Hurry Up Tomorrow is a case of all style, no substance as this incoherent misfire plays out that wastes the talents of Jenna Ortega, Barry Keoghan and Trey Edward Shults, while adamantly reinforcing that The Weeknd is an awful actor.

 

Some musicians have had great success turning to acting. Stars such as Lady Gaga, who was met with critical acclaim for her performances in A Star Is Born and House of Gucci, Jennifer Lopez with films like Hustlers, Kiss of the Spider Woman and Selena; and even Mark Wahlberg who has had incredibly popular films with The Italian Job and Ted. However, Abel Makkonen Tesfaye aka. The Weeknd is not one of these actors. While he made his acting debut in 2023’s The Idol, which was met with major disapproval, and not just for his performance, but even with a talented director and co-writer in Trey Edward Shults working with him, Tesfaye’s acting career has somehow gotten even worse. His first feature film starring role, in a film that he co-wrote as a companion piece to his sixth album, is a vanity project gone horribly wrong as he portrays a fictionalized version of himself, failing to elevate his music or tell a remotely engaging story, truly testing the audience’s patience and wasting their time.

 

It’s hard to critique the story of Hurry Up Tomorrow, as there is very little substance to the film. For the film’s first hour, almost nothing happens until the one hour mark, instead relying on visuals to introduce viewers to this fictionalized version of The Weeknd and Jenna Ortega’s Anima. And when something does start happening, it's not even remotely interesting. Quickly becoming a weird mix of Misery and Fatal Attraction, with a self indulgent torture fantasy, the story that unfolds on screen is a muddled mess. All told through a toxic male gaze, reducing the film’s female characters and removing any sense of individuality from them, the film would be more insulting if it wasn’t so bad. And when it gets to the final minutes and showcases the saving and healing power of music, which is something this critic firmly believes in, it’s a laughable moment that makes the film somehow worse than everything that came before it. It would be easier to forgive this film had it been an extended music video, more focused on The Weeknd’s music rather than its story, but for being a companion piece to The Weeknd’s new studio album, there is surprisingly a lack of music throughout which makes this film’s existence even more puzzling.

Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan are both talented actors, and it’s hard to make them look bad, but somehow Hurry Up Tomorrow is a good attempt at doing that. Keoghan is given nothing to do and comes across as a stereotypical pill addicted, alcoholic music manager, while Ortega doesn’t speak for nearly the first hour apart from a couple of words, before she goes full blown Misery while dancing to The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” and trying to explain the song’s deeper meaning. It's an embarrassing waste of such talent, especially Ortega who is such an in demand actress who has the power to pick what she stars in, yet she is reduced to a male fantasy in this film and stripped of any autonomy. As for Tesfaye… well, his acting has gotten even more wooden and cringe worthy since The Idol as he channels his inner Tommy Wiseau, immediately removing the audience from the film with his terrible line delivery that is laughable for all the wrong reasons.