The Wasteland Reviewer

Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025) Written Review

Are you ready for a film created by The Weeknd? There are many musicians who have made that leap from music into film…to varying results. People like Meatloaf and Kris Kristofferson actual had lengthy careers as actors. Plenty of rappers have made that leap like Ice Cube and Common. Then you have musicians who have done cinematic projects for the sake of their music. Iconic films like Purple Rain certainly come to mind. Based on the trailer, I am sure people had no idea where Hurry Up Tomorrow would stand for The Weeknd. But with this new horror/thriller film out, we certainly see that it was the later.

Is Hurry Up Tomorrow an effective vehicle for The Weeknd’s music? This is a clunky and messy film that struggles delivering on many aspects. The Weekend is playing himself in the film and he struggles with insomnia. This is an obvious way for director Trey Edward Shults to play around with reality but too often the film feels like a series of fever dreams and nightmares just for the sake of it. Narrative films are constructs but you need some level of anchoring element for any kind of connection to develop. Hurry Up Tomorrow is completely missing this. There is zero emotional connection in this film and many elements of its “narrative” are false elements of a musician’s fraying sanity. When you take a step back and look at the film, it is hard not to just see this as a vehicle to sell a song.

Does the screenplay from Shults, The Weeknd, and Reza Fahim expand upon this purpose enough? Not really. This is a tough film to wrap your head around because it rarely grounds you in any type of logic or reality. Jenna Ortega’s Anima is a strange who finds her way into The Weeknd’s life and basically is just an agent of destruction. But there is no real depth or character to her. There are random and strange moments like Anima tying The Weeknd to a bed and singing and dancing to his music to him. There are too many moments in this film that circle back around to The Weeknd’s music and not always in a way that feels purposeful. This whole film feels like an unwell musician’s processing of their creative block and through a random series of evocative horrors finds his way to song that the film portrays as incredibly profound. There are two frustrating elements that have a meta-context here. One, this feels like a vanity project for The Weeknd in such an aggressive and heavy-handed way. Two, this feels like it is messing with the audience after Shults’ film It Comes at Night was criticized for “nothing happening at night”. Here…almost nothing seems to happen at all. This is a narrative that lacks any substance at all.

What is the biggest save grace for the film? Shults directs this film with so much craft that it is hard to not praise it for. This is a visceral, dynamic, and engrossing cinematic experience. There is plenty of tension and suspense that Shults can craft and keep you on edge scene to scene. There are legitimately scary sequences in the film. Chayse Irvin cinematography is gorgeous with expert blocking and strikingly rich colors and life in every frame. This is a film that feels like you would expect from a director who came up with the A24 system. The music that is co-composed by The Weeknd is full of energy, emotion, and atmosphere. You cannot argue that Hurry Up Tomorrow isn’t an experience. This is a wholly realized cinematic expression from a directorial perspective. If you are in it for the vibes, Shults has an endless supply ready for you.

Is Hurry Up Tomorrow a worthwhile experience? That is hard to say. There are so many elements that scream “unsatisfying”. There is no clear narrative. Despite the great performance from Ortega and fine turns from The Weeknd and Barry Keoghan, that is no real emotional stake or connection to what is going on. This film feels like an arthouse vanity project for a musician who wanted to explore thematic ideas on an abstract and striking cinematic canvas. That is achieved but there is a question of how many people will be satisfied by such a singular perspective and vision. Shults shows yet against that he has an incredible cinematic eye but continues to frustrate audiences with his subversive works. Was this just an ad for The Weeknd’s music? It feels a little disingenuous to boil this whole cinematic work down to just that…but it kind of feels that way.