Hurry Up Tomorrow

I honestly thought The Weeknd had hit rock bottom with The Idol, but this movie proved me wrong. I went in with low expectations, and it still managed to disappoint me on every level. This isn't a film - it's an overlong, pretentious disaster masquerading as art.

About 60% of the runtime feels like a glorified music video, 30% is pointless, dragged-out dialogue, and the remaining 10% is the camera spinning in circles like someone just discovered how a gimbal works. And The Weeknd? He plays himself - crying, sweating, sulking - in literally every single scene. I swear he made this movie just to show he can cry on camera. Mission accomplished, I guess.

Jenna Ortega is a great actress, but here she's completely wasted. She spends most of her time dancing to his songs, giving cringe "Genius lyric breakdown" speeches while he's tied to a bed. Yes, that's not a metaphor. That actually happens.

The film desperately wants to be deep and meaningful - a psychological journey, maybe even a metaphor for regret and fame - but it ends up being shallow, incoherent, and unintentionally hilarious. There's a viral clip where The Weeknd yells, "Shut the f** up, God!"* in the flattest delivery I've ever heard. It honestly feels like they just used the first take and called it a day.

I started taking notes halfway through. That's how bad it got. I won't even bother with spoiler warnings - you can't spoil garbage. Trash is trash.

The only joy I got was seeing people actually walk out of the theater during the second act. That gave me a weird sense of solidarity.

Bottom line: If you're not a diehard Weeknd fan who's willing to defend anything he does, don't waste your time. Unless you want to experience what it feels like to get emotionally bludgeoned for two hours by a weeping pop star - then by all means, go ahead.

A soft 5/10. Abel Tesfaye's Hurry Up Tomorrow flirts with greatness but gets caught in its own spin, literally. The overused spinning camera becomes more distracting than dynamic and pulls from an otherwise intimate movie that gradually finds its own rhythm. The small cast works well and the slow-burn structure kept me guessing what kind of movie it really was until it clicked into place. It tries a little too hard to feel surreal and there's definitely some ego stroking going on by The Weekend. A few memorable moments.. It's Trey Edward Shults and feels like it. It's ambitious, uneven, and intriguing.

I love The Weeknd's music but this has to be one of the most pretentious movies I have seen in quite sometime.

Based as a companion piece of the album "Hurry Up Tomorrow", the Weeknd creates a musical piece based on his musical works to tell a tale of connection, self, and the breakdown of fame. I understand what the movie is going for and the artistic choices but this movie really feels like The Weeknd is trying to show off as if his personal and works are amazing and masterpieces, as if he is desperately trying to become the newest grand in musical cinema. This all falls short because of the poor writing, bad execution and really awful atmosphere and approach.

The writing feels meaningless, as if it's like an art-house movie without direction and purpose. There are some decent visual presentation and camerawork. However, the poor editing choices and messy technics between with the music and editing makes it unbearable and sloppy. The performances are not good. The Weeknd's performance was laughably bad especially any moment with dialogue. Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan are doing their best but unfortunately they aren't able to save the film.

Alongside with poor direction, bad dialogue, and pretentious themes, it's a really bad musical piece that tries really hard to be artistic when it's just full of itself. Director Trey Edward Shults is a filmmaker I love but it's pretty clear his talents and direction is out of his control since it feels like The Weeknd took it over with his vision, and his vision is bad.

It's pretty clear that The Weeknd is a talented singer but movie-wise, he should really stay away from it. Not necessarily as awful as "The Idol" but that's not saying much.

Bad.

You are significantly more likely to enjoy this movie if any of the following are true: You are a Jenna Ortega stan. You love The Weeknd and his music. You like ethereal movies where metaphors and symbolism are the main draw. You don't mind visual storytelling with minimal actual story.

None of the above are true for me. I think Jenna Ortega is a highly talented actress and does not disappoint with this performance. The Weeknd also does a good job, although it's hard to tell since he's playing himself. And they are two of the realest celebrities out there, never afraid to stand up for what's right.

As for the movie overall, I found it overly slow and pretty boring. The story is super basic and could have been told in half the time. The visuals are cool but feel pointless. It will really depend on each viewer if the visuals and music are enough to make this an enjoyable experience.

(1 viewing, early screening UltraScreen 5/14/2025)

If you were looking for a film that gave every possible art film camera angle and effect, this is the one for you. Reminded me the first time I used Photoshop and had to try out all the cool effects, the difference is I didn't try to use them all in the same photo. This movie did.

30 minutes of it was actually reasonably good, but the other hour plus was unnecessary.

Don't worry about having to go to the bathroom in the first hour, because you won't miss anything of substance.

I was mildly surprised by The Weeknd's acting, then I realize he's playing himself, so not really acting.

Jenna was great, the only bright spot in this lack luster film.