The Moment
A24 | Release Date: January 30, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
20
Negative:
3

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The Film StageCaleb HammondJan 25, 2026
With a cavalcade of hilarious bits, inspired cinematography, and a willingness to earnestly be about something, The Moment serves as a bold reinvention of a mockumentary genre that, until now, was content to stick with pithy jokes. Read full review
80
Little White LiesHannah StrongFeb 20, 2026
Refusing to take itself too seriously, this spirited contemporary period piece captures some of the insanity that was brat summer – but crucially reminds us there’s something to be said for knowing when to leave the party. Read full review
80
Time OutStephen A. RussellFeb 17, 2026
A blistering take-down of the social media-driven celebrity culture, The Moment combines the anxiety-inducing mayhem of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and the omnishambles clusterfuck of The Thick of It. It works because the satire’s coming from inside the house. Read full review
80
EmpireLaura VenningFeb 4, 2026
A wry, sharp and never self-serious take on pop stardom. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonJan 31, 2026
Even if you don’t know her music, the film still works an acidic sketch of fame. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesKatie WalshFeb 6, 2026
The Moment works best when examining the creative tensions between people with different agendas, the small passive-aggressive tensions and second-guessing generating the ripples of conflict. But perhaps Zamiri felt those stakes were too small. Read full review
75
Original-CinLiz BraunFeb 5, 2026
It will be catnip for fans of the music star; others will find various aspects — such as the psychedelic flashing title cards — hugely annoying. Charlie XCX however, comes off well, feisty and self-deprecating. She never plays the victim. As the film concerns getting the fame one seeks and then disparaging the high cost of that fame, it’s a fine line to tread. She does it well. Read full review
75
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodJan 24, 2026
While it’s not a complete home run – it is a wee bit too long and certainly not as funny overall as it should be – in the end, it delivers. Because, love it or hate it, this film will linger with you. You certainly won’t forget Aitchison’s stirring performance. Read full review
70
SlashfilmBill BriaFeb 2, 2026
Love it or hate it, believe it to be honest or self-indulgent, "The Moment" is a movie that refuses to pander, and for that, I appreciate it. We may never know who the real Charli XCX is, but unlike the fictional Charli, she seems to be putting herself out there on her own terms. Read full review
70
ColliderRoss BonaimeJan 25, 2026
A little more full-throated absurdity and humor would've been a great step for the film to take. Ultimately, The Moment is a delightful spotlight for Charli XCX as an actor, and the concept itself finds some playful ways to expand on the lore of of her massively successful album. "brat" is dead. Love live "brat." Read full review
70
TheWrapChase HutchinsonJan 24, 2026
It’s honest about the deception that is inherent to celebrity, confronting us with one compromise after another, building to a pitch-perfect finale needle-drop over a captivating monologue that elevates the comedy into a work of grand, messy ambition. Read full review
67
ConsequencePaolo RagusaJan 24, 2026
For Charli’s most devoted fans, The Moment offers worthwhile glimpses into her creative process and the pressures she navigates, but as either comedy or commentary, it never quite breaks free from the very commercial constraints it sets out to expose. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloJan 26, 2026
The Moment is something different, a big swing into the mockumentary genre satirizing the pressures of pop stardom and the struggle for creative control. It doesn’t always work, but Charli xcx, as ever, throws a wild party. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeFeb 20, 2026
Sadly, the film’s sardonic edge is dulled by a reliance on stereotypical depictions of philistine self-interest. Read full review
60
NMENick LevineFeb 19, 2026
The Moment is too protracted and tonally uneven to work as a great mockumentary, but it has plenty of meme-worthy moments that TikTok will lap up. If that sounds like faint praise, well, just remember it was enough to make Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn a sensation back in 2023. Read full review
60
Next Best PictureCody DericksJan 25, 2026
Those who yearn for a return to Brat Summer will find themselves happily bumpin’ that, but any viewers who feel nothing at the sight of the color tennis ball green would do well to pass. Read full review
60
The GuardianAdrian HortonJan 24, 2026
In other words, smart concepts, talented people, solid blueprint. But there is too little risk – in the defanged satire, in the muddled thematic sprawl, even in a late-stage satirical swing that, for this fan, jumped the shark – to rise above its sharp-eyed construction. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJan 30, 2026
The Moment doesn’t meet the gold standard of self-pitying emptiness set by The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow, but it does share with that movie the sense that the gorgeous surface is performing a kind of vamping at the behest of a music-video-thin story. Read full review
58
IndieWireRyan LattanzioJan 24, 2026
Charli’s version of herself, though, is a fascinating creation — self-deprecating, yes, and laughing at herself, but with the clinical distance of a telescope lasered onto a forming star. See this movie with a crowd of Charli’s friends and collaborators, and you’ll too be in on the joke. Read full review
58
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJan 24, 2026
May have things to say, but doesn’t have a clue how to say them. Read full review
50
The RevealKeith PhippsFeb 13, 2026
What begins as an attempt to send up pop star self-indulgence finds its way to self-indulgence by another route. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonFeb 6, 2026
Yes, Charli is playing a version of herself, but she does it well. Read full review
50
The Travers TakePeter TraversJan 30, 2026
Props to Charli xcx for grabbing her brat moment at Sundance. The dance-pop princess shows real acting potential, even though this misbegotten mockumentary gives her few chances to show her range. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisJan 29, 2026
The Moment lights on substantive subjects throughout, yet partly because it’s about one individual’s ostensible struggles rather than the larger system, its bite is toothless. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineTaylor WilliamsJan 28, 2026
Farce and sincerity make more odd bedfellows across Aidan Zamiri’s meta mockumentary about Brat Summer. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJan 26, 2026
If you like Charli xcx’s songs and find her to be a unique and uncompromising presence in the often airbrushed world of pop, you’ll appreciate moments of “The Moment.” But that’s it. This is not a fully formed movie. At best, it’s a moderately intriguing pitch. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanJan 24, 2026
I actually think The Moment should have pushed further into crackpot satirical extremes. In that case, it wouldn’t have been a movie that featured a “real” version of Charli xcx. But it might have made you laugh more, because it would have been genuinely outlandish rather than just unconvincing. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterRichard LawsonJan 24, 2026
You maybe have to be fully on board with the Charli xcx circus to really appreciate what a movie about it is trying to do. For the more casual viewer, The Moment is entertaining enough, for a while. Read full review
42
The Film MavenKristen LopezFeb 2, 2026
The Moment might appease xcx superfans just content to watch the singer do anything, but it yields little beyond that. Though worthy in its attempts to modernize the rock mockumentary, there's no real humor or depth to the material, and what meaning is there has been done better before. Just listen to brat again. On repeat. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyFeb 19, 2026
The Moment is an alienating, glitchy mockumentary imagining something that never happened. Read full review
40
The TimesKevin MaherFeb 17, 2026
Sadly, the mockumentary Zamiri’s film most resembles — at times, eerily so — is Spice World: The Movie. No, really. Same manic energy. Same faux crises. Same shouty one-note line delivery. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerFeb 5, 2026
Making a movie about how annoyed you were that your label tried to force you to make a concert movie is just 103 minutes of Charli xcx relitigating an argument she already won, just with added product placement. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJan 25, 2026
The Moment, directed by music-video wunderkind Aidan Zamiri, feels like a half-hearted hybrid of a real concert doc and a This Is Spinal Tap-like satire. It’s a little too afraid to go too far in either direction, and the end result is pure brand management. Read full review
38
USA TodayBrian TruittFeb 5, 2026
The film aims to be a Gen Z/millennial “This Is Spinal Tap” but with much less clever wit and way more vocal fry. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonFeb 5, 2026
Unfortunately, director Aidan Zamiri and his co-writer Bertie Brandes are equally bad at mockumentaries and generating suspense. Read full review
30
Screen RantGregory NussenJan 24, 2026
None of it works. I'll cut to the quick: The Moment is an unmitigated disaster. Read full review
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