Charli XCX has explained why she turned down opportunities to make a tour film for her hit 2024 album “Brat,” revealing that she does not agree with the format of most concert movies and documentaries.
XCX shared her perspective on the matter in a wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday. After the release of “Brat,” the pop star conducted two tours for the album: the first was the Sweat Tour, which was a collaboration between her and fellow artist Troye Sivan; the second was a solo Brat Tour. While she was approached about creating a documentary or concert film in honor of those tours, the “Sympathy Is a Knife” singer said she ultimately passed on the opportunity.
“I feel like my problem with a lot of musician documentaries is it often shows the musician coming up against some kind of opposition and eventually overcoming it to be the hero,” XCX explained. “That’s just not been my experience, you know? Maybe it has been a lot of other people’s, and that’s awesome.”
Rather than creating a straightforward documentary about her live “Brat” performances, XCX starred in and produced “The Moment,” an upcoming A24 film set to be released in 2026. Directed by Aidan Zamiri, who helmed XCX’s “360” and “Guess” music videos, and written by Zamiri and Bertie Brandes, the film is a mockumentary about a rising pop star who is facing new levels of pressure and fame as she prepares to headline her first-ever solo arena tour.
In addition to XCX, the film’s cast includes Alexander Skarsgård, Kate Berlant, Jamie Demetriou, Rish Shah and Rosanna Arquette. Speaking with VF, XCX called the film a “2024 period piece.”
“It’s not a tour documentary or a concert film in any way, but the seed of the idea was conceived from this idea of being pressured to make one,” she said. “It’s fiction, but it’s the realest depiction of the music industry that I’ve ever seen.”
XCX’s comments, notably, come just one day after Disney+ announced the forthcoming December release of a new Taylor Swift concert film, which was shot during the “Actually Romantic” singer-songwriter’s record-setting Eras Tour after songs from her 2024 album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” were added to its setlist. That film will be released in conjunction with a new six-part docuseries that promises to take viewers behind the scenes of Swift’s Eras Tour.
