Los Angeles, Jan 24 (.) Charli XCX is making waves at Sundance ahead of the world premiere of ‘The Moment’, a concert mockumentary that follows a fictionalized version of the pop star as she mounts an ambitious tour for her Brat album.
Ahead of the premiere, Charli joined Variety Studio presented by Audible and shared candid insights about the film’s origins, including how she turned down her label’s initial pitch.
“I was approached to make a more traditional tour film around the ‘Brat’ shows I was doing,” Charli explained.
“It kind of felt like a way to elongate the life span of the album for my record label. I was just not really into that. I was only interested in flipping the form of something quite traditional.”
She added, “I was thinking of how I could put a spin on a long-form film about what I had experienced throughout the album cycle. This is where I landed, this satirical take not only on the music industry but myself. It felt like a way into talking about pop culture, fame, and the loss of art the second you put something out. This felt like a rich ground to breed ideas.”
The film also stars Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Jamie Demetriou, Hailey Benton Gates, Rachel Sennott, Isaac Powell, and Alexander Skarsgård.
Some actors play fictionalized versions of themselves, such as Sennott, while others portray fictionalized versions of Charli’s team—Berlant plays her make-up artist, for example.
‘The Moment’ is directed by Aidan Zamiri, a close collaborator of Charli’s during the Brat era, who also helmed her 360 music video.
“How cool and rewarding that ‘Brat’ was the most successful thing she’s ever done — something that she felt was such a true expression of her,” Zamiri told Variety.
“And then it’s interesting to see something like that become so global and so mass consumed that it became a commercial output for various brands.”
During her Sundance interview, Charli was asked about this week’s Oscar nominations. An outspoken cinephile whose Letterboxd ratings often go viral on social media, she admitted she hadn’t checked the nominations yet.
However, she expressed surprise at Ariana Grande’s snub in the Best Supporting Actress category for ‘Wicked: For Good’. Charli and Grande previously collaborated on the “Sympathy Is a Knife” remix from Charli’s Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat.
“Oh, Ari! She is amazing,” Charli said. “She goes full force. I literally do not know who is nominated or not, but that’s a surprise to me that she wasn’t.”
‘The Moment’ will open in theaters on January 30, following its Sundance premiere.
. MI .