A rising pop star navigates the complexities of fame and industry pressure while preparing for her arena tour debut.
Director: Aidan Zamiri
Cast: Charli XCX, Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Jamie Demetriou, Hailey Benton Gates, Isaac Powell, Alexander Skarsgård
Release Date: January 30, 2026
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Rated R for language throughout and some drug material
Runtime: 1h 43m
Review:
The Moment is a fun mockumentary that plays like a pop starlet’s Spinal Tap and functions as a sort of anxiety driven confessional about the instant massive fame hits. Aidan Zamiri does a solid job behind the camera in his debut film and there’s clear sense that Charli XCX trust him implicitly which shouldn’t be a surprise since he’s directed a handful of her recent videos. The film opens with an aggressive barrage of strobe and images that might induce A Clockwork Orange style seizure in more than a few people before settling into its more vérité documentary approach. Once the film moves into the meat of its story Charli XCX takes center stage and brings her magnetic personality to the screen with impressive ease. The real treat is that she’s more than willing to make fun of herself and is more than willing to make herself look incredibly unglamourous and uncool. The corporate label head, played by Rosanna Arquette, and cheese ball director, played with inspired gusto by Alexander Skarsgard, serves as her primary antagonist as they continually try to monetize and bottle her zeitgeist capturing moment. It makes for a series of hilarious situations that are outlandish on the surface but not terribly detached from reality either, especially if you’ve ever watched the evolution of a pop star. Charli XCX has been a well-established niche artist for the last decade before her explosion onto the mainstream last summer. It’s an impressive bit of foresight to take hold of the moment and create a faux version of her experience that’s peppered with threads of truth and vulnerability that shines through in two singular moments where you feel she’s speaking from the heart. It’s something she’s broached in the past during her real documentary, Charli XCX: Alone Together from 2021, which only hardcore fans saw but carries similar themes. The Moment may become a nice time capsule for those same hardcore fans later down the road but for the general public there is still plenty to appreciate here thanks to Charli XCX’s honest self-reflection on display.
B+
