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The Moment, starring Charli XCX and Alexander Skarsgard and directed by Aidan Zamiri
Trailer: A24

The Moment
Directed by Aidan Zamiri
Rated R
Toured 6 February 2026
#TheMomentMov

Once Charli XCX finds her groove, The Moment turns into a surprisingly solid self-effacing dramedy.

Apple

Actually, The Moment is tagged as a “mockumentary,” which is accurate. Trouble is, when mockumentary and music collide, thoughts immediately go to This Is Spinal Tap, the 1984 masterpiece from the late, great Rob Reiner that started it all. So, being saddled with that label ultimately forces The Moment to work a little harder during the first half.

A major difference between The Moment and This Is Spinal Tap is the overall strategy and conceit of the production. In Spinal Tap, Reiner served as both the movie’s real-world director and the movie’s fictional on-screen anchor, Marty DiBergi, a documentary filmmaker tasked with capturing in a candid light the legendary rockers of the heavy metal and big hair band that is and always will be Spinal Tap.

DiBergi was the through point, the bridge between the audience and the mayhem.

The Moment takes a different approach that takes some getting used to. It’s more in the style of The Office. There isn’t an on-screen filmmaker and interviewer, but there are cameramen and the various players are advised to not look directly into the camera. But of course they do. On occasion. Always awkwardly.

As the movie opens, it’s 2024, The Year of the Brat, Brat Summer and that rather garish lime green. An immediate challenge for Charli XCX is to determine the fate of the Brat. Is it a moment in time? Or is something that should be stretched as far as the fans will allow?

Sympathy is a knife

What’s really cool about The Moment is how Charli XCX has approached the material. As she explained in a post-screening Q&A with director Aidan Zamiri, the story revolves around all the decisions that could’ve gone sideways during her very real experiences during the Brat era. Just one bad idea could’ve derailed her entire year, maybe even her career.

It’s a great concept for a mockumentary. Charli XCX and Zamiri, making his feature directing debut after building a catalog of music videos featuring the likes of Charli, FKA Twigs, Billie Eilish and even Timothee Chalamet, ultimately lock in on the requisite tone. The presentation is suitably raw and appropriately off-kilter.

The Moment is essentially about all the minds – both creative and business – that could potentially sabotage an artist. Charli XCX has her own creative director, Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates), but she’s ultimately undermined by Johannes, a complete outsider brought in by the “powers that be” to steer a concert film capturing all things Brat. But Johannes (so gamely played by Alexander Skarsgard) has no clue who Charli XCX is or anything about Brat Nation. He dares to even hijack her brand-associated lime green. He censors the stage’s on-screen visuals in hopes of capturing a larger family audience that really has no business being in the arena and exposed to the “mature” themes of a Charli XCX concert.

He essentially looks to make Charli XCX into something she is not.

As part of all that creative chaos and tumult, Charli XCX gets her Spinal Tap Stonehenge moment when she’s instructed to step inside a giant cigarette lighter for no apparent reason. Even as she does so, all the stagehands are advised to stand back as the set is a fire hazard. That’s so great. (And, yeah, U2’s giant mirror ball lemon incident also comes to mind.)

Girl, so confusing

It’s not much of a stretch to think of all the other musicians who’ve eyed the cinema as some sort of growth opportunity. Sometimes it works out great. Certainly, Elvis Presley and Lady Gaga soar to the top of the list of successful transitions. But The Weeknd? Poor Abel Tesfaye didn’t fare so well with last year’s Hurry Up Tomorrow fiasco, but his real-world stadium tour still performed well.

Credit must be given to Charli XCX. This movie proves she’s savvy. She gets movies. Hey, she’s even launching an entire album tied-in to Margot Robbie’s upcoming big-screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights (and Charli XCX also had a song on Robbie’s Barbie soundtrack).

In The Moment, Charli XCX is quite comfortable playing herself even during some remarkably uncomfortable situations. There isn’t a shred of pretense surrounding her or this movie, which is a tremendous compliment.

While the movie ambles around a bit looking for its tone – its beat – in the first half, there is a distinct turning point when the screen lights up and the movie kicks into high gear. Stressed by all the madness, Charli XCX decides to do something she had previously argued against doing in light of all the work she has to do while preparing for the tour: she takes a break and heads out to Ibiza. There, she tries to enjoy a facial, but things go wrong. Maria (Arielle Dombasle), the facial therapist, is overly aggressive. The heat and the tension in the room are palpable. It’s a nightmare scenario.

During that post-movie Q&A session, Zamiri nails it with a single-word description: “Lynchian.” It’s not that a David Lynch-style scene is what they were intentionally shooting, it’s that a David Lynch-style scene is what came out of it.

Things go horribly wrong for Charli. But it’s all terrifically wrong for the audience.

And that scene is immediately followed by a cameo this writer wishes he didn’t have to mention. It’s a cameo by Kylie Jenner. But it’s also pivotal. Charli, freshly out of her mind in Ibiza, runs into Kylie and their conversation actually helps bring some focus to what follows through the second half of the movie. Kylie gushes about how jealous she is Charli gets to work with Johannes (who couldn’t work on Kylie’s project because of his commitment to Charli) and Kylie also gushes over how great Maria is and how she can’t wait for her facial.

Think about all the implications and how other people’s impressions that are totally counter to Charli’s first-hand experiences start to sway Charli’s own better judgment.

This is the moment when The Moment turns into something special. Totally, unexpectedly special.

I might say something stupid

Given it’s touted as a mockumentary, there’s the question of how much the audience should laugh and how loudly. That drags on the movie’s first half.

Sure, there are the business savvy jokes about bleeping out name-dropping for legal and licensing concerns. There are also those upfront conversations about how and if the Brat movement should keep going and for how long.

But there’s also a joke about a Brat credit card being managed by a financial institution looking to revive its fortunes. The card would be Charli’s trademark lime green and it’d be marketed to gay youth with the promise of free concert tickets.

All that is so wrong on so many levels and Charli questions if card applicants would need to prove they’re gay. What’s the point of that marketing spin, she wonders.

All of that credit card nonsense in the first half leads to a major pay-off in the second half. Following her Ibiza tailspin, Charli seeks to turn her own fortunes around and stoke fresh interest in her upcoming tour by posting on social media – without proper PR guidance and permission – and she ultimately totally, completely and utterly misrepresents the card’s offerings.

Not only does Charli seemingly destroy her own Brat culture, she brings down an entire financial institution and puts her tour in jeopardy.

Ah, but her fans – the people who really matter in her personal universe – think the whole mess is actually rather funny.

Hope springs eternal.

As the end credits rather garishly flash across the screen, this warts-and-all mockumentary about a very real pop star proves itself to be a refreshing vehicle of pure creative expression that has every reason to be celebrated in its own right.

Thanks, Charli XCX, for being raw and turning it all the way up to 11.

• Originally published at MovieHabit.com.