Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025) Lionsgate/Suspense-Thriller RT: 105 minutes Rated R (language throughout, drug use, some bloody violence, brief nudity) Director: Trey Edward Shults Screenplay: Trey Edward Shults, Abel Tesfaye and Reza Fahim Music: Abel Tesfaye and Daniel Lopatin Cinematography: Chayse Irwin Release date: May 16, 2025 (US) Cast: The Weeknd (as Abel Tesfaye), Jenna Ortega, Barry Keoghan, Riley Keough (voice).
Rating: ½ *
I can’t remember the last time I awarded a movie the dreaded “NO STARS!” rating. That’s reserved for films that are either utterly detestable or devoid of any artistic merit. The psychological thriller Hurry Up Tomorrow came extremely close to being slapped with my lowest possible rating. The only thing that saves it from that fate is Jenna Ortega. The star of Wednesday (season 2 hits Netflix in August) is one of the most intriguing actresses working in film at the moment. She’s unconventional in all the right ways. She has incredible range, but she’s at her best in darker films like X, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Death of a Unicorn. She gives it her all in Hurry Up Tomorrow, but there’s nothing in the world capable of salvaging this pretentious mess of a movie.
I like to stop and chat with staff members after I see a movie at my local AMC. I share my thoughts about the film. I was only too glad to express my opinion of Hurry Up Tomorrow. I was asked what it was about. I didn’t have an answer. I didn’t even know what it was about while I was watching it. I sat there in a stupor trying to figure out where director Trey Edward Shults (It Comes at Night) was going with it. After a while, I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted it to be over so I could have my life back. It’s a reasonable request, is it not?
To be fair, it probably helps to be a fan of the movie’s star Abel Tesfaye, more popularly known as alt R&B singer The Weeknd. I have no familiarity with this artist beyond his mere existence. I’m told that Hurry Up Tomorrow is a companion piece to his album of the same name. Obviously, I’ve never listened to it. Why would I? His music is not in my wheelhouse. The movie doesn’t make me any more likely to check it out anytime soon or EVER!
I’m not impressed with Tesfaye as a musician and I’m even less impressed with his acting. He plays a version of himself in Hurry Up Tomorrow and botches it completely. Fame hasn’t been kind to him. He’s self-destructive, hedonistic and depressed. His already fragile mental state isn’t helped any by a recent break-up with a girlfriend who leaves him a voice mail telling him what a horrible person he is. The stress finally gets to him and he loses his voice leaving him unable to perform. Tell me that’s not some kind of metaphor.
Tesfaye gets involved with a young woman (Ortega) with issues. When we first meet her, she’s pouring gasoline all over somebody’s house in the middle of nowhere. She sets it on fire and takes off in a truck. We’re never told who the house belongs to or why she did what she did. For about an hour, it’s unclear what she has to do with anything. Eventually, she attends one of his concerts, the very one where he loses his voice. They meet and leave together. They party for a while before going to a hotel. They spend the night together. The next morning is when things get weird(er).
Ortega’s character, who’s never named in the movie but listed as “Anima” in the credits, goes full-on psycho and pulls a Misery on her idol. She ties him to the bed and forces him to watch her perform some of his songs while explaining what she thinks they mean. She demands that he be honest with her and address with toxic codependency with women (a recurring motif in his songs). This is when Hurry Up Tomorrow finally comes to something resembling life, but it doesn’t really matter by this point. I had long since passed the point of giving a f***.
Hurry Up Tomorrow is nothing more than a vanity project for The Weeknd. It’s easily the worst one since Graffiti Bridge, the faux Purple Rain sequel Prince inflicted on empty theaters around the country in 1990. At least you could laugh at that one. Hurry Up Tomorrow is absolutely unwatchable, especially when Ortega’s not present. I could not stand this version of Tesfaye. He’s a tortured artist whose angst is pure torture for everybody looking on. This includes his manager Lee (Keoghan, Saltburn), the only other significant character in the film. He tries to keep Tesfaye focused on career, performing even when doctors advise against it. In other words, he’s an a**hole. He’s an even bigger one than his client.
Hurry Up Tomorrow is pointless, superficial and incoherent. It makes no sense. Too many things go unexplained. Themes go unexplored. The movie ultimately goes nowhere. It’s badly written, directed and acted. Like he did (successfully) in Waves, Stults tries to impress viewers with shifting aspect ratios. It does nothing but disorient audiences instead. The cinematography is shockingly lifeless. The concert scenes lack energy or any sense of visual razzle-dazzle. The whole movie is a muddle.
Words alone cannot express how much I hate Hurry Up Tomorrow. It’s yet another slice of stupidity passing itself off as art. I’m sure Tesfaye thought he was making something relevant. In actuality, it’s nothing more than a testament to his ego. This movie brims with hubris and arrogance. It’s almost like he and the director don’t care if anybody else gets it. I’m not ashamed to admit I didn’t get it. I know it’s saying something about musical artists losing their voices and finding them again. Beyond that, I don’t know. Moreover, I don’t care.
