As part of her Guest Selects series at the Alamo Drafthouse, Charlixcx chose several films that inspired her when creating The Moment, her latest film and a ‘Brat’ mockumentary. One of Charli’s selections was a personal favorite of mine in music-themed movies, Josie and the Pussycats. I was immediately intrigued by this choice and was excited to see what comparisons she drew between the two films. To quote Charli’s introduction to Josie and the Pussycats, “In a time where it’s encouraged to unashamedly go and get the bag, this film is reminiscent of purer days when selling out was deemed lame and dishonest!” The two films are thematically very similar and both showcase some of the disastrous consequences that can come from selling out.
In The Moment, Charli is in the peak of the Brat era – she’s at the top of the charts, the top of her game and preparing for what will surely be a huge tour. Her and her artistic director Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates) want to go all out Brat – strobe lights, club outfits, thick text on-screen, headbanging. Their artistic expression is thwarted by the introduction of Johannes (Alexander Skarsgard), who is an acclaimed concert-movie director brought in by Charli’s label to make a Brat concert film. Johannes ideas are the anti-thesis of Brat – family-friendly, glitter, sparkles and many theatrics. To top it off, her label is pushing a brand deal with Howard Stirling, a bank trying to win Charli fans over with Brat themed credit cards. In the end, Charli caves to the pressure, endorsing Howard Stirling on her Instagram to pay for Johannes’ vision of the tour in an effort to end the Brat era. Despite this effort, the Brat concert film becomes critically acclaimed and only deepens the Brat hole Charli is trying to crawl out of.
On the surface, Josie and the Pussycats feels like the exact opposite type of film – Josie (Rachel Leigh Cook) and her friends remain true to themselves and each other for much of the film, even in the clutches of the evil music industry. Josie critiques the music industry at all levels, from the way the industry engages with corporate sponsorships and advertising, to its poor treatment of artists and huge monetary gains from socially influencing unsuspecting teens. The film is anything but subtle about its critiques, with teens being literally brainwashed into buying things through subliminal messaging in the music. Josie and the Pussycats sees capitalism as the antithesis of what music and art are supposed to stand for — fun, accessible self-expression. This idea, though, feels much different from a 2025 lens.
In the age of influencers and everpresent advertisements, it’s hard to think of a time where doing a brand deal or product placement was ever seen as “selling out.” Both Josie and the Pussycats and The Moment critique the music industry but what makes Charli’s take different is using the cultural moment of Brat to accomplish this. Knowing the audience has the reference of Brat as a wildly successful album, rollout and tour, Charli takes us to an alternate universe where everything goes wrong and she ultimately sells out. In real life though, at least to an outside observer, Charli’s vision for Brat feels authentic and uncompromising, similar to Josie and the Pussycats in their film. By depicting herself as someone who gave in to corporate and label pressure, Charli gave us access to what the behind-the-scenes of Brat looked like – a constant battle for creative freedom despite her being the mind behind the record to start. This is the same plight that Josie finds herself in with pressure from the label to ditch the Pussycats, two of her best friends. Josie doesn’t give in and unlike her on-screen character, Charli didn’t give in.
Josie and the Pusscats is very in your face and to the point with its themes and given its target audience of tweens, it makes sense why it is. The Moment, however, is much more subtle and implies or hints at what may have been happening with Charli during Brat rather than showing the audience a peek behind the curtain. Was Charli offered a tour film? Probably. Was there a potential deal with a financial firm? It wouldn’t be surprising. None of these things were realized though and that’s the real fight and ultimate critique Charli is getting at. The ending of the film speaks volumes about how Brat and the subsequent tour could have gone. Brat could’ve been made into a corny, PG tour and film, lacking any amount of risk so as to cater to a wider audience (which inherently isn’t very Brat). The ending being a trailer to a Brat movie a-la-Eras Tour movie also points to an even larger problem – selling out means cashing in, a core message of Josie and the Pussycats.
Both Josie and Charli experience fame to a degree larger than they ever could have imagined. Both characters struggle to stay true to themselves and their creative visions. They both are pressured by their record label to fit into boxes they don’t want to fit into and to push products they could care less or don’t even really know a lot about. Across the two films, the Brat era really is painted similarly to Josie’s rise to fame – quick, unforgiving and out-of-nowhere. I adored that Charli used Josie and the Pussycats as inspiration for The Moment and I think using that as a reference made the film that much better.
