“The Moment,” music video director Aidan Zamiri’s fascinating, funny and messily self-reflexive feature debut, was never going to actually be about Charli XCX.
Yes, the acclaimed British singer and songwriter is playing a version of herself. However, even if this is taken at face value, there will always be some amount of distance between the “real” person and the persona Charli puts forth to the world. We don’t know celebrities and celebrities don’t know us. Everything they show to the public is, in one way or another, part of a brand that requires constant upkeep and attention.
There can certainly be real parts of the person behind the singer that sneak through, but their true identity is filtered through the nightmare layers of their label, managers, sponsors, etc. who all have a vested interest in them as a brand. They’re selling something, and giving up some degree of authenticity is often the cost of doing business.
“The Moment,” which can be broadly described as a mockumentary, takes place at the end of “Brat Summer” and finds Charli at odds with her label and a documentary director (Alexander Skarsgard), who all want to find a way to make “Brat Summer” last as long as possible, all while she prepares for her next tour. This is in contrast with Charli’s desire to do something new, something different — or is it? Does ending the most successful period of her career mean the end of her career period?
The film is most interested in the fraught existential questions that lurk in the shadows of fame. Can someone like Charli XCX maintain integrity in her art and keep creating new work when the forces that surround her just want her to do the same old stuff that will make reliable money? Will even the most committed of artists be able to withstand such pressures? What is the impact of this pressure on your soul and those you care about? Does a movie about this even have a hope of cutting to something deeper when it’s also entangled in this apparatus of fame?
In “The Moment,” while full of funny yet throwaway bits about the mundane and frustrating aspects of maintaining a personal brand, these are the elements that give everything a greater thematic heft than it has any business having. It’s a film that’s most exciting for Charli XCX fans who want more of their favorite singer, but the deeper ideas it wrestles with are what make it worth experiencing by all. This is not a movie about fan service. It’s about pondering the relationship between an artist and their fans, and what can get lost in the transactional nature of it all.
In other words, don’t expect this to be like “This Is Spinal Tap” or “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” as it isn’t really about skewering the music industry via more self-contained sketches. Said industry is still shown to be an often nightmarish one, but it’s all about the way it impacts the artist navigating it. How it can chew up and spit out even the most talented of people without a care about what happens to them after.
Placing us right at the height of her fame in a funhouse mirror version of reality, “The Moment” reflects on how an artist such as Charli XCX must eventually sublimate who they are to be marketable to as many people as possible.
One of three films she stars in at Sundance in what she’s described as a concerted pivot to acting, Charli turns in an impressive, funny and at times very moving performance as this version of herself, channeling the anxieties, fears and self-doubt that begin to take over the character as the film progresses.
For Zamiri, his co-writer Bertie Brandes and Charli XCX herself, “The Moment” is a statement about the alienating nature of fame. “Brat summer,” as we hear in one key moment that sounds more like a threat than it does a celebration, may truly last forever.
All of this is shot in a way that initially feels like it could be a lost episode of “Succession,” as scenes are captured with a handheld camera where quick zooms punctuate moments of humor. However, “The Moment” has its own visual language — the film is repeatedly intercut with flashes of light and text that resemble more of a concert or night at the club than it does a standard mockumentary, a nod to Charli’s “brat” aesthetic. This can be chaotic, even slightly disorienting, though it also makes you sit up and take notice.
The driving antagonistic force of the film is Alexander Skarsgård’s wonderfully annoying hack of a director who has been tasked with making a cookie-cutter concert film about her upcoming tour (for Amazon, of course). He’s the one who chillingly says “brat summer forever” while giving Charli XCX the most cringeworthy dance choreography imaginable. While some other jokes in the film can start to grow tired, Skarsgård moves beyond mere shtick to serve as a sinister, soulless embodiment of all that artists stand to lose. He is the Grim Reaper of the industry. Where artistry goes to die.
Making a concert film is something the real artist has said she would never do. And, in the small yet hilarious eventual look we do get of what this fictional concert film ends up as, it’s easy to see why. The slickly produced approach that Skarsgard’s character takes sands down any rough edges that may exist, to the point that Charli is unrecognizable.
This is what makes “The Moment” such a fascinating look at fame. It’s honest about the deception that is inherent to celebrity, confronting us with one compromise after another, building to a pitch-perfect finale needle-drop over a captivating monologue that elevates the comedy into a work of grand, messy ambition.
The Moment releases in theaters on Jan. 30.