The Moment is an outlandishly put-together alternative-universe concert satire that nevertheless benefits from Charli XCX’s restrained performance. Some laughs, a lot of awkward, near-painful star-to-studio interactions, and a few poignant ideas dance sporadically across the screen, but nothing notable or sharp. For as inventive as director-co-writer Aidan Zamiri tries to get, The Moment is too tonally obtuse, choppily edited, and slow, because nothing’s really satirized or satiably serious. It’s instead all uncomfortably tense, as Charli’s potential career choices get sourly depicted in a scrambled-up plot that’s shot as chaotically as it’s cut together. Though industry toxicity still glimmers, especially as Charli reels from creative usurpation by a company desperate for more paper greens and an eternal Brat Summer, The Moment needs more autotune.

Fictionalizing Charli XCX’s most recent hit, 2024’s Brat album—the cover art of which took over marketing, music charts, pop directions, political campaigns, and people’s minds for months before the album won some Grammys and other notable awards—The Moment satirizes what Charli could have gone through in Brat’s becoming a studio-worthy cultural phenomenon. As she prepares to end her Brat Summer fame and begin an arena tour, Atlantic Records, her record label, pushes her to continue promoting the Brat brand and album through brand deals and a concert film (the very basis of which led Charli XCX to make The Moment at all). Though reluctant, as she and her team find Brat’s ongoing promotional cycle “cringe,” they press on. However, Charli and collaborator/long-time friend Celeste Moreau Collins (Hailey Benton Gates) quickly find that the womanizing blockbuster-maker Johannes Godwin (Alexander Skarsgård) is rapidly destroying their vision, turning Brat from an R-rated punk girl’s one-woman show into a family-friendly model demonstration of sorts. Furious but swept up in the album’s endless press releases, meetups, rehearsals, and creative jump(re)starts, Charli sees how personally costly pop stardom can be, both to herself and to her most vital relationships.

If any of The Moment’s aforementioned plot sounds dull, that’s because it is. Billing itself as a satire of the music industry through Charli XCX, her alternate-choice path as demonstrated here is instead an untethered, messy, and vocally unsound drama-mockumentary with no mockery in view. The thin doc veil instead bleeds into a bizarrely told concert drama, where Charli’s stardom gets determined by corporate suits desperate to keep the money flowing in. That idea isn’t dead-beaten, but with so little comedy and a relatively dry attempt at the dramatic elements—despite the likes of Charli, Skarsgård, and others—The Moment feels like a missed opportunity more than a vital reimagining of a real pop star’s tour experiences. It’s predictable, often flat, and bizarrely crafted.

That’s not to say The Moment has few harmonically tuned aspects. Again, Charli XCX is a delight on-screen, presenting her fictionalized self with a new sense of years-long-earned integrity as a highly pressured pop icon. Skarsgård, as the slyly antagonistic Godwin, only supercharges the institutional sexism apparent in corporate executive musical decision-making. Every other character, whether fictionalized or Kylie Jenner (playing herself), is quirky and adds significantly to The Moment’s momentum. The cinematography and editing may be jarring, but that may partially be The Moment’s point; the life of a budding music star is abnormal, and often for corrosive reasons. While we see little of Charli’s musical talent, the small bits are bold and bright. Seeing her almost lose her best friend and closest creative partner over studio disputes adds genuine tension. And, fortunately, it’s easy to apply the emotions Charli experiences to anyone. Feeling like, after “doing all this fucking work and finally [getting famous] to prove them all wrong,” only to be told to slow down or change one’s creation’s purpose and presentation almost entirely, can be infuriating. On top of all the other business, technical, and emotional hassles—she balds from pulling her hair back to keep her “face snatched” and comes into a massive credit card fraud issue later, just to name a few—seeing Charli feel like she has to “kill Brat Summer” because “for me, it’s already dead” is that much more eye-openingly disappointing. Despite its perks and privileges (and the privileged who dominate it), involvement anywhere in the entertainment industry is costly for all involved. It feeds on those who crave “to be liked by everyone,” as Charli herself sappily but relatably admits at the film’s end, making insecurity the performance industry’s best asset, unfortunately. Nevertheless, because these bright spots are undermined by corny monologues, consistently flat interactions, and borderline melodramatic, potentially fatal sequences, The Moment strictly limits itself.

Thus, as insightful and convincing as The Moment can be, bizarre presentation, amateurish technicalities, and an underuse of the leading talent make this a barebones watch—and an odd answer to a concert film demand, when a straight concert doc about Brat Summer and the album might’ve been more direct. Even so, Charli XCX is irresistible; her experiences are tense and almost sad; and the industry is as creatively polluting as ever in The Moment. For XCX fans, music drama lovers, and A24 enthusiasts, The Moment may live up to its title with just enough intrigue and slightly funny jabs to pass the time. For everyone else, The Moment isn’t a moment worth remembering or watching; you should just listen to Brat again.

Now playing @ Coolidge Corner Theatre, Somerville Theatre, Drafthouse Cinema Seaport, Kendall Square Cinema, and many local AMCs