Just a few months ago, Vanity Fair declared pop star Charli XCX the next “Queen of Hollywood. Hell, they even put her on the cover to celebrate this “moment.” Seems like they were too quick on the trigger.
It was only recently that Charli XCX, the Grammy Award–winning “Brat” singer, decided to shift her focus to acting, building a diverse slate of film projects. She’s already shot seven films: “The Moment,” “100 Nights of Hero,” “Erupcja,” “Faces of Death,” “I Want Your Sex,” “Sacrifice,” and “The Gallerist.” Only one of these has been released so far, so most of us have no idea whether Charli can actually act.
Alas, the singer’s latest film to premiere at a festival, “The Moment,” a mockumentary about the singer on tour, seems like a bust. Directed by Aidan Zamiri, and based on an original idea by the singer, it just premiered at Sundance to notices that make it seem like it could be Charli’s “Hurry Up Tomorrow”—remember that vanity project from The Weeknd, which had him wandering around like a tortured prophet filled with existential dread? No pop star’s journey to global domination is truly official without a vanity project movie.
The pans come to us from The Daily Beast, THR, Variety, ScreenRant, and The New York Post. “The Moment” currently has a 53 on Metacritic (based on nine reviews).
The first actual Charli XCX movie to hit theaters was this past December’s “100 Nights of Hero,” in which she has a supporting role, and which came and went without much notice. Her role in that one was very much supporting.
As for the other five? Undated. Charli’s very first acting gig, Daniel Goldhaber’s “Faces of Death,” seems to be stuck in post-production hell at the moment. “Sacrifice” bombed at last year’s TIFF last year and has yet to be picked up by a distributor. “I Want Your Sex” and “The Gallerist” also premiered at Sundance this weekend.
Let’s not forget: Charli was also supposed to star as the White Witch in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming ‘Narnia,’ but according to a report, she ended up losing the role to Emma Mackey after “bombing” her audition.
“The Moment” is set to hit theaters January 30 via A24. The good news is that the budget was only $4M, the bad news is that even with a built-in fanbase and an indie distributor that knows how to spin “vibes” into events, there’s little evidence anyone beyond the Charli faithful is actually clamoring to see it.