\u201cThe Moment,\u201d<\/a> music video director Aidan Zamiri\u2019s fascinating, funny and messily self-reflexive feature debut, was never going to actually be about Charli XCX.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yes, the acclaimed British singer and songwriter is playing a version of herself<\/a>. However, even if this is taken at face value, there will always be some amount of distance between the \u201creal\u201d person and the persona Charli puts forth to the world. We don\u2019t know celebrities and celebrities don\u2019t know us. Everything they show to the public is, in one way or another, part of a brand that requires constant upkeep and attention.<\/p>\n There can certainly be real parts of the person behind the singer that sneak through, but their true identity is filtered through the nightmare layers of their label, managers, sponsors, etc. who all have a vested interest in them as a brand. They\u2019re selling something, and giving up some degree of authenticity is often the cost of doing business.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Moment,\u201d which can be broadly described as a mockumentary, takes place at the end of \u201cBrat Summer\u201d and finds Charli at odds with her label and a documentary director (Alexander Skarsgard), who all want to find a way to make \u201cBrat Summer\u201d last as long as possible, all while she prepares for her next tour. This is in contrast with Charli\u2019s desire to do something new, something different \u2014 or is it? Does ending the most successful period of her career mean the end of her career period?<\/p>\n The film is most interested in the fraught existential questions that lurk in the shadows of fame. Can someone like Charli XCX maintain integrity in her art and keep creating new work when the forces that surround her just want her to do the same old stuff that will make reliable money? Will even the most committed of artists be able to withstand such pressures? What is the impact of this pressure on your soul and those you care about? Does a movie about this even have a hope of cutting to something deeper when it\u2019s also entangled in this apparatus of fame?<\/p>\n In \u201cThe Moment,\u201d while full of funny yet throwaway bits about the mundane and frustrating aspects of maintaining a personal brand, these are the elements that give everything a greater thematic heft than it has any business having. It\u2019s a film that\u2019s most exciting for Charli XCX fans who want more of their favorite singer, but the deeper ideas it wrestles with are what make it worth experiencing by all. This is not a movie about fan service. It\u2019s about pondering the relationship between an artist and their fans, and what can get lost in the transactional nature of it all.<\/p>\n In other words, don\u2019t expect this to be like \u201cThis Is Spinal Tap<\/a>\u201d or \u201cPopstar: Never Stop Never Stopping<\/a>\u201d as it isn\u2019t really about skewering the music industry via more self-contained sketches. Said industry is still shown to be an often nightmarish one, but it\u2019s all about the way it impacts the artist navigating it. How it can chew up and spit out even the most talented of people without a care about what happens to them after.<\/p>\n Placing us right at the height of her fame in a funhouse mirror version of reality, \u201cThe Moment\u201d reflects on how an artist such as Charli XCX must eventually sublimate who they are to be marketable to as many people as possible.<\/p>\n One of three films she stars in at Sundance in what she\u2019s described as a concerted pivot to acting, Charli turns in an impressive, funny and at times very moving performance as this version of herself, channeling the anxieties, fears and self-doubt that begin to take over the character as the film progresses.<\/p>\n For Zamiri, his co-writer Bertie Brandes and Charli XCX herself, \u201cThe Moment\u201d is a statement about the alienating nature of fame. \u201cBrat summer,\u201d as we hear in one key moment that sounds more like a threat than it does a celebration, may truly last forever.<\/p>\n All of this is shot in a way that initially feels like it could be a lost episode of \u201cSuccession,\u201d as scenes are captured with a handheld camera where quick zooms punctuate moments of humor. However, \u201cThe Moment\u201d has its own visual language \u2014 the film is repeatedly intercut with flashes of light and text that resemble more of a concert or night at the club than it does a standard mockumentary, a nod to Charli\u2019s \u201cbrat\u201d aesthetic. This can be chaotic, even slightly disorienting, though it also makes you sit up and take notice.<\/p>\n The driving antagonistic force of the film is Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd\u2019s wonderfully annoying hack of a director who has been tasked with making a cookie-cutter concert film about her upcoming tour (for Amazon, of course). He\u2019s the one who chillingly says \u201cbrat summer forever\u201d while giving Charli XCX the most cringeworthy dance choreography imaginable. While some other jokes in the film can start to grow tired, Skarsg\u00e5rd moves beyond mere shtick to serve as a sinister, soulless embodiment of all that artists stand to lose. He is the Grim Reaper of the industry. Where artistry goes to die.<\/p>\n
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