“HURRY UP TOMORROW” (2025, 105 min., directed by Trey Edward Shults)
From Prince in “Purple Rain” (1984) to Jennifer Lopez in “This is Me… Now” (2024), there is a long history of pop stars promoting their music at the movies. The Weeknd, the stage persona of Canadian superstar Abel Tesfaye, is the latest to take to the silver screen with “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” a film produced to accompany his studio album of the same name.
However, where “Purple Rain” was iconic and “This is Me… Now” was at least delightfully bonkers, “Hurry Up Tomorow” is self-aggrandizing slop.
This Weeknd feels like a Monday.
The plot of the film could fit on an index card. Here’s a spoiler-free summary:
Tesfaye plays a very sad version of himself as he struggles with substance abuse and vocal strain during a world tour. Meanwhile, a mysterious young woman, played by Jenna Ortega, burns a house down before coming to a The Weeknd show, where she meets Tesfaye after he stumbles offstage. They go out for the night and end up at a hotel, whereupon they trauma bond and sleep together. The next morning, Ortega prevents Tesfaye from leaving the hotel in order to convince him his music is deep and powerful. Through fire and tears, Tesfaye is convinced he is, in fact, the savior of pop music. Roll credits.
Along the way, “Hurry Up Tomorrow” features Irish actor Barry Keoghan giving the worst performance of his career as Tesfaye’s tour manager.
While Tesfaye is a wildly successful musician – his song “Blinding Lights” is the most streamed track of all time on Spotify – and hailed as a wonderful lyricist, his script for his film is plodding, bland and riddled with clichés. The pivotal bonding scene between Tesfaye and Ortega includes zingers which feel more like a tween’s The Weeknd fan fiction than a screenplay by a 35-year-old.
“Hurry Up Tomorrow” was written with Trey Edwards Shults and Reza Fahim, the former of whom also serves as director and editor. Where the script is inert, the cinematography is dizzying, substituting narrative function with glazed, obnoxious red and blue smears. These lights aren’t blinding, just blurry. Almost every scene comes across as a nauseating heap of discarded music video ideas.
In fairness, Shults, best known for his 2017 horror film “It Comes At Night,” does film one terrific, terrifying sequence set in the basement of a hotel. This is likely only successful because the scene is as dark as possible and the camera stops moving like it’s on fire.
Ortega tries her best with what she’s given. For an actress world famous for playing the deadpan Wednesday Addams, Ortega shows impressive range as the manic, maniacal Anima, especially during a scene where Tesfaye speaks as little as possible and she prances around monologuing about his music.
It’s disturbing and a little hilarious, but it’s not enough. The movie’s central star is too much of a black hole.
Tesfaye spends most of “Hurry Up Tomorrow” leaking fluids and having people explain to him how incredible his music is while he waves them off. It’s a false, arrogant attempt at vulnerability. These characters were written by Tesfaye himself, meaning the singer is simultaneously feigning self-pity and suggesting his own greatness. “Hurry Up Tomorrow” is a contradiction on a contradiction, but don’t be fooled: There are no layers here. “Hurry Up Tomorrow” is a shallow, hollow wallow.
Rating: 1/5
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