You’ve watched Charli XCX, whether you liked it or not, all of summer 2024 when the nauseating green brat came out, in your Boiler Room sets creating the loudest mixes you’ve ever heard, in your Super Bowl commercials, on your Coachella stage, and around every other corner. Now, she’s coming to theaters near you, and she’s bringing The Moment with her. Her new satirical mockumentary follows fictionalized events that may or may not have occurred during the preparation and rollout of her club classic, Brat. So bring your sunglasses and pay attention to the strobing lights warning; it’ll be wholesome fun for the whole family!
The Moment, directed by Aidan Zamiri, isn’t a documentary, nor is it a concert film. The movie tells a fictional story of a pop star’s intense emotions when dealing with the alienating pressures that come with extreme overnight success that Charli experienced. It focuses on the back-to-back period after the brat album, while showing the preparation for the infamous Sweat Tour, all while clashing with a documentary filmmaker over her public persona. The film dives deep into the “sellout fantasy”, the stress of maintaining modern pop star status and severe identity crisis; it serves as a scripted deconstruction of her brat era.
One of the films boldest choices was the fact that it really blurred the lines between what was real and what was pure fiction. The movie included real music, real outfits and real celebrities (Julia Fox, Rachel Sennott, Kylie Jenner, Shygirl, etc). But the majority of the plot was what made it so thrilling; almost none of it happened. As stated before, Charli plays herself, but the movie expands more on “what if Charli had zero creative direction for her own project”, in the sense of someone totally taking over her tour for their own benefit. When something went wrong, the antagonist Johannes, played by Alexander Skarsgård, was quick to point fingers and go as far as even saying he was no longer interested in making his tour movie. The Moment also does a fantastic job at keeping its viewers on the edge of their seats. Identity crisis, anxiety and the fear of imperfection play a huge part and aside from Charli herself, the viewers feel it the most.
A perfect word to describe The Moment is ‘exaggerated’. In Charli’s Brat manifesto that she had released months before production started for the mockumentary, she states “The artwork for brat will be obnoxious, arrogant, and bold. Some people will hate it. It will be heavily text based, either font on a plain background or some kind of painting on a wall or disregarded objects”. She has definitely executed every single one of those ideas incredibly. Several murals promoting future features, her remix album and her very own movie. The single word on plain background imaging was such a hit that brands even partook in the trend, and yes, some people did in fact hate it. Now, she’s carried this vision to the big screen.
The film’s intro itself is a mix of loud, flashing lights and a montage of news outlets and pop culture channels talking about brat. “I thought the movie was so funny and the kind of humor they used was something you never really see in a lot of movies. Charli is such a good actress, and she’s so good at portraying certain feelings of breaking down and stress, I was like, pretty much feeling her nervousness through the screen.” senior Sophia Marrujo states, “You really have to understand brat and all its lore before seeing it, but yea it was so worth it.”
When Charli first started writing brat, the thought process behind it was primarily was, not a lot of people are going to like this, she more so did it for her fans, the ones who have stuck around through thick and thin. Fast forward 2 years, A24 greenlit Aidan Zamiri’s project centering around the album with a budget of $4 million, originally premiering at Sundance’s 2026 film festival in Park City, Utah on January 30th, later going nationwide February 6th, 2026.
Charli’s main goal for her tour was to accomplish that authentic rave/club scene, with a dark atmosphere and flashing club lights. With the money that she didn’t even think about using for the album, she used it for her dream tour. “Where the actual first idea of doing a text cover came from was to save money. Because I was like ‘this album isn’t going to appeal to a lot of people’, so I just thought I would do like, a press shoot and then maybe we just like, save on the album cover.” Charli shares in an interview with Apple Music. It’s hard to believe that such an intense album was a product of budget cuts. “The idea of brat being on a budget couldn’t have been better because nobody could have even imagined brat being so much bigger than Charli herself. For it being such a low budget album, it definitely got its deserved amount of fame. I think it’s so cool she basically went into it thinking ‘nobody’s really even going to be that into this album’ and it’s kind of done the opposite, it’s become like, its own brand.” senior Zoey Kincy shares.
With Charli XCX herself saying that The Moment marks the end of the brat era, her and her fans are beyond excited to explore the future for Charli. Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights has just hit theaters, Charli’s concept album for the movie alongside it, new collabs with brands such as Poppi and YSL are coming soon, and Charli xcx beginning her acting career as well. Starring in movies such as The Gallerist, 100 Nights of Hero, Faces of Death, Erupcja and many more to come. But it’s not just an ending, it’s a symbol of how precise every single thought and decision went into this stage of Charli’s life. By exaggerating the chaos, the pressure, and the total loss of control, it’s a reminder that fame isn’t about being seen, it’s about deciding who gets to see you.
