Photographer Aidan Zamiri recently made his debut feature film “The Moment,” a fictionalized telling of pop star Charli xcx’s 2024 “brat” tour. Now, the film adds itself to a long-running history of musicians playing themselves in movies.
“The Moment” is presented as a documentary instead of a narrative film, although it is not 100% true. Most of the characters in the film are real people playing themselves, but there are a few notable actors playing fictional characters. Rosanna Arquette plays Tammy, an Atlantic Records label executive, and Alexander Skarsgard plays Johannes, the director tasked with making a concert film of the “brat” tour.
Since the 1950s, several films have been released where musicians play either themselves or a fictionalized version of themselves as the protagonist(s) of the film.
While Elvis Presley never played a character with the same name in his movies, these characters were almost always directly based on the musician, frequently playing a musically talented person and even a U.S. Army veteran in “Blue Hawaii.”
In 1964 and 1965, Richard Lester directed two films back-to-back where The Beatles played themselves: “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!” respectively. Two years later, the members of the Beatles worked with Bernard Knowles on directing a third film, “Magical Mystery Tour.”
The success and critical acclaim of The Beatles’ films led Bob Rafelson to create a TV show featuring a band that would essentially be an American version of The Beatles. The show was “The Monkees,” and the band would later perform live and release studio albums, even after the TV show’s end. In 1968, Rafelson directed “Head,” where The Monkees played themselves in a film much more experimental than the TV show, which had been over for a few months at this point.
These kinds of films died down in popularity after the ‘60s, with a few more released sporadically, such as “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” in 1979, which featured Ramones; “Purple Rain” in 1984, which featured Prince as “The Kid,” a stand-in for himself; and “Moonwalker” in 1988, featuring Michael Jackson.
In 2022, Foo Fighters created the story for and starred in “Studio 666,” one of the first times musicians played themselves as lead characters since “8 Mile” in 2002, which featured Eminem as a dramatized stand-in for himself.
“Studio 666” and now “The Moment” have brought back the fun-spirited nature of how these kinds of films started out, rather than aiming to be more serious in tone like “8 Mile” or “Purple Rain.”
“The Moment” asks the question “What makes Charli xcx big enough to have her own movie?” especially when films like it aren’t that popular anymore.
Charli xcx is one of the most famous pop stars working today and has won multiple Grammy Awards, including “Best Dance/Electronic Album,” “Best Dance Pop Recording” and “Best Recording Package.” All of these wins were for “brat.”
A scene in “The Moment” features a staged interview with Stephen Colbert where he and Charli discuss how “brat” was the 2024 Word of the Year, according to Collins Dictionary.
Charli, a proclaimed cinephile, also made a name for herself in the film industry before “The Moment,” writing original songs for a few independent films, such as “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies” and “Wuthering Heights,” as well as composing the score for “Bottoms.” She will also appear as an actress in another 2026 release, Gregg Araki’s “I Want Your Sex.”
Despite Charli xcx’s popularity and acclaim, there seems to be minimal students on campus who are fans of Charli. Those who were aware of her and had listened to some of her songs knew nothing about “The Moment.”
University student Chloe Leonard, who claimed to have listened to five songs by Charli, said, “She has a movie?”
Film and Media Production Professor Sabrina Evans-Renkar, despite her interest in films — especially documentaries — was also unaware of “The Moment,” but alternatively suggested a Nick Cave documentary called “20,000 Days on Earth.”
The university’s lack of awareness of “The Moment” would lead some to believe the film was marketed poorly, but limited edition merchandise for the film (a “brat” fake credit card and a sparkly green lighter) on the A24 Shop website sold out almost immediately and has not yet been restocked, so it is clear people knew about the film.
The failure of “The Moment” to reach the university’s campus may be because of the subject material. While “Blue Hawaii,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Purple Rain” were all released at the height of these artist’s popularity, it appears Charli xcx’s film was released a few years too late.
While she is still popular nationwide — especially on TikTok, with songs from “brat” and “Wuthering Heights” used as trending sounds — it comes across as though “brat” was the peak of her career.
For those few Charli xcx fans hiding on campus, “The Moment” is now playing at Drexel Theatre.
