Sundance Film Review: Charli XCX lives for ‘The Moment’
With an opening sequence straight out of a nightclub, 2026 is starting off “Brat” green with a throwback to the album that claimed the summer of 2024. At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Charli XCX reintroduces audiences to her iconic “Brat” album with her new film “The Moment,” directed by Aidan Zamiri.
The film is a mockumentary, serving in place of what could have been a tour documentary, that centers around Charli XCX, who plays what she has publicly called a version of herself. “The Moment” provides a satirical, eye-opening look into what life is like as a 365 party girl in the slimy neon green spotlight.
In Zamiri’s first feature-length film, he captures exactly what draws a listener into the “Brat” album: Charli’s revival of 2000s-inspired club music mixed with her vulnerability as an artist.
The film is set in September of 2024, the end of “Brat” summer, where many are asking Charli how to keep this moment going. Jokes of a “Brat” fall or winter are tossed around with talks of touring the album or the fear of “Brat” becoming cringe.
Alongside Charli, Alexander Skarsgård plays film director Johannes Godwin, who is tasked with making a concert film of the “Brat” Tour. Skarsgård stuns at acting as the out-of-touch Gen X-er who “doesn’t get it” when it comes to “Brat” as a concept.
Skarsgård is one of many people tasked with capitalizing on the moment that is or was “Brat” summer, according to the listeners. Much of this mockumentary raises the question: What happens when, as the film describes, this huge moment’s over? Charli answers this in her song “Sympathy is a Knife” with the lyrics “logically the nеxt step is they wanna see you fall to the bottom.” The film follows this lyric by — without giving too much away — addressing a version of a canceled Charli XCX.
The version of herself Charli is playing properly conveys the emotions she writes about in the “Brat” album. Viewers can sense her need for creative control of not only her success but also her life as they watch her begin to the fray at the edges of stardom.
Prior to “The Moment,” Zamiri is most known for directing iconic “Brat” music videos “360” and “Guess.” Zamiri makes a case for more music video directors to enter the filmmaking space. His use of fast-paced editing that adheres to music first and everything else second immediately captures the viewers’ attention and elicits joy at seeing one of the biggest club-pop albums in a long-form visual medium.
“The Moment” not only serves as a supposed “Brat” funeral as Charli makes peace with the moment being over, but it also pokes a bit of fun at the over-saturation of tour documentaries or concert films. It invites viewers to get off the couch, throw on their shades and sequins, get to the club and start bumpin’ that beat. It reminds us that at the end of the day, “it’s all a bit cringe,” so why not live for “The Moment?”