The Moment Movie Review

“The Moment” is a self-aware mocking of the (fictional) making of a documentary. This ‘Mockumentary’ portrays the trials and tribulations of a Pop Star putting together a major Tour. There are decisions to make, and obstacles to overcome. But none of them seem important. This is a second-rate effort to explain first-world issues.

The year is 2024, and in that summer — there was one who ruled the pop music roost. It was Charli XCX (played by herself), who was pumped up by the explosive reception of ‘brat summer’. That cultural wave of popularity from her album ‘brat’ was on everyone’s lips. The only question was — how could she keep this thing going strong? Could Charli continue to live in (as they say) ‘the moment’?

The recording industry boss Tammy (played by Rosanna Arquette) gets behind an idea to have Charli go out on a massive tour. But there will also be a tie-in to a filmed documentary. This has already been approved by an executive at Amazon Prime for a streaming special. The record company selects movie director — someone who has worked on successful films. This will be Johannes (Alexander Skarsgård).

Charli has been successful in going out of her way to be non-mainstream. She has a huge following with LGBTQ community. Her stage performance is amped up with super-bright strobe lights and heavy bass sounds. Her mood is more for the ‘late-night Rave Club’ crowd, rather than the ‘Watch Her Twerk in Your Living room’ crowd.

Her best friend, and her creative director Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates) has been there to manage the oversized look and feel of the ‘Charli XCX Concert Experience’. As Charli begins to start the preparation for the massive Tour, she thinks it will fall to her friend Celeste.

Her manager Tim (played by Jamie Demetriou) knows that there could be some friction between the overbearing Johannes and the head-strong Celeste. Tim has his assistant Molly (played by Kate Berlant) try to introduce Charli XCX and Celeste to the newcomer – Johannes.

The current structure of the concert is all wrapped up in the style of Charli XCX. It has a hard-edge, punked-out nightclub design type feel to it. This is all in keeping with ‘party girl’ style of Charli and the head-banging designs and sound systems from Celeste.

However, Johannes believes that the best way to design the look and feel of the tour is to make non-threatening. He says that was approved by the record company, straight from the CEO Tammy.

After all, Amazon streaming would not be happy with a concert full of blinding strobe lights and nasty words. The ladies are shocked to hear that the ideas that have gotten them to this upper level of fame will no longer be acceptable.

Celeste is very mad at being out-done and out-voted by Johannes. But Charli goes to her manager, Tim, to see if he can stop these changes. No — it is what the record company has requested. His assistant Molly shows Charli the agreement that was signed.

There are also some promotional items that Charli XCX has agreed to. Based on the success of the ‘brat summer’ phenomenon, there is a small bank in London which has come out with a new credit card.

It is called the ‘brat card’, and it will have the endorsement of Charli. This will be another way to underwrite the costs of this tour. All that Charli needs to do is to sign a complex multiple-page contract.

The tension between the record company, between Tim and herself, between Celeste and Johannes becomes overbearing. Charli XCX decides to split for a few days off at a luxury resort in Spain. While she is away, Johannes fully takes over the tour production.

Celeste is given no other choice but to leave. The time Charli needed to be there to hold it all together, she instead goes to get pampered and preened.

After a wild night at the spa, Charli drinks a few too many fruity cocktails. She sends out a social media post to promote the ‘brat card’. But she goofs up, and includes the instructions to her fans that are not true. “Sign up for the ‘brat card’, and you will get 5 free Tour tickets.”

Things spin out of control when she gets back. Celeste is no longer there. Johannes is in charge, and the tour design and look has completely changed. Tim is worried that the post that Charli made is going to cause trouble.

In fact — the bank could not handle the demand for so many ‘brat card’ credit cards — along with the free tickets. Record Exec Tammy wants to know — now that bank will not handle the cost of the tickets, who is going to cover the thousands of ‘free’ tickets?

Charli XCX is now in a bit of pickle. She has lost her good friend. She is getting increasing demands to smooth out the ‘rough’ parts of her show. She feels that Tim is not looking out for her best interests.

She does not know if Johannes is capable of taking care of this tour and will make it something that she thinks will be worthwhile. It seems her 15 minutes of fame, of being in the spotlight, might be coming to a close. She might not be able to stay in ‘the moment’.

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“The Moment” is a chaotic look at a (fictional) life veering out-of-control. This is not considered a ‘concert’ film, because it stays behind the scenes. There are way too many quick-cuts, uses of heavy strobe lights and bizarre title card flashes that become a full-frontal assault on your eyeballs.

Charli XCX has come with a speculative idea about what could have happened. This has been fleshed-out into this movie. But it is hard to feel much empathy for people who are shown to be driven around in luxury cars, able to take trips to luxury spas, and get bankrolled by major corporations.

All of the difficulties that are faced by these characters are ‘first-world problems’. There is not much that connects them to the normal everyday people in the street. There is a lot of greed on display, a lot of selfishness, and a ton of visually difficult strobe light effects.

Alexander Skarsgård, playing Joannes, is a cool performance – seeing him slowly take over the layout and design of the tour is a hoot. He gives tips and pointers to Charli XCX on how to perform to the audience and get their approval. He plays the character with a low-key charm that offsets his mean motives.

“The Moment” is an odd mix-up of self-satire and self-praise. It lightly pokes fun at the Pop Star life and at the Massive Music Machine that eats up young stars and spits them out like used chaw…