Hurry Up Tomorrow is a 2025 musical thriller from Lionsgate Films and Manic Phase Productions. Directed by Trey Edward Shults, written by Trey Edward Shults and Abel Tesfaye, and starring Abel Tesfaye, Jenna Ortega, and Barry Keoghan. Well folks, I have a feeling most people aren’t going to necessarily like this review a whole lot from the amount of hate I’ve been seeing this movie getting online but I had a rather enthralling experience with this in theaters. This was in many ways a highly introspective and personal piece of art from Abel, better known as the pop music artist The Weeknd, and an ode to that persona. People are so quick to critique his acting ability in this movie, but he didn’t really have to do a whole lot of acting because he was playing him. I feel like this was in some ways a look inward into himself and his struggles with fame, drugs, sex, and heartache and an apology to the people he’s incidentally affected along the way because of those things. The acting and storytelling mechanism that pushed the story forward was Jenna Ortega.
Jenna’s character was a fan and someone he ended up affecting and so she affects him as well and makes him face himself. I feel like I wanted a bit more out of her character, I wanted to learn more about her motivations and instability. She was interesting and the introduction to her character was intense, but since scenes in this movie played out like a music video at times and there was more hinting at than showing, it incidentally affected her story. Still though, you knew she was mentally unstable, but Jenna portrayed a sadness about her that made you feel bad for her and kind of on her side. I do wish we got a few more of the scenes with her and Abel together because things got really interesting once that all started breaking down, but what we got still worked. I give a nod to Abel, I truly felt bad for him at times in this movie, but he didn’t try and portray himself as a victim really, he was vulnerable here. He presented himself as unstable and angry at times as well, he was struggling with stress and substances and his relationships with women and just not handling it all the best and it made him more relatable as a human being. That’s what has made me a big fan of The Weeknd for a long time at this point now, he sings about real things relating to his life and has such a smooth sadness in his voice that it makes him so easy to listen to yet so relatable and you can think about and latch onto a similar experience or memory to his pain. Or at least I can sometimes, so I don’t know what that says about me.
I get why some people would be upset if they were going in here expecting more of a thriller film though because as I kind of hinted at earlier, it doesn’t really go into that genre until pretty far into the film so I can see how that could cause problems. Also, if you’re not necessarily a fan of The Weeknd or someone who’s followed his career or knows much about him, then you may not get the most out of this experience. If you’re really don’t like him then you will definitely not like this movie, it’s a very introspective look at The Weeknd from the man himself, Abel Tesfaye, and he does the entire soundtrack for the film as well. The soundtrack is actually a full-on accompanying album to the film and kind of tells a story in itself and is also (as of now) said to be the last album that Abel is going to release under the name ‘The Weeknd’. The album has some bangers on it, I’ve already spun it a couple times, but that being said I really hope this isn’t it for ‘The Weeknd’ because he’s one of my absolute favorite artists and every album he drops has some incredible tracks. I understand if it’s bad for his health and he needs to shed that alter ego though, clearly mental and physical health comes first and as fans we all need to remember that for whoever it is we support. At the end of the day, these people are just people like we are. They just happen to do something that we like, and we need to give them personal time and space to figure their shit out and do what they need to do like the rest of us.
Oh yeah, also if you suffer from epilepsy or are someone who has been prone to seizures in the past, there are a couple scenes in particular in this movie that could mess with that. There are scenes that take place at concerts and in nightclubs and things get very flashy and spinny at times. All that being said, I saw this as a fan of The Weeknd, in the middle of a dark theater by myself, so I was fully immersed into it. It was artfully done but it lacked a full-on plot to the story so it’s certainly not going to be one for everyone and I can already see from all the reviews online that I’m in the minority on this, but I really enjoyed myself as a fan of the man. It’s in theaters now so if you’re a fan of The Weeknd, go see it and support it. It’s worth it for fans. Otherwise, I’m sure it’ll be available to stream sometime for anyone else who wants to give it a shot.
