Charli XCX Skewers Fame And Herself In The Moment

Charli XCX has never been one to shy away from the spotlight, nor from the messiness that comes with it. But in her new film, The Moment, directed by longtime collaborator Aidan Zamiri, the British pop star takes a sharp, self-aware look at the price of fame, the pressures of commercial success, and the battle to maintain artistic authenticity in the glare of the global stage. Premiering at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and set for wide release on January 30, the mockumentary is already sparking heated debate among critics and fans alike.

From the very first scene, The Moment plunges viewers into the aftermath of 2024’s so-called “Brat Summer”—that cultural flashpoint when Charli XCX’s album Brat became an anthem for a generation unafraid to be bold, messy, and unapologetically themselves. Now, as the film opens, Charli is navigating the awkward territory between pop stardom and self-parody. She’s being coached through a TikTok brand deal by her social assistant Lloyd (Isaac Powell), visibly weary of the endless churn of content creation and the ever-present threat of “being cringe.” According to Consequence, this tension—between the glory of success and the relentless pressure to replicate it—forms the backbone of The Moment.

Directed by Zamiri and co-written with Charli XCX and Bertie Brandes, the film takes the shape of a mockumentary, but as IndieWire notes, it’s a slippery hybrid, blurring lines between reality and fiction. Charli plays a heightened version of herself: a pop star fraying at the edges, exhausted by her own momentum, and beset on all sides by the demands of her record label, fans, and corporate partners. The film’s narrative invents dramatic alternate-reality events for Charli’s headlining tour, but it never lets viewers forget that this is, fundamentally, a portrait of Charlotte Aitchison—the Essex-born artist behind the Charli XCX persona.

Central to the film’s drama are the creative clashes over Charli’s Brat Tour. Initially, she entrusts her creative director and friend, Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates), to shape the tour’s vision. But commercial interests soon override artistic ones. Amazon Music is bankrolling a concert film and documentary about the tour, and the label brings in the flamboyant, seemingly tasteless director Johannes Godwin (played with scene-stealing bravado by Alexander Skarsgård) to oversee the project. As IndieWire describes, Johannes is a “vainglorious” music video director whose commitment to spectacle and accessibility threatens to sand down the Brat aesthetic into something blandly commercial. The resulting tug-of-war between Celeste and Johannes becomes a microcosm of the larger battle Charli faces: how to stay true to herself while being pulled in every direction by those who profit from her success.

Throughout The Moment, Charli’s emotional unraveling is palpable. The film doesn’t shy away from depicting her breakdowns, whether it’s sparked by the absurdity of a facialist in Ibiza refusing her service or the existential dread of being forever branded as “cringe.” According to Screen Rant, the film is “an unmitigated disaster,” criticizing its lack of genuine energy and calling Zamiri’s direction “cataclysmic.” The review argues that the film’s attempts at both comedy and character drama fall flat, and that its improvisational style leaves much of the cast adrift. Yet, even this harsh critique acknowledges that Charli’s portrayal of herself is refreshingly unflattering—she “earnestly seems to feel crushed by the weight of her exponential growth as a superstar and the impossible demands of staying true to her creative voice.”

The supporting cast adds layers of satire and absurdity. Rosanna Arquette appears as the unyielding record label executive, while Kate Berlant delivers a memorable turn as Charli’s makeup artist, quipping, “Tell me you’re not drinking water again!” when Charli is visibly unwell. There are cameos from Rachel Sennott and even Kylie Jenner, who, in a surreal Ibiza sequence, offers Charli the advice: “You’ve gotta level up.” The film’s depiction of Charli’s entourage—her social media manager, her assistants, and the crew whose lives are upended by her tour—paints a picture of celebrity as both a team effort and a lonely enterprise.

One of the film’s most pointed satirical threads is its subplot involving a Brat-branded credit card and savings bank, marketed toward queer creators. In one scene, Charli asks, “How do you prove they’re gay?”—a line that, as IndieWire notes, lands as a sly jab at the absurdity of targeting identity for profit. The film lampoons the commodification of queerness and the ways in which pop stardom is inextricably linked to corporate interests. Yet, as the movie careens toward its conclusion, it neither fully embraces nor outright condemns these late-stage capitalistic inevitabilities. Instead, it leaves viewers in the uncomfortable space between laughter and unease.

Visually, The Moment is striking, thanks to cinematographer Sean Price Williams, whose gritty, high-contrast style brings a “Mean Streets of New York” energy to the faux-doc format. The film’s pacing, however, is more divisive. While some critics appreciate its willingness to let scenes breathe, others, like IndieWire, find it too long and meandering, especially compared to the tightness of classics like This Is Spinal Tap.

Despite its flaws—or perhaps because of them—The Moment is undeniably a bold experiment. It’s a film that, at times, seems to be made for Charli’s closest friends and die-hard fans, packed with inside jokes and knowing winks. Yet it also dares to ask big questions: What is left of an artist after the “supernova” of fame? Can authenticity survive in an industry built on spectacle and sales? And is there any way to escape the cycle of success and self-doubt that comes with being a pop icon in the age of social media?

For all its meta-commentary and self-deprecation, The Moment never quite decides whether it wants to skewer the world Charli XCX helped create or sincerely unmask the human behind the phenomenon. As IndieWire puts it, Charli’s self-portrait is “self-deprecating, yes, and laughing at herself, but with the clinical distance of a telescope lasered onto a forming star.” The film ends on a note that is both cynical and grimly funny, leaving audiences to wonder: Is Charli the product of the fame machine, or of her own restless creativity?

Whatever the answer, The Moment stands as a fascinating, if polarizing, addition to the canon of pop star self-examination—one that refuses to give easy answers or tidy resolutions. Whether you find it a disaster or a daring act of self-sabotage, it’s a film that’s hard to ignore, much like Charli XCX herself.