“The Moment” (2026) is a mockumentary concert film starring a fictionalized version of Charli XCX (Charlotte Emma Aitchison) during September 2024 as Brat Summer winds down. There is a power struggle between Celeste (Hailey Gates, a dead ringer for Emma Stone) and the 100% African Johannes (Alexander Skarsgård, who is very visibly Swedish) over creative control for an upcoming concert and the Amazon MGM Studios produced film. Only Charli XCX can stabilize it, but she is fraying at the prospect of whether she will lose all her hard-won success when the tour ends. Will she die?
The key to understanding and appreciating a mockumentary is to be familiar with the genre and the subject so the movie goer can make a lightning quick comparison between the real deal and the exaggerated version. The differences are supposed to reveal insights into the genre, the environment and the personality. Ideally a mockumentary enters a contract with the audience that it is all in good fun, and it is not real. If you are unfamiliar with Charli XCX, can an acolyte still appreciate “The Moment?” It will not be easy but it is also not impossible.
I was invited to a screening and love mockumentaries so after mulling over this question, I decided it was worth my time because A24. Then I realized that the screening was at 9 pm on a weekday at a distant movie theater with great accommodations, but suffering from an unfortunate, noticeable cutting corners on the food like barely any butter on the popcorn or the quality of the chicken tenders and sauce taste noticeably less tender and meaty, more bready. I even had NBC-10 that week so I needed to see movies releasing the week of February 6th to have a lineup of three movies, but I could not make it work. The thumb would be on the scale against enjoying the movie as I imagined fighting against sleep to watch it then struggle coming home and hoping that the T ride did not become eventful with people choosing to set fires in a benign fashion (true story). So, I decided to do the opposite and create the ideal movie theater experience. It helps if you see a string of mediocre movies before seeing “The Moment.” Go to your favorite theater during the day so no one else is in the theater and have your pick of seats. Get the largest portion of real butter popcorn. Remember that Skarsgård is in it. Also see it after all the hype over “Wuthering Heights,” which means that you have at least heard Charli XCX’s “House” repeatedly, and you finally have music to associate with the name. Brat what? Finally, I was in the right mindset.
“The Moment” has more developed three-dimensional characters and a storyline than expected. The onscreen Charli XCX starts as a typical, confident rock star who does what she wants, when she wants, how she wants. As the movie unfolds, she is freaking out whether she is going to lose everything. As others pick apart and analyze her image and see the gaps between her consumable image and the real woman, which are invisible to me, but men, she starts to unravel and starts treating herself like a group project instead of an authentic, autonomous woman and artist. Unfortunately, it jeopardizes her relationship with Celeste, the only caretaker of the real Charli XCX. Who is the real Charli XCX? An unapologetic party girl who cares about her looks, snorts cocaine and parties all night. She would go to a 9 pm screening of her movie.
Celeste is the real star of “The Moment.” She is the everywoman who knows her shit and deals with idiots who win because they know how to play the game. Celeste quit playing femininity while being unapologetically a woman. She does zero emotional labor, understands her client and friend’s vision more than Charli XCX does. Celeste’s frustration and minimal, reasonable pleas for help should be relatable to the older women in the audience who go to their offices more than the club. She is gaslit constantly and is the only person who says what she means, which makes her a tragic figure. If people like Celeste ran the world, it would be a better place. Gates’ performance is seamless and monotone in the best way which makes the emotions that peek through more powerful. I would watch a series of Celeste dealing with bullshit and handling the next outlandish cast of characters.
The rest of Charli XCX’s entourage is less close to her and are professionals first except for Lloyd (Isaac Powell), her social media manager. Powell is deft at scene stealing ad making an impression even though his screentime is limited. Manager Tim (Jamie Demetriou) seems accustomed to this type of work, but maybe not with big musical artists. He delegates a disproportionate amount of responsibility onto Ana (Trew Mullen) to delegate the gaps in his competency. Ana is young enough to put up with it and cover for him, but the pipeline to losing her patience and striking out on her own seems apparent as she keeps removing herself from the inner circle and relegating herself to the edges. Charli XCX’s film concert dealmakers, Jamie (Rish Shah) and Josh (Michael Workeye) are more focused on success than their client, and their anxiety is only second to Charlie XCX as they must face stone-faced record exec, Tammy (Rosanna Arquette), who is the foil for Celeste if Celeste had no soul or allegiance. Tammy is a great character, and Arquette is more effusive depending on her audience’s power level and usefulness to her. It would be a dream to see Tammy have a business lunch with Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) because despite their similarities, their adherence to artistic vision is night and day.
Skarsgård is a brilliant comedic actor. His ability to play the most absurd bits with a dead serious delivery feels like manna from heaven. Costume designer Taylor Mitchell tells Johannes’ story before Skarsgård opens his mouth. Mitchell styles him in drapey, flowing outfits, which make him seem even taller than he is. His tops are scooped to show more chest, which he accents with necklaces. Yes, man cleavage. Chest! Johannes is the kind of guy who pretends that he is above commercialism, but he is such an opportunist that he is like the anti-Christ of everything that he professes to believe. He is the old power structure in sheep’s clothing. He talks about collaboration and not wanting to disrupt anything, but he is vicious and an invading force. Why did director and cowriter Aidan Zamiri and cowriter Bertie Brandes decide to make Johannes come from South Africa? It is interesting that the whole world is beginning to feel what it is like to live in the fever dream of men who grew up under apartheid and decide to take the colonization show on the road to colonize already colonized spaces. If you are a fan of Skarsgård, “The Moment” is worth watching for him alone. Also shout out to Sarah Beck Mather as the unsettling Smiling Girl who freaks everyone out and is part of Johannes’ entourage. I was dying to hear her speak or learn more, but we get nothing.
There are plenty of real-life famous people playing exaggerated versions of themselves: actor Rachel Sennott, Kylie Jenner, and Julia Fox. Fox only appears for a second, but I wish that she stayed longer. She gets these worlds and makes fun of it by playing it straight without blinking. Fox never feels as if she is acting, and yet she is a professional. If they rebooted “Arrested Development,” she could play Lucille Bluth. It is that energy. Sennott and Jenner feels as if their line delivery is winking at the audience. There is a terrific, hilarious side storyline about a financial organization exploiting queer youth using Charli XCX, and for the people going in cold to “The Moment,” it is the most recognizably satirical bit. Ever the lawyer, I wish that they had fleshed out the mechanics of that institution’s shenanigans, but no one cares but me. If I ran the world, it would be an incisive, recognizably ripped from the headlines, critique of financial institutions issuing credit cards to the vulnerable a la “The Big Short” (2015), but the details are elusive and more atmosphere.
How was the music? Was there music? I feel as if I walked out of “The Moment” with as much knowledge of Charli XCX’s music as I walked in, which is not great for a mockumentary concert film. I should leave wanting to listen to her music more, and I still have no idea other than “House” how she sounds. Zamiri does direct her movie videos, so the film does give a crash course on the aesthetics of her packaging, which I liked. It is rapid fire, bold color and font, epileptic seizure inducing cuts and flashes providing context of the scene’s location and countdown to the concert. It is rapid-fire momentum so even if this movie is not your cup of tea, you are not going to get bored. If you are familiar with “Back to Black” (2024), it spoofs the film’s take on Amy Winehouse’s final days, and as someone who disliked that movie, I appreciated the dig. Everyone else will prefer the skewering of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” (2023), which I still have not seen (almost 3 hours of watching an artist that I don’t listen to is a big lift).
I expected “The Moment” to be the worst based on the word-of-mouth accounts that I received from the people who attended the screening, but it was better than a lot of movies that I saw during the week leading up to February 20th. If you are not into Charli XCX, it will be harder to get the jokes, but if you can give it grace and remember it is a mockumentary, then you could enjoy it. With so much to do, only Charli XCX fans or fans of the genre should watch it. There are plenty of solid moments, but they move so swiftly that unfamiliarity with this world may leave you at sea without a life raft.
