standout might be Alexander Skarsgard, who plays a concert director who is making a concert film for Charli and who has a very different view of what it should look like. He’s hilarious, while also having a somewhat sinister energy and presence to him.

This is Aidan Zamiri’s first film and he does quite well in his debut here. It’s very flashy, visually striking, and fittingly chaotic in parts, albeit a bit heavy on the strobe lights at times. At the same time, it works in being more intimate, especially with the camerawork in its mockumentary style and editing.

The Moment is a satirical, meta, intimate, entertaining, and messy mockumentary, well performed and stylishly directed.