Brat summer might have died (and been eulogised on stage at Glastonbury) last year, but now a Brat winter is coming. The Moment – an original idea from Charli xcx – will drop on 31 January 2026. The film – produced by A24 and written and directed by Aidan Zamiri – chronicles a fictionalised version of Charli’s summer 2024 supernova in what appears to be a satirical take on that infamous era. There’s cameos (hi Kylie!), real life tour footage, Alexander Skarsgård as Charli’s zany tour director, and a whole lotta cigarettes and strobe lights.
The Moment follows the pop star on the rise, battling “the complexities of fame and industry pressure” whilst barrelling towards her arena tour debut. Charli darts between rehearsals, interviews and sterile dressing rooms in a hyper-edited haze. One of the trailer’s sharpest beats shows Charli screaming at Tim (Jamie Demetriou) in frustration whilst inhaling a cigarette. Elsewhere, there’s stage and mannequin malfunctions, leaving Charli’s character watching in fear. Is it a bad omen, or just another day in the music industry? The film is also stacked with an eclectic cast that not only reflects the glamour of the Essex girl’s inner circle, but also how everyone wants a piece of her moment. Kylie Jenner, Hailey Gates and Rachel Sennott also feature.
“Charli xcx… How do we keep this Brat thing going?” asks Arielle Dombasle in the latest trailer for the mockumentary. It seems to be the eternal question and Charli and co are searching high and low to find the answer. Charli doesn’t seem convinced though. “Don’t you think, though, the whole ‘keep having a Brat summer’ thing is cringe?” posits the superstar. Thankfully Kylie shares some sage words of wisdom: “The second people are getting sick of you, that’s when you need to go even harder!”
The film’s title is already a triple entendre – The Moment almost parodies itself. The idea of “being the moment” is irresistible for any musician with designs on stardom, but also faintly absurd – the idea that there is a single peak you can reach without, say, burning out, or tumbling into a depression when it inevitably ends. Luckily, “I not only know that this won’t last forever, I’m also really interested in the fact that it doesn’t,” real-life Charli recently told Vanity Fair. It’s all pretty meta: a pop star riding the wave of creating a cultural phenomenon while also confronting the fact it has a shelf life…
Of course, The Moment is far from Charli’s only new chapter. In the last 18 months, she has crafted the soundtrack for the hotly-anticipated Wuthering Heights adaptations, started a Substack and gotten married. If the teaser is any indication, the film isn’t going to be a straightforward commentary on fame. It seems more interested in the strange in-between spaces: the blurry hours backstage, the uncomfortable silences while in glam, having a paid team around you instead of real friends… Call it Brat winter, call it Charli’s auteur era, call it whatever you like, The Moment is nigh.