Full disclosure, I am a fan of The Weeknd. I’ve enjoyed his music, and he’s a talented singer and musician. Starboy and Dawn FM are creative, innovative and hooks you to listening and enjoying the experience, especially Dawn FM. His acting on the other hand… yeah.
Titled after his latest album, Hurry Up Tomorrow is the newest film starring The Weeknd (full name and credited as Abel Tesfaye) that attempts to dive deep into the psychological aspect of fame and the self loathing of the singer. Directed by Trey Edward Shults (It Comes At Night), you can clearly tell he made the film for A24 to distribute, but even they wanted nothing to do with it.
Hurry Up Tomorrow depicts a fictionalized version of Abel Tesfaye’s music persona, The Weeknd, on a world tour. Recently broken up and clearly not taking it well, Tesfaye uses drugs and alcohol as a means to ease the pain he’s dealing with while his manager, Lee (Barry Keoghan), attempts to push him through this difficult stage in his life. The psychological stress endured results in what’s implied he loses his voice, but is never really talked about after night two of his tour.
Following that he encounters the mysterious fan Anima (Jenna Ortega) whose character and backstory are never explored. She has some form of connection to The Weeknd’s music, but instead of exploring her character and how she interprets the songs, director Trey Edward Shults goes for Fortnite dancing Jenna Ortega in what’s a mix of Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) and Annie Wilkes (Misery).
The film focused more on showcasing an 80s synthetic experimental film with long unnecessary oners, unclear pointless symbolisms scattered throughout and an uneven tone than a more cohesive story that could differentiate what’s real and what’s in The Weeknd’s mind. The script lacked a lot of substance and character development, and having the runtime be just under two hours is shocking considering how it felt longer.
One of the takeaways from watching Hurry Up Tomorrow is it wanted to have a similar experience like when listening to The Weeknd’s previous album, Dawn FM. The album experience allows the listener to experience the purgatory state before transcending to Heaven or Hell through a soothing voice of a radio host provided by fellow Canadian actor Jim Carrey. The experience made the listener reflect on the themes of loneliness, morality, regrets and choices you’ve made and how one day we all die. Dark thematically, yes. Listening was one hell of an experience and amongst my favourite of his albums. Trying to replicate a similar feel of Dawn FM to screen with Hurry Up Tomorrow doesn’t translate well fully when they’re two completely opposites of one another. The film goes all over the place from the mental psychological stress The Weeknd endures to meeting Anima to an unhinged 3rd act.
To the film’s credit, Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan do make use of the script given, and visually it has some good cinematography. It’s a given, considering that the soundtrack is fitting for the film, as it takes a select few songs from The Weeknd’s latest album with a couple songs from his previous work. Obviously when Tesfaye’s shouting moment comes to screen (and a few selected scenes I won’t say to avoid spoilers) were meant to have a serious tone, I couldn’t help but laugh at how unexpectedly funny it was and baffling.
If you’re a fan of The Weeknd, I would recommend listening to his music rather than watching Hurry Up Tomorrow in theatres. It’s a not fully thought out film that lacked story and focused more on visuals. Diving into the psychological aspect of The Weeknd could have been made good as it’s an interesting concept. Separating what’s real and what’s imaginary could have worked if it had a good thought out script and an acting coach for Abel. As a singer and musician, Abel is phenomenal. He has the ability to use a variety of genres from R&B to synth-wave and get the listener to dance and jam out. Like I said, put an album of his on to listen to instead.
Watch the trailer right here.
All images via Lionsgate.
Directed by Trey Edward Shults
Screenplay by Trey Edward Shults, Abel Tesfaye, Reza Fahim, based on the album of the same name by The Weeknd
Produced by Abel Tesfaye, Reza Fahim, Kevin Turen, Harrison Krauss
Starring Abel Tesfaye, Jenna Ortega, Barry Keoghan
Premiere Date: May 16, 2025
Running Time: 105 minutes
Cinema from the Spectrum 
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