TV & Movies

Charli xcx Is Having an Existential Crisis in the First Trailer for The Moment

Photo: Courtesy of A24

The Moment is the moment. Brat summer might have died (and been eulogized, over and over) last year, but now we’re staring down the barrel—or, a clipper lighter—at an impending Brat winter. The Moment—an original idea from Charli xcx—will drop on January 31 2026. The film is produced by A24 and written and directed by Aidan Zamiri, chronicling a fictionalized version of Charli’s summer 2024 supernova as a mockumentary. There’s cameos (hi Kylie!), real life tour footage, and a whole lotta strobe lights. The official trailer has now landed.

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.

Below, everything we know so far on Charli xcx’s The Moment

Is there a trailer for The Moment?

Yes! The first official full-length trailer dropped December 11. The just over two minute-long clip opens with Charli in concert, writhing on and strutting across the stage, pulling down the acid green Brat backdrop. “Don’t you think the whole, ‘keep having a Brat summer!’ thing is a bit cringe?” she asks from the sofa, where she’s filming something sponsored and Brat-related.

“How do we keep this Brat thing going?” asks Arielle Dombasle, as a label exec. Cue shots of Charli posing with Brat-emblazoned credit cards while fans cry to her about saving their lives, flitting 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 while 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?

Famous faces in the trailer show the glamour of the Essex girl’s inner circle, as well as how everyone wants a piece of her moment: Kylie Jenner, Hailey Gates, and Rachel Sennott all feature. Thankfully Kylie also shares some sage words of wisdom: “The second people are getting sick of you, that’s when you need to go even harder!”

What is The Moment about?

The loose premise is about the pop star on the rise, battling “the complexities of fame and industry pressure,” whilst barrelling towards her arena tour debut. As we see in the teaser and trailer Charli (as Charli) is shooting the concert movie (funded by Amazon), led by a haughty director played by Alexander Skarsgård, who encourages her into an oversized clip lighter stage prop that they set on fire.

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,” Charli previously 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…

If the latest trailer is any indication, the movie 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…

Who is in The Moment?

The cast features a range of friends, suits, and it-girls, including Alexander Skarsgård, Kylie Jenner, Rachel Sennott, Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Hailey Benton Gates, Arielle Dombasle, and Jamie Demetriou. Other names on the stacked line-up include Mel Ottenberg and Tish Weinstock, Michael Workéyè, Shygirl, and Isaac Powell.

The Moment is directed by Aidan Zamiri, also written by Zamiri, Charli xcx, and Bertie Brandes. Zamiri has been a close collaborator through the Brat project, with his work scooping the 2024 UK Music Video Awards Video of the Year and Best UK Pop Video for “360,” along with the 2025 MTV Video Music Award for Video For Good for “Guess.”

When will The Moment be released?

The Moment will have its official debut at Sundance Film Festival, alongside two other projects Charli is attached to: Olivia Wilde’s The Gallerist and Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex. The Moment hits theaters around the world on January 30.

Call it Brat winter, call it Charli’s auteur era, call it whatever you like, The Moment is nigh.