Movie Review: The Moment

In the summer of 2024, British pop artist Charli xcx unleashed a pop culture phenomenon into the world with her sixth studio album Brat. This unexpected success story pushed Charli from the comfortable place she had carved out for herself on the outskirts of the mainstream pop ecosystem into the harsh glow of the " main pop girl" spotlight. Amidst all of the Brat mania, her label (Atlantic Records) proposed she make a concert documentary during her first-ever global arena headlining run. She rejected their offer and instead elected to team up with music video director/frequent collaborator Aidan Zamiri and music journalist Bertie Brandes to make a mockumentary called The Moment that allowed her to spoof all of the bullshit that was attached to the success of Brat. This decision proved to be quite the savvy move as it allows Charli to give Brat the kind of flashy, unexpected send-off it deserves. 

Brat is one of those records that made such a significant culture impact that the label was naturally going to want to milk that cash cow for as long as they possibly could. This represented a huge departure from the way Charli has worked in the past as her status as this sort of queen of niche pop granted her an exemption from the label's most egregious efforts to meddle in the creative process. In the film, she highlights not only how aggressive the label is with forcing their shameless cash-grabbing ideas (an Amazon-backed concert film directed by a big name with a corporate-friendly milquetoast vision-who is played with an incredible amount of controlling, passive aggressive detail by a scene-stealing Alexander Skarsgard, a Brat-branded credit card, a "family-friendly" overhaul of her stage props, logos and outfits) onto an artist once their music starts to become more popular but how the pressure to sustain this newfound success has convinced Charli to toss aside the artistic integrity she previously had held so dear. 

As silly and snarky as the events of The Moment are, there's some real insight on the plethora of stupid ways the commerce side of the music industry gets in the way of the artistry buried underneath the deadpan humor that could only be delivered by someone who has spent their share of time in the belly of the beast. Charli has been around for long to enough to know how this whole circus works (it's easy to forget that she made her first big mainstream splash back in 2012 with her guest spot on Icona Pop's "I Love It') and it's great to see how eager she is to make fun of the industry machine she's stuck in as well as herself. Seeing an artist of her profile have such a strong grasp of the inner workings of the industry they're involved in and be able to clearly articulate how the practice of artificially extending an album cycle to appease fans/make more money is completely antithetical to the beauty of creating art is incredibly refreshing in an era where the shameless profit-chasing nature of capitalism is slowly laying waste to the very fabric of our world. 

By making a whole film where she effectively sells out to finally get away from Brat, Charli proves that she's remained true to her creative ideals despite the significant raise in profile she's experienced over the past 18 months. Walking away from Brat on her own terms just feels true to who she is an artist and it's especially satisfying that she was able to channel the vulnerability that is such a big part of the record into a comedy movie that is based on something that she was still living through while making.  While whatever proves to be the next step for Charli's career beyond a whole lot of acting roles (she currently has five movies awaiting release and is set to start shooting a new movie with Japanese genre auteur Takashi Miike imminently) and the Wuthering Heights soundtrack remains a mystery, I'm awfully excited to see how she will keep finding fresh ways to go against the grain. 

Grade: B