The line between documentary and mockumentary has been blurred over the last few decades. And aside from horror’s found footage subgenre, the best use of the faux documentary has been made by music movies. Usually, it’s comedies like This is Spinal Tap or Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. But The Moment is something different.
The Moment stars pop sensation Charli XCX as, well, Charli XCX. The popular singer has just finished conquering the charts during the “Brat Summer” (a cultural phenomenon inspired by her album Brat), and the only thing left to do is a massive tour to keep the momentum going. Charli and her artistic director, Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates from Marty Supreme), begin designing a red-hot stage show, but the record company, led by a ruthless woman named Tammy (Patricia Arquette from Severance), has other ideas. The company wants to create a tour that can be transformed into a concert movie.
The problem with this concept is that the director that Tammy has hired, a sought-after auteur named Johannes (Murderbot‘s Alexander Skarsgård), has a vision for the concert that conflicts with Celeste’s ideas. Charli finds herself stuck between her artistic integrity and the once-in-a-lifetime chance to put her career over the top.
Director Aidan Zamiri is best known for making music videos, and that experience is on full display in The Moment. The visual style is chaotic and gritty, nihilistic and visceral. It even crosses over to pure sensory overload in places (there’s a flashing strobe warning for those sensitive to it). In a lot of ways, The Moment feels like a feature-length music video.
There is a story to it, though. Zamiri cowrote the script with Charli XCX and Bertie Brandes, and it is a fairly typical portrait of an artist at the crossroads of their career. Charli herself is torn between Celeste and Johannes, so much so that she basically abandons the rehearsals and runs off to Ibiza for a vacation, leaving the two creatives to duke it out. And that’s really where the external conflict in the movie lies – between Charli’s artistic comfort zone of Celeste and her commercial success symbol of Johannes.
Which leads to the internal conflict inside Charli herself. She seems to struggle with what is happening with her, seeing the loss of her artistic freedom becoming a possibility with the introduction of Johannes’ controlling personality. She’s torn between what she wants to do and what she feels she has to do for her career. It doesn’t help that she’s surrounded by drugs and party people (Kylie Jenner and Rachel Sennott both make cameos) that tend to influence her in different ways.
The Moment seems like a very personal film for Charli XCX. Whether it’s indicative of obstacles that she may be facing now or it’s a memory of feelings she’s had in the past, it all feels very real and genuine. It’s a dark movie, but it’s also got equal parts heart and humor. It feels like a glimpse into the life of Charli XCX, warts and all. While it never feels like a straight documentary, it does have the vibe of reality, both in tone and narrative. Zamiri’s camera captures that realism well, at least when it’s not creating seizure-inducing visuals.
I am personally not super familiar with Charli XCX’s music, and therefore, The Moment is not a movie made for me. Still, I found it intriguing. I also find myself looking forward to watching it a second time, maybe once it hits VOD or cable. For such a simple and archetypical plotline, it’s a surprisingly deep movie. And, for better or worse, it’s not as slathered in Charli XCX’s music as one would think it would be. Aidan Zamiri seems to have left that for his music videos.
GRADE: B-
Rating: R for language throughout and some drug material
Running Time: 1 hour 43 minutes
Release Date: January 30, 2026 (limited), February 6, 2026 (expands)
Studio: A24
