The Moment (dir. Aidan Zamiri)

by Jack Martin | Feb 22, 2026

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 103 mins

UK Distributor: Universal Pictures

UK Release Date: 20 February 2026

WHO’S IN THE MOMENT?

Charli XCX, Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Jamie Demetriou, Hailey Benton Gates, Isaac Powell, Alexander Skarsgård, Rish Shah, Trew Mullen, Kylie Jenner, Rachel Sennott, Arielle Dombasle, Mel Ottenberg, Richard Perez, Tish Weinstock, Michael Workéyè, Shygirl, Alexander Guy Cook

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Aidan Zamiri (director, writer), Bertie Brandes (writer), David Hinojosa and Charli XCX (producers), Alexander Guy Cook (composer), Sean Price Williams (cinematographer), Neal Farmer and Billy Sneddon (editors)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Charli XCX (as herself) experiences chaos during her latest tour…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE MOMENT?

Last year, we were subjected to The Weeknd trying (keyword: “trying”) to act in Hurry Up Tomorrow, a terrible film which immediately fell into the category of vacuous and obscenely self-indulgent musician vanity projects along with the likes of Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, Mariah Carey’s Glitter and Vanilla Ice’s Cool as Ice. Now along comes Charlotte Aitchison, better known as Charli XCX, to put them all in their place with The Moment, which similarly puts the singer front and centre of a story she herself came up with, in addition to producing the film and even starring as herself.

But unlike all those other examples, The Moment rarely comes across as an egocentric celebration of its central music superstar, especially in the wake of the pop culture phenomenon that was “Brat Summer” as named after her equally popular album Brat. Instead, the film does something braver and more commendable by completely deconstructing both its star and her biggest success to date, in ways that expose their deepest flaws without begging for sympathy as well as suggest their whole persona, including that of the whole Brat movement, is about as authentic as The Weeknd’s acting abilities. It also helps that Charli XCX is a far better actor, but let’s save that particular analysis for later, because for now I’ll say that The Moment is an interesting, if flawed, take on the superstar lifestyle that attempts to go way deeper than many of its vainer contemporaries.

The film, directed and co-written by Aidan Zamiri (a regular collaborator with the pop star, having directed some of her music videos), is framed as a fly-on-the-wall documentary set in the immediate aftermath of Brat Summer, with Charli XCX (playing herself) deep in rehearsals for her arena tour debut. However, the Brat phenomenon is still continuing at the firm insistence of her record label, who are pulling out all the stops to maintain its cultural relevance, from collaborating with a failing bank to promote a Brat credit card to hiring artsy filmmaker Johannes Godwin (Alexander Skarsgård) for a concert movie. All the while, Charli is barely able to breathe, the pressure of her newfound global icon status and the compromising of her creative vision suffocating the singer in a pit of anxiety and uncertainty, as well as a hint of regret over what she’s unleashed upon the world. Think Cillian Murphy at the end of Oppenheimer, but with far more strobe lighting and snot-green backdrops.

Neither Zamiri nor Charli miss many spots when it comes to picking apart everything that ultimately transformed Brat into a pop culture monster. They take specific aim at the corporate cynicism of it all, with ruthless record executives and bumbling management working overtime to ensure that their current cash cow keeps producing, to a point where the original idea behind the album – one that at this point even Charli herself can’t quite fathom – becomes completely lost in the machine. There’s also the matter of artistic licence, with Johannes becoming more and more insistent on morphing the flashy vision of the Brat concert into something that’s beyond recognisable, much to the chagrin of Charli’s friend and creative director Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates) who, arguably on a greater scale than Charli, is feeling the pressure of living up to everyone’s expectations.

Admittedly, much of the attempted satire here is pretty surface-level, particularly as it falls back on the increasingly ludicrous credit card sub-plot, which screams as though the filmmakers were desperately trying to make their own equivalent to the Stonehenge prop from This is Spinal Tap. That film, incidentally, is an overall smarter and funnier music mockumentary than The Moment, which is more anxiety-inducing than truly humorous because much of what transpires feels overly real, partially due to Sean Price Williams’s cinematography which replicates the fly-on-the-wall format a bit too well, to where there doesn’t seem to be a need for the story to be told this way in the first place. But there is still an unmistakable, even respectful drive among the filmmakers to at least try and tell this story and flesh out certain character arcs, as opposed to just constantly hyping up and praising the misunderstood genius of its lead in a similar fashion to Hurry Up Tomorrow.

Also, very much unlike that film, The Moment has a singer/star who can actually, well, act. Charli XCX is fairly new to the acting game, having appeared in just a handful of movies beforehand (most recently in 100 Nights of Hero), but here she’s eerily convincing as a warped version of herself who isn’t afraid to let her insecurities and selfish tendencies get the better of her. There are scenes where she comes across very unflatteringly, taking spontaneous trips to Ibiza right in the middle of rehearsals and engaging in megalomaniacal behaviour that distances her from the very few amount of people who are actually trying to help her. Yet the film never entirely forgives her for such discretions, and even goes so far as to deem her the root cause of most if not all the problems faced in this movie, which makes this a considerably braver and more self-deprecating singer-to-actor showcase that not only proves she has the chops but also isn’t afraid to take herself or her legacy down a few pegs.

It all adds up to a radical yet slightly empty film that doesn’t completely fulfil much of its promise, but as a necessary form of de-Bratification, The Moment breaks the phenomenon down enough for it to be exposed for the monster it’s become.

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Moment sees pop superstar Charli XCX admirably take self-deprecating aim at herself and the Brat phenomenon in ways that avoid too much ego-stroking, but the surface-level satire and unnecessary mockumentary format leave it unable to fully realise its potential.