{"id":468392,"date":"2026-02-09T11:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T11:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468392\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T11:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T11:27:12","slug":"the-moment-is-charli-xcxs-disturbing-sellout-fantasy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468392\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Moment” is Charli xcx’s disturbing sellout fantasy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In March 2022, forward-thinking British pop auteur Charli xcx<\/a> released what was to be her \u201csellout<\/a>\u201d record, \u201cCrash.\u201d The album capped a lengthy, constricting record label contract that Charli had been trying to optimize for years, to varying success. \u201cCrash\u201d eschewed Charli\u2019s typical boundary-pushing electronic sound to aim for something notably more commercial, and, ever the rebel, Charli attempted to homogenize this marketable music with visual ideas that were more to her own taste. The album cover loosely referenced David Cronenberg\u2019s<\/a> 1996 psychosexual thriller of the same name, while its music videos and album packaging toyed with Faustian pacts and selling your soul for success. The idea was that Charli would, to some degree, mold her sound into what her label always envisioned while wryly commenting on the artistic and moral sacrifices that label executives deemed necessary for commercial success.<\/p>\n

The experiment worked. \u201cCrash\u201d was Charli\u2019s best-performing album to date, topping the charts internationally and debuting at number seven stateside \u2014 her first top-ten album in America after a decade of releasing music under a major label. It also featured some of the worst, most forgettable music of her career, songs that could neatly fit into the generic discography of radio-friendly pop artists and be slotted into the void of Spotify\u2019s algorithm.<\/p>\n

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(A24) Charli xcx in \u201cThe Moment\u201d<\/p>\n

For this film to be greenlit, produced and finished, it needed the thrust of \u201cBrat\u201d behind it. There is no \u201cThe Moment\u201d without \u201cBrat,\u201d just like there is no \u201cBrat\u201d without \u201cCrash.\u201d One idea fuels, feeds and finances the next, and \u201cThe Moment\u201d is Charli\u2019s account from the center of the music industry ouroboros.<\/p>\n

But Charli relinquished her artistic identity to regain her power. She fulfilled one label contract, renegotiated another and proved herself marketable enough to the general public to make her follow-up album, 2024\u2019s \u201cBrat<\/a>,\u201d without interference. \u201cBrat\u201d would be done Charli\u2019s way: intense electronic production in close collaboration with her friends, non-linear songwriting, serrated lyricism and a decidedly uncommercial puke-green album cover with nothing but the title scrawled on it in pixelated text. The rest, as we now know, is history. \u201cBrat\u201d catapulted Charli to a new echelon, dominating every sector of culture from music to memes to politics. It was, at last, irrefutable proof that Charli knows best.<\/p>\n

But what if she didn\u2019t? What if all that success and all of that pressure culminated in a complete and total artistic mindf**k that threatened to torpedo everything Charli\u2019s worked for \u2014 and worse, flattened her taste? That\u2019s the meta concept behind \u201cThe Moment,\u201d the feature-length film co-developed by Charli and her friend and director, Aidan Zamiri, that plays like a mockumentary from an alternate reality. In the movie, Charli contends with the unfathomable triumph of \u201cBrat\u201d while fielding brand deal offers and label demands that reek of the capitalist desperation to extend the \u201cBrat\u201d era as long as possible. It is, at times, horrifying and anxiety-inducing; at others, it\u2019s frustratingly drab. But in the space between, Charli and Zamiri strike a resonant note that exposes how fragile a musician\u2019s integrity is, and how much is at stake for the average listener when fame\u2019s unstoppable gyre sweeps up a pop artist and spits out a pop star.<\/p>\n

In the months during its production and leading up to its release, \u201cThe Moment\u201d was touted as a film developed \u201cfrom an original idea by Charli xcx.\u201d This banal statement doesn\u2019t mean much, considering all films \u2014 and art, really \u2014 are the spark of someone\u2019s idea. But in this case, it\u2019s easy to imagine \u201cThe Moment\u201d began as a broad thought (\u201cWhat if \u2018Brat\u2019 was done the label\u2019s way?\u201d; \u201cWhat if Charli made entirely different choices during the era?\u201d) and was pruned by Zamiri and his co-writer, Bertie Brandes, from there. That\u2019s not to say that the movie doesn\u2019t have plenty of fascinating industry insider details to grab onto, or that it\u2019s at all disingenuous, only that it lacks focus. If \u201cThe Moment\u201d had more time to gestate, it would likely be a much sharper and shocking satire.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s an irony there, too. For this film to be greenlit, produced, financed and finished, it needed the thrust of \u201cBrat\u201d behind it. The movie had to be made close enough to the album\u2019s release that it could ride the coattails of the record\u2019s popularity until the \u201cBrat\u201d-green wheels fell off. There is no \u201cThe Moment\u201d without \u201cBrat,\u201d just like there is no \u201cBrat\u201d without \u201cCrash.\u201d One idea fuels, feeds and finances the next, and \u201cThe Moment\u201d is Charli\u2019s account from the center of the music industry ouroboros.<\/p>\n

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Joining Charli in playing a version of herself is a host of other celebrities in small cameo roles \u2014 Rachel Sennott<\/a>, Julia Fox<\/a> and a surprisingly hysterical Kylie Jenner<\/a> \u2014 as well as notable actors like Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd<\/a> and Rosanna Arquette<\/a> taking on fictional characters. All of these familiar faces allow \u201cThe Moment\u201d to consistently straddle realism and surreality, keeping the narrative precarious and compelling even in its most tedious moments. Every one of these people has their own agenda, and they\u2019re intent on using Charli and the success of \u201cBrat\u201d to fulfill it. Their goal can be as small as bumming a line of coke in the club bathroom, or as large as roping Charli into a brand deal with an international bank to develop \u201cBrat\u201d credit cards aimed at young queer people. (\u201cAre we asking them to prove that they\u2019re gay?\u201d Charli inquires while grimacing in the backseat of a sprinter van.)<\/p>\n

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(A24) Rachel Sennott in \u201cThe Moment\u201d<\/p>\n

This is all a lot to deal with as it is, but the trouble really begins when Charli reluctantly agrees to do a concert film commemorating her arena tour debut. Charli and her creative director, Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates), have developed a show with strobe lights, live rain and a massive \u201cBrat\u201d curtain \u2014 all elements of the real-life tour Charli devised in 2024. But when the label hires famed concert film director Johannes Godwin (Skarsg\u00e5rd) to helm the project, his vision immediately clashes with Celeste and Charli\u2019s. Johannes wants something marketable and safe, a show that the folks at Amazon who have purchased the distribution rights will be happy with. Instead of incessant strobes and Charli clad in a slinky skirt, performing solo with no choreography, Johannes proposes backup dancers, green glitter, high wires and harnesses. \u201cWe don\u2019t want families to turn off the television,\u201d he asserts. Vexed, Celeste retorts, \u201cIt\u2019s supposed to feel like a club . . . A lot of the people coming to this show don\u2019t even talk to their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though all of the back-and-forth between Celeste and Johannes grates the viewer as it circles the drain, Charli, Zamiri and Brandes are aiming and firing at a very real and expanding phenomenon. From Beyonc\u00e9<\/a> to Taylor Swift<\/a> \u2014 whose big-budget tour spectacles received theatrical releases \u2014 to Lady Gaga<\/a> and Billie Eilish\u2019s<\/a> more modest streaming affairs, tour documentaries and concert films have become modern mainstays. In her \u201cVanity Fair\u201d cover story last year, Charli told writer Anna Peele that she turned down a Brat Tour documentary, despite her label pressuring her to make one. \u201cMy problem with a lot of musician documentaries is [they] often show the musician coming up against some kind of opposition and eventually overcoming it to be the hero,\u201d Charli said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s just not been my experience.\u201d What\u2019s clear is that Charli has no interest in faking it for the camera. Positioning herself as the star her fans orbit and look up to, instead of the party girl they\u2019re hitting the club with, is not her style.<\/p>\n

But \u201cThe Moment\u201d very cleverly examines how tempting and easy it would be for an artist blinded by the glare of her newfound lime-green limelight to accept such offers. In the film\u2019s slightly alternate reality, Charli sighs and goes along with what everyone else is telling her to do, simply because she\u2019s never found herself in this position before. She\u2019s made albums that people love, yes, but the hype has never been so enduring, never taken on a life of its own. There\u2019s some reprieve and relief in letting go, allowing someone else to take the reins. When everyone else is talking at you, not with you, it becomes much more difficult to hear the voice inside your own head.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Moment\u201d admits that selling out can feel good. It\u2019s simple. It\u2019s soothing. Everything is handled by someone else. So what if the price to pay is a tour with aesthetics completely divorced from the narrative and concept of her hit album? If it\u2019s tepid enough to make everyone happy, maybe it will make Charli happy, too.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, what the fans want, what the label wants, what the director wants and what Charli wants all start to blur. It\u2019s overwhelming. There\u2019s only so many times you can be asked the same question without either snapping or giving in, and for Charli \u2014 or, at least, this version of Charli \u2014 surrendering the success she\u2019s worked so hard for isn\u2019t worth it to maintain a modicum of integrity. Selling out is so much easier than digging your nails in to keep fighting.<\/p>\n

Here, \u201cThe Moment\u201d becomes briefly brilliant. The film and Charli admit that there\u2019s a world where selling out can feel good. It\u2019s simple. It\u2019s soothing. Everything is handled by someone else. All Charli has to do is strap herself into a harness and float above her audience, looking like a fool. So what if the price to pay is a tour with aesthetics completely divorced from the narrative and concept of her hit album \u2014 the record she devised without all this pressure? If it\u2019s tepid enough to make everyone happy, maybe it will make her happy, too.<\/p>\n

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(A24) Mel Ottenberg and Charli xcx in \u201cThe Moment\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the film, Arquette\u2019s candid record exec, Tammy, tells Charli and her team that they want to stretch the era\u2019s longevity, and it quickly becomes clear that the \u201cBrat\u201d concert film is designed to be a cash cow they\u2019ll milk until it\u2019s dry. After all, it worked great for Taylor Swift, who followed up the Eras Tour with a concert documentary and a six-part limited series about the tour finally coming to a close. \u201cThe Moment\u201d doesn\u2019t quite lampoon Swift\u2019s massively successful tour or its ensuing media, but it does take issue with the Eras Tour\u2019s tame spectacle. In one of the standout \u201cBrat\u201d tracks, \u201cSympathy is a Knife,\u201d Charli mused about what it was like to glimpse Swift\u2019s world while Swift dated The 1975\u2019s frontman, Matty Healy, whose bandmate is Charli\u2019s husband, George Daniel. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even be her if I tried, I\u2019m opposite, I\u2019m on the other side,\u201d Charli sings in the song\u2019s explosive chorus.<\/p>\n

The song was written ahead of the \u201cBrat\u201d explosion, before Charli was propelled to a level of fame that didn\u2019t look so different from Swift\u2019s anymore. But it\u2019s telling that the version of the Brat Tour Charli ends up with in \u201cThe Moment\u201d looks quite a bit like the Eras Tour. It\u2019s safe, palatable and uninteresting \u2014 the result of Charli catering to the world and failing to trust her own vision.<\/p>\n

Yet, the fictional reviews are stellar, praising the show as a whole new version of Charli.\u00a0This tragicomic result winks at the slight but important difference between artistry and stardom. In \u201cThe Moment,\u201d Charli isn\u2019t ripping her contemporaries. Rather, she\u2019s acknowledging that many musicians entertain without actually saying anything interesting. The fictional \u201cBrat\u201d show is fun, but it\u2019s not good. It has no edge or critical thought. And when pop music loses those elements in favor of homogeneity, algorithms and TikTok trends, it also loses the ability to push culture forward in the way that Charli has, creating a stagnancy and stupidity that\u2019s all too easy to get stuck in. And that\u2019s just not very \u201cBrat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/p>\n

to relive the unpredictable \u201cBrat\u201d era<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In March 2022, forward-thinking British pop auteur Charli xcx released what was to be her \u201csellout\u201d record, \u201cCrash.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-468392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}