The Moment: A Chipper Filmic Advert for Charli XCX

By Liz Braun

Rating: B

Q: What do fame and vampires have in common?

A: They have to be invited in.

The Moment is a good-natured mockumentary about singer-songwriter Charli XCX and the exigencies of fame.

The film shows the artist getting ready for an arena tour in support of her sixth studio album, Brat.

It’s a tour that’s going to be filmed for a (fictional) documentary, and our young star is shown coping with the cling-ons, yes-men, gophers, glad-handers, label executives, film types, personal advisors, creative consultants, managers, agents, publicists, bodyguards, flunkies, bootlicks, toadies, minions and parasites that populate both the film and recording industries.

(Guilty as charged.)

The Moment is set in the fall of 2024. Charli is riding the tsunami of success created by her Brat album and is getting ready to headline a big tour. If that weren’t enough pressure, there’s a plan to capture the tour on film, and so she is making innumerable performance and creative decisions.

Those decisions are often questioned by the famous and very precious director (Alexander Skarsgård) who’ll be making the documentary or by the head of the record label (Rosanna Arquette). Charli XCX can fully trust only Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates), her creative advisor and the moral compass of the story.

In addition to everything else, the singer is enlisted for various marketing/publicity/branding/schemes, including a new credit card that proves to be wildly flawed.

Energetically playing a version of herself, Charli XCX attempts to keep her head above water while being flooded by the demands of various people who live and work in the subworld her popularity has created. And then there are the fans; a scene at a meet-and-greet with well-meaning followers is a bit harrowing.

(Also playing versions of themselves — for laughs — are Kylie Jenner, Julia Fox and a few others.)

There is a manic energy to Charli’s existence and a level of barely controlled chaos at all times. Eventually, however, she is ground to a fine powder, artistically speaking, by the people and pressure around her.

The Moment is a bit of a cautionary tale, sometimes funny and often entertaining, but it’s not that original an idea: This is Spinal Tap, and all that. And The Moment falls into the ‘did-we-need-this?’ category of filmmaking.

It will be catnip for fans of the music star; others will find various aspects — such as the psychedelic flashing title cards — hugely annoying. Charlie XCX however, comes off well, feisty and self-deprecating. She never plays the victim.

As the film concerns getting the fame one seeks and then disparaging the high cost of that fame, it’s a fine line to tread. She does it well.

The Moment. Directed by Aidan Zamiri; co-written by Aidan Zamiri, Charli XCX and Bertie Brandes. Starring Charli XCX, Rosanna Arquette, Alexander Skarsgård, Kylie Jenner, Hailey Benton Gates, Kate Berlant, and Jamie Demetriou. In theatres February 6.