Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025) Review!!

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

My Take – Moving on from his short-lived stint as the co-creator and co-lead for the universally panned HBO series “The Idol,” Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and producer Abel “the Weeknd” Tesfaye adds himself to a long list of musician-actor double threats in a feature film that takes inspiration from a real-life moment from September 2022. When Tesfaye felt prey to psychological stress and ended up losing his voice during a concert.

However, despite an intriguing premise and title, the resulting film, directed by Trey Edward Shults (It Comes at Night, Waves), struggles to deliver on its promise. Playing a fictionalized version of himself, the narrative covers a chaotic few days in the life of an imploding pop star, reiterating some recurring themes from Tesfaye’s music like addiction, heartbreak, and the trials of fame.

But, the feature, which released alongside his latest album of the same name, feels more like rushed attempt at delivering something intimate and profound that instead ends up being a scattered, underwhelming experience.

Co-written by Tesfaye, Shults and Reza Fahim (co-creator of The Idol), the film was clearly designed to add a new dimension and layer to The Weeknd’s musical output, exploring similar emotional terrain. And though it teases greatness, it also struggles to finds its own rhythm.

Add to that an uneven pacing, subpar characters, and a story line that never quite finds its footing, mainly as it is trying to juggle too many ideas at once, leaving most of them unresolved and more surprisingly, rather dull to watch.

The story follows the Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye), an insomniac musician, who is struggling mid tour at he is marred by his own personal demons and is struggling from a recent devastating breakup. Though he channels his desire to slow down or take a break, particularly after being diagnosed with muscle tension dysphonia, his friend-manager Lee (Barry Keoghan) convinces him otherwise, instead enabling his hedonistic lifestyle and drug addiction.

Soon enough, at his latest stadium show, he ends up losing his voice mid performance, forcing him to abruptly rush offstage. But just as he is making his escape backstage, he encounters Anima (Jenna Ortega), a super fan who at first intrigues him, but then forces him to face his deepest truths: mainly those concerning the inspiration behind his music.

Right from the opening scene, when the credits and the song go on a lot longer than it really should have, the narrative enables a sinking a feeling, which doesn’t go away even after thirty minutes, with random sequences seemingly stitched together. But when it finally does get into gear it spirals into a thriller, featuring intense stand-offs and confusing visuals, with various scenes resembling a music video.

While the latter half of the film is a lot more engaging and unexpected, mainly due to some elements that tap into director Shults’ background in the horror genre, it is never able to shake-off the fact that is indeed a cross-promotion for the Tesfaye’s latest album and is simply isn’t robust enough to hold up for 105-minutes.

To make matters worse, the musician’s star vehicle struggles to stand on its own merits, feeling more like a vanity-project territory, even when his fictional depiction is less than flattering. The narrative desperately wants to be deep and meaningful like a psychological journey, maybe even a metaphorical reflection of regret and fame, but it ends up being shallow, incoherent, and unintentionally hilarious most of the time.

Even the characters don’t connect. There is no explanation for why Anima acted the way she does. All we learn is that she maybe comes from a disturbed home and is a major fan of the Tesfaye, to the point where it drives her to extreme measures. The less said about the ending the better, which is apparently meant to represent Tesfaye’s disconnected deeper emotional self.

But subtext only works when there is context to back it up. The one highlight of the film is, unsurprisingly, is score composed by Tesfaye and Daniel Lopatin (Uncut Gems) that builds from the Weeknd’s discography and morphs into something elated and psychedelic.

Perhaps stronger acting could have masked the glaring plot holes, but unfortunately that is not the case here. Jenna Ortega has proven herself to be quite excellent, but she’s completely wasted in this nonsense. Instead, spends most of her screen time crying or simply dancing to the Weeknd‘s songs and delivering cringe hidden explanations behind them. Barry Keoghan is in full Irish form and seems misplaced in the narrative.

However, Abel Tesfaye’s turn is far worse. A one-dimensional performance that leaves viewers disconnected. With his dialogue delivery ranging from melodramatic to unintentionally laughable. In ensemble scenes, his lack of presence, as was the case in “The Idol“, is especially glaringly overshadowed by his more dynamic and much-acclaimed co-stars.

Coming from a place of love for, he should stick to being a musician (at least for now). On the whole, ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow‘ is a hackneyed and derivative pop-star drama which in its attempt to being something profound ends up delivering a scattered, underwhelming experience.