The Moment review: A perfect way to finally bang a nail in the Brat coffin

"Are you doin' a Joaquin Phoenix-like thing?" With a handheld camera capturing her in uncomfortable close-up, it’s a question British dance-pop sensation Charli xcx is asked in The Moment, an amusing-if-not-always-merciless mock-documentary that never quite goes to the extremes of Phoenix's piss-taking 2010 film I’m Still Here, where he – fairly convincingly – fooled the world that he was having a meltdown.

The Moment is all set around Brat, the album that sent Charli stratospheric, with its distinct slime-green branding and don’t-give-a-f**k attitude. "How do we keep this 'Brat' thing going?" asks Rosanna Arquette’s spiky record executive Tammy Pitman, surrounded by a phalanx of useless 'yes' men. It’s no doubt an echo of conversations Charli faced for real, as the corporate machine looked to squeeze every last bit of juice out of 2024’s 'Brat summer'.

The answer to Pitman’s question is twofold. As Charli prepares for a huge O2 gig, she’s pushed into doing a concert film, directed by the slightly sketchy Johannes (Alexander Skarsgård), who immediately starts throwing "creative" ideas around – the worst of which sees Charli put inside a giant cigarette lighter on stage that shoots flames out of the top. At the same time, Charli’s endorsing a new green-coloured 'Brat' credit card aimed at the LGBTQ community.

On Charli’s side, she has ineffectual manager Tim (Jamie Demetriou) and her stage designer Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates), but as the gig gets closer, tempers fray, egos swell and Charli's artistic juices run dry. "Everybody’s so desperate for me to be so f**king innovative," she cries. Maybe she should’ve paid more attention to the bird that is living in the rafters of the O2 and dropping excrement all over the floor – surly an omen if ever there was one.

A particularly amusing segment sees her escape to a spa hotel, only to be left further frazzled after an encounter with Kylie Jenner, playing herself in a wince-inducing exchange of fake pleasantries. There are plenty of other cameo 'as herself' appearances, including Julia Fox and Rachel Sennott, although most are blink-and-you’ll-miss-them, as they pass through the vortex that is Charli's world of hedonistic parties and Instagram-fuelled promotions.

Scripted by Bertie Brandes and co-written and directed by Scottish debutant Aidan Zamiri, The Moment aims to replicate the typical mock-doc style, with frantic, stomach-flipping handheld camerawork, coupled with brightly-coloured visuals that mirror the 'Brat' branding. That’s all very well, but it gets a little tiresome over the film’s slim 103 minutes. And there are segments, when Charli is enjoying some downtime, where it’s hard to imagine a documentary crew would intrude.

Where the film scores is its skewering of the music industry, and the way artists are frequently forced to either compromise or repeat past successes for the sake of the bottom line. The outcome of the 'Brat' bank card debacle is particularly funny (as is the fact that sandwich chain Pret adopt a similar green colour for their rebranded logo). Turning away from Charli's music for the final scene, the choice of The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony feels very apt indeed.

At its heart, Charli is an able performer, capable of playing herself without ever feeling self-conscious. It’s an impressive rendering of the craziness she knows all too well, when everyone wants a piece of you. Dangling from a wire and hovering high over the stage in one scene, you also suspect that she’s having a sly dig at her fellow performers – Taylor Swift being an obvious example – with the slickly produced shows and tour films cranked out to feed the fan frenzy. Whatever the case, The Moment feels a perfect way to finally bang a nail in the ‘Brat’ coffin.

The Moment is released in UK cinemas on Friday 20 February 2026.

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