Opening with the words “Flash Warning” in a chaotic font, a bright sequence of rapidly flashing rainbow lights and a strobe unveils Charli XCX desperately crawling on the floor and sporadically dancing. The scene is accompanied by a bass-boosted remix of her song “365” featuring Shygirl, and the phrase “party girl” is repeated as the film, “The Moment,” begins.
As a mockumentary inspired by an original idea from Charli XCX herself, “The Moment” explores the infamous “brat summer” era if she had made different choices and fallen into capitalist beliefs within a male-dominated music industry.
Released in June 2024, Charli XCX’s sixth studio album “brat” sparked a cultural phenomenon, stylized by a lowercase Arial font and its iconic lime green color. The obsession with the album extended far beyond the summer and even evolved into a political tactic for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.
The film features a large cast, including Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Jamie Demetriou, Hailey Benton Gates, Alexander Skarsgård, Kylie Jenner, Rachel Sennott and A.G. Cook, who also composed the grating, stress-inducing score.
“The Moment” was directed by Aidan Zamiri and distributed by A24. Zamiri brings a level of self-awareness to the film through subtle humor and references that make the viewer feel as if they are truly in the moment. The film is shot in a documentary style with a constantly moving camera, surveillance style shots, reactive moments that break the fourth wall, and a chaotic trajectory that at times feels like it is going nowhere, much like reality itself.
The lighting and pacing are captivating, giving viewers whiplash through fast cuts and restless camera movement. The film carries a sense of immediacy that fully immerses the audience, feeling just as intense as the aesthetic Charli XCX cultivated with “brat.”
The story follows a detached Charli XCX at the end of “brat summer” as she prepares for a fictional “brat” tour. The mockumentary pairs scenes of her struggling to keep up with fans’ obsession with “brat” alongside scenes of dismissive men in the commercial music industry attempting to control the album’s trajectory. All the while, Charli XCX struggles to maintain her creative agency, specifically highlighting her rocky relationship with Atlantic Records.
Through staged scenes clearly semi-inspired by real events, a fictional misogynistic director named Johannes Godwin is hired to direct a fictional Amazon Music “brat” concert. He ultimately overrules Charli XCX’s preferred creative director, Celeste, to produce a more “family-friendly” version of “brat,” undermining both Charli XCX and Celeste’s artistic vision.
“The Moment” serves as pointed commentary on the male-dominated music industry, exposing the extent of systemic male control that takes a hold over female creativity. Female artists are forced to constantly fight for authentic control over their own art and image, and have to defend what was theirs to begin with. The film raises a disturbing question of whether these executives knowingly push women to a point of exhaustion, only to move on once their profitability and cultural relevance begins to fade.
In a breakdown in the beginning of the third act, Charli XCX exclaims “I made the album my way!” in a moment of realization. Yet even in her determination, she still fails to regain full control over her creative outlet or the direction of her brand and image. Charli XCX’s awareness does not restore her agency but instead highlights how little control she truly has within the system surrounding her.
In the film, Charli XCX is offered a brand deal with a bank called Howard Stirling, which launches a “brat” credit card targeted at young and LGBTQ+ fans. In this capitalist-crazed music industry, her managers obsess over the brand partnership, prioritizing it over her creative integrity and mental state. Amid the chaos of setting up the tour, she impulsively posts a video that violates the legal terms of the deal, inspiring fans to commit fraud with the card and ultimately bankrupting the company.
Eventually, she succumbs to the commercialization of her music in what she frames as a self-proclaimed horror story.
Through “The Moment,” Charli XCX captures “brat summer” and imagines its chaotic fictional aftermath, poking fun at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour as she ultimately gives in to Godwin’s degrading vision for the “brat” concert film. Nearing the end of the film, a dramatic montage that stands as the fake trailer for Godwin’s “brat” concert film is accompanied by The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” amplifying the satire of commercial excess in the music industry.
As the film closes, industry executives suddenly realize they have failed to check in on Charli XCX and begin to fear that she may have died. Their symbolic ignorance surrounding Charli XCX reflects her persistent lack of creative agency not only in her pop identity but also her life.
This climactic moment reminds viewers that the music industry frequently consumes women until they collapse, by either losing popularity or outliving their trend.
Even as a mockumentary, “The Moment” feels like a glimpse into a heightened but recognizable reality of what goes on behind the scenes in the music industry, especially in such a fast-paced and culturally significant moment.
Through its exaggerated patriarchal absurdity, the film pays tribute to the effort it takes for women to survive within a male-dominated system. Charli XCX deems “The Moment” as a work of fiction, but explains that is also “the realest depiction of the music industry that [she has] ever seen.”
Crissy Saucier can be reached at cmsaucier@umass.edu.
