"The Moment": A Wild Romp Through Charli xcx's Reign as Pop Queen

For those of us who were too swamped living our own less thrilling lives and missed the "Brat Summer" bandwagon, cue Aidan Zamiri's film, "The Moment." A comedic mockumentary weaving the story of pop star Charli xcx during the explosive hype following her epoch-making 2024 album 'Brat,' this film aims to be a time capsule depicting a past cultural wave and a crash-course for late-arriving fans.

Cut! "The Moment" doesn't give viewers a front-row seat to the world tour and the chaotic weeks leading to it, nor is it a rundown of the corner-defining 'Brat' era. Instead, it's like peeping backstage at an unperformed spectacle. Picture Charli, the zeitgeist princess, sifting through her fleeting fame and wrestling with the question: when is the right time to drop the mic and step into a new epoch?

Zamiri's film is a roller-coaster ride with chuckles and critiques at every corner. Using shaky, docu-style footage, he fires shots at the superficiality of stardom and the commercial cannibalism of cultural phenomenons. The Charli in the film is tossed from one absurdly humdrum meeting to another, reduced to an awkward, trend-peddling pawn for corporate interests. Each scene concludes with her slipping on dark shades and slipping away into her inner world.

If the satire dial were turned any higher, the film would explode. At one point, Charli grudgingly becomes the face of a 'Brat'-branded credit card, targeting her young, financially teetering fanbase. But hey, who said selling out was a thing anymore, right? In Zamiri's pop-world, corporate interference is the new normal - an amusing nemesis to be dealt with through indifference and distance.

Also adding to the comic chaos is Alexander Skarsgard. Playing an obnoxious director hired by Rosanna Arquette’s blissfully ignorant record exec, Skarsgard dreams of trashing the hard-earned creative visions of Charli and her partner played by Hailey Benton Gates, opting instead for wildly extravagant gimmicks.

But behind its layers of satire, "The Moment" suffers a minor identity crisis. Is it a scathing parody on celebrity emptiness or a heartfelt exploration of life within the suffocatingly joyful 'Brat' mania? The creators opt for latter, which unfortunately tilts the film into a territory of self-indulgence reminiscent of many real music documentaries.

Despite some zany bouts of humor, "The Moment" attempts to maintain its hip veneer and to echo the 'Brat' era's momentous impact. However, the film doesn’t grasp the fleeting nature of such trends and fails while trying to attach a mythology to a pop culture flash in the pan.

Die-hard Charli xcx fans will, of course, have a different take than a late-bloomer like me. Other viewers, too, might wish this movie had a broader appeal and was woven with more comedic threads. The curtain falls with a nonchalant shrug: "Guess you had to be there."