HURRY UP TOMORROW - Mark Reviews Movies

Hurry Up Tomorrow, Lionsgate

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 15, 2025

Hurry Up Tomorrow is such an empty examination of fame and the fanatical side of fandom that even the movie doesn't seem convinced of itself. It gives Abel Tesfaye, better known by his stage name the Weeknd, a chance to star in a movie that he also co-wrote, provided the music for, and produced, and when the man sings here, we can't help but think that at least he has his day job.

Tesfaye's performance isn't necessarily bad in this movie, since he is playing himself and doesn't have much to do but to look sad, get over it and come across as an egotistical jerk, and go back to being sad all over again. The idea that this project is a bit of a confessional from the performer is right there in the material, including his character breaking into song at a completely inappropriate moment for such nonsense and including the notion of confessing in the lyrics.

If one is more aware of the singer's biography or has combed through the lyrics of the album with the same title, that person might have a better idea of the intended layers of this movie and of whatever Tesfaye believes he's admitting to through it. For anyone else, it's a long slog of self-indulgence that barely possesses characters, a story, or even a coherent reason for its existence.

It's mostly about Tesfaye's character, whom we'll refer to as Abel in order to differentiate the real man from the fictionalized variation, backstage and behind-the-scenes of a tour. He performs on stage twice, looking as if he's mouthing along to a recorded track the first time and losing his voice the second. The rest of the plot, such as it isn't until the third act, sees him moping over an ex-girlfriend, arguing about contacting the ex and performing with his manager Lee (Barry Keoghan), and meeting and seemingly falling for a mysterious woman whom his eyes meet when he's at his lowest point on stage.

She's played by Jenna Ortega and apparently named Anima, which is a term that has to do with psychology or philosophy, depending on whom you ask. If someone asks Tesfaye and his fellow screenwriters Reza Fahim and director Trey Edward Shults the significance of that name, that person should immediately follow whatever answer they give with another question: If that's so important, why doesn't anyone refer to the character by that or any other name throughout the entire movie?

Anima is more an avatar for a lot of loaded conceits than an actual character here. She's introduced going through an abandoned house, sobbing a lot, and finally burning it down with a gasoline canister that she apparently lugs around everywhere—including to the hotel room where she and Abel eventually go. That single detail raises a lot of questions about the logic of the movie, and the simple solution to them all, apparently, is that nothing we see and nothing that happens in this story actually matters. If that was the case the entire time, couldn't the filmmakers at least have given us a bit more of its star doing what he's famous for doing?

Let's get back, however, to Anima, who is at least kind of intriguing in her vagueness and her capacity to change personality entirely for the ends of the script. From the start, she's a damaged person, and as she and Abel meet backstage after his voice fails him, Anima is the perfect sort of woman to get the singer out of his emotional funk. The two run off together, have some fun on a boardwalk with plenty of rides and attractions (The two actors wear face masks, perhaps because Shults filmed part of this scene guerilla style), and eventually go to a hotel room, after Anima explains how lonely she is and why Abel's music means so much to her. She can tell he's lonely, too, and that's the most depth the movie can muster in the middle of about an hour or more of such repetitive meandering.

There's a single moment of promise after that, when Anima takes a call from her mother and breaks down sobbing. After so much time seeing Abel pine for his ex and bemoan his vocal problems, his shift in that scene is quite revealing about the character. He doesn't care anymore and looks as if he'd rather be anywhere else than with someone whose emotions are more important in the moment than his own.

Anyway, Hurry Up Tomorrow becomes a straightforward but completely impractical and pretty ridiculous thriller after that. Even when it finally has a story to tell, it's dull and hollow.

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