Charli XCX’s ‘The Moment’ and ‘Melania’: A Comparative Analysis (I’ve Seen Neither)

On Thursday night in Los Angeles, the coolest of the cool gathered for the premiere of Charli xcx’s mockumentary tour film, The Moment. A-list attendees included Kylie Jenner, Chappell Roan, Demi Lovato, Matt Healy, Sean Baker, and more.

Across the country in Washington, D.C., the worst of the worst (RFK Jr., Pete Hegseth, Jeanine Pirro, etc.) gathered for a different kind of premiere. A black carpet was rolled out in front of the once–prestigious Kennedy Center, flanked by a blank white wall with the word  “MELANIA” screaming in all caps, assaulting the eyes of anyone who viewed it. One by one—and no more than a couple dozen—members of the Trump administration arrived to pretend that they were getting their own cool-kid moment, the kind they were definitely denied growing up, which is likely the reason they fell into a personality cult instead.

Wake Up America! It’s the Tale of Two Premieres: The Moment x Melania. I haven’t seen either—and definitely won’t be seeing Melania—but here’s a brief comparative analysis of A24’s latest box-office It-Girl darling and Amazon MGM Studios’ extremely expensive attempt at making propaganda high-fashion.

The Moment tells the story of the moment that was Brat Summer and the subsequent tour, where Charli juggled the optics of chart-topping, Coachella-headlining, celebrity-beefing, and the delicate task of maintaining the brat persona. The cast is stacked; the reviews are mostly solid; and it debuts the “fabulous” Jenner in her first-ever acting role—which is probably not something anyone needed, but it’s sweet when someone shows interest in their partners’ hobbies. 

“Emotion. Fashion. Grief. Sadness. Celebration. Love.” No, I’m not describing Brat Summer anymore…rather, this is how Melania Trump described her own mockumentary—sorry, documentary. This is what she told a Daily Caller reporter at the premiere, captured in an awkward video, which makes me think a judge somewhere mandated that Melania and Donald have to stand at least two feet apart at all times.

It’s Dumb & Dumber if they were even dumber.pic.twitter.com/nJcQ3pEQ1r

— Cuckturd (@CattardSlim) January 30, 2026

In a way, these two films are similar. Both document a public figure in enormous sunglasses, performing a version of herself for the entire country to witness. But where Charli plays an exaggerated version of her public persona, Melania plays…herself, a First Lady of the United States who cheerfully promotes a glossy self-portrait while remaining complicit in every atrocity her husband’s administration has wrought on this country. On the day federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old ICU nurse, Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis, Melania went forward with her lavish movie night, welcoming people like Erika Kirk, Queen Rania of Jordan, and Tim Cook into the White House’s East Room and serving everyone black-and-white macaroons and Melania-branded boxes of popcorn.

Jeff Bezos’ Amazon MGM Studios gave the production team (including accused sex pest and director Brett Ratner) $40 million to follow Melania around for a month leading up to Trump’s 2025 inauguration, with the marketing team sinking another $30 million to promote it. The trailer is actually pretty campy, so as much as I want to see Melania—for the bit, and because I think she is a fascinating performance artist rivaling the likes of Charli—I refuse to move the needle on their blood-money sales. Also, was this some sort of bribe between Bezos and Trump? Probably.

On the black carpet, Speaker Mike Johnson—who monitors porn intake with his son—told The New York Times, “It’s an important project for history and in every other way, and, you know, I think it’s worth the investment, and I think it will pay off.” Yet earlier this week, Wired analyzed 1,400 screenings across the U.S. and found only two sold-out screenings, one in Florida and one in Missouri, both before 3 p.m. So no, Mike Johnson, I don’t think we will be seeing any return-on-investment here.

Even though they don’t need another dollar for the rest of their lives, it’s comforting to know that Trump and Bezos may suffer a very public financial embarrassment for trying to sell the American people a shameless, gilded guns-blazing propaganda film. America may be pretty stupid, but we’re not that stupid. (Well. Jury’s still out.)

Sorry, MAGA, but you will never be the cool kids. Go see the Moment in theaters—and fingers crossed that Trump doesn’t ban Charli from the country after she beats his wife at the box office.

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• Sydney Sweeney says she is “not a political person.” Color me shocked! [Cosmopolitan]
• Margot Robbie gifted Jacob Elordi a custom Wuthering Heights signet ring engraved with the famous line, “whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” And I know this is just for press, but…What if? [People]
• Uh oh! Ariana Grande has six fingers for Vogue Japan! [PageSix]
• Olivia Wilde soft-launched her new beau, art dealer Caspar Jopling, at Sundance. [People]
• Kristen Stewart wants to make movies outside of the U.S. and “shove them down the throat of the American people,” and I happen to know plenty of people who would line up for that. [Entertainment Weekly]

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