The China Mail - This is spinal... brat? Charli xcx stars in mockumentary 'The Moment'

That's the conundrum at the heart of "The Moment," a tongue-in-cheek mockumentary starring Charli XCX as she grapples with her meteoric rise to fame and tries to prepare for a sell-out arena tour.

"I'm obviously quite related to my character," the 33-year-old British singer quipped at the Sundance Film Festival, where "The Moment" premiered on Friday.

"I would like to think I'm not as much of a nightmare as Charli in the film," she said to laughter.

The celluloid Charli is indeed a bit of a nightmare: a pastiche of a controlling diva who is on top of every detail, and yet is just a young singer thrust suddenly into the global spotlight and surrounded by an oppressive and needy entourage.

She and her tour's creative director, Celeste (played by Hailey Gates), want to move on from "brat," the skinny tank tops and IDGAF self-indulgence that dominated 2024, when her album of the same name ruled streaming platforms.

But the suits -- the record label executive (Rosanna Arquette) and Johannes, the solipsistic film director hired to shepherd the tour movie (Alexander Skarsgard) -- want to keep the "brat" money machine rolling.

The clash of artistic vision sees Celeste and Johannes battle it out over tour design, in which her on-brand strobe and in-your-face messaging gives way to his light-up wrist bands and a stage set that "looks like a lava lamp," she tells Charli.

A bizarre credit card endorsement aimed at young, queer customers ("How will they know?" asks a bewildered Charli) adds to the pressure and Charli jets off to a spa on Ibiza.

A chance encounter there with Kylie Jenner (in a cameo appearance) sends Charli further down the celebrity spiral, and she caves in to Johannes' sanitized vision of her tour.

- Tribute to Reiner -

The script, written by Bertie Brandes and Aidan Zamiri, who also directs, draws heavily on archetypes in a plot that sticks closely to the familiar artist-against-the-machine formula.

But, Charli said, those characters accurately describe the music industry.

"I've met different versions of all of the characters in this film," she told filmgoers.

"I've met the people who are truly rooting for you... I've met the people who are in it to be close to the artist. I've met the sort of people who are so 'we totally get you', and they really don't."

Debut feature director Zamiri, whose background is in music videos, said the mockumentary style he was aiming for owed a debt of gratitude to "This is Spinal Tap" -- the 1984 comedy about a fictional British band.

"I think this film wouldn't exist without Rob Reiner and 'Spinal Tap'," he said, paying tribute to the director who was murdered alongside his wife in their Los Angeles home in December.

- Pivot -

"The Moment" is one of three films starring Charli XCX that are screening at Sundance; she has smaller roles in ensemble pieces "I Want Your Sex" with Olivia Wilde and "The Gallerist," which features Natalie Portman.

The move into film is a deliberate effort to find something new, she told the audience.

"Right now, like the 'me' in the film, I am really wanting 'brat' to stop and actually really pivot as far away from it as possible," she said.

"And that's not because I don't love it. It's just because I think for all of us as artists, you want to challenge yourself, and you want to switch the creative soup that you're in and go and live in a different bowl for a while and just feel enriched by that."

Asked how she finds time for so many projects, she reached for a lyric from her smash track "365."

"I don't know, I just do. When you love it, you do it, right? 'Don't sleep, don't eat, just do it on repeat,' to quote myself," she said with a mock curtsy.

The Sundance Film Festival runs until February 1.

U.Feng--ThChM