Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025) - Film Review

      **Hurry Up Tomorrow, 2025.**

      Directed by Trey Edward Shults.

      Starring Abel Tesfaye, Jenna Ortega, Barry Keoghan, Riley Keough, Paul L. Davis, Gabby Barrett, and Olga Safari.

      **SYNOPSIS:**

      An insomniac musician meets a mysterious stranger, leading to a journey that challenges everything he knows about himself.

      Hurry Up Tomorrow features an unusual mix of talent both in front of and behind the camera. Directed by Trey Edward Shults, known for successfully telling slow-burn horror stories and demonstrating his skill in drama, the film is co-written with popular musician The Weeknd (also known as Abel Tesfaye), who stars in the lead role and has recently faced criticism for his television project, The Idol, a series I have not watched, so I carry no related discourse into this review. The cast includes reliable actors like Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan.

      However, something must give. The outcome is a tragically tedious mess that even a talented visual filmmaker like Trey Edward Shults struggles to redeem. Frankly, he barely makes the movie bearable. To clarify, this is not to imply that the story is clear-cut.

      Abel plays a fictionalized version of himself (or perhaps not; who really knows?) and is advised against touring due to a damaged voicebox likely caused by stress. Nonetheless, he performs with some encouragement from his manager and long-time friend Lee (Barry Keoghan) and generally seems disinterested in his fame. This is largely because he is fixated on an ex-girlfriend he acknowledges he wronged, who has since left him and stopped taking his calls.

      There’s no easy way to say this: Abel Tesfaye’s performance is embarrassingly whiny, compounded by dialogue that resembles that of a teenager. He leaves voicemails professing his love while simultaneously lobbing insults in the same breath, all while sounding as though he is on the verge of tears. Even in moments meant to convey menace, his delivery is unintentionally amusing.

      In another plot thread, Jenna Ortega's Anima burns down a house before attending The Weeknd’s next concert. She’s a superfan who captures his attention in the crowd, leading him to develop an unhealthy obsession. They spend a night out on the town, retreating to a hotel where they become intimate. Abel, an insomniac, has breakfast at 4 PM, a detail emphasized in the film’s synopsis, though it doesn’t significantly influence the plot.

      To illustrate how sluggish and aimless Hurry Up Tomorrow is: it’s justifiable to think I’m outlining the film's introduction. In reality, that accounts for nearly the entire first hour. The film is mired in a lot of nothing, including lengthy musical performances and Abel looking dejected. As for Anima, the details about her character prove inconsequential to the story except for her attraction to him.

      The narrative then shifts to resemble Stephen King’s Misery, with Anima compelling Abel to confront his morally ambiguous actions. She does this by making him listen to his own songs while she critiques the real meanings behind the lyrics, highlighting how damaged they reveal him to be. However, it’s uncomfortable that much of the time, Abel is portrayed as a sympathetic victim when he isn’t deserving of such sympathy; the film fails to offer him the complexity that would make this portrayal effective, indicating that even if he acknowledges his flaws and seeks redemption, it becomes irrelevant. Whether or not Hurry Up Tomorrow tries to blur the line between artist and character could be intriguing if it didn’t take an hour to arrive at that point and if everything else wasn’t so hollow and vacuous.

      Before the film starts, a The Weeknd music video promotes a new song and album, further illustrating that this doesn’t feel like a genuine film. It resembles a vanity project from a self-absorbed artist only digging himself deeper. At one point, the film transitions into surreal horror, with Abel entering a nightmare reminiscent of waking up in Silent Hill, which would likely have made for a far more engaging film.

      With everyone else putting in more effort than Hurry Up Tomorrow warrants (Jenna Ortega convincingly portrays a disturbed fan, while Barry Keoghan serves as the intense voice of reason Abel needs to move on from his ex), Abel Tesfaye/The Weeknd seems to believe he is crafting profound abstract art at the overlap of artist and character; however, all he has truly showcased through this film is that he is completely self-absorbed.

      Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★

      Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Reviews Editor for Flickering Myth. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letter