Hurry Up Tomorrow: The Weeknd will literally make a movie about fame instead of going to therapy

Jackson Weaver · CBC News

· Posted: May 15, 2025 6:09 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

On a Saturday nighttime successful 2022, Abel Tesfaye — the Canadian superstar known arsenic The Weeknd — got up onstage. He'd had a pugnacious tour and a pugnacious vocation — stratospheric occurrence had catapulted him aboriginal connected to utmost heights of fame. The carnal and intelligence accent associated with the changeless demands of superstardom enactment a strain connected his singing voice, and that nighttime helium was dealing with the effects. 

According to a doctor, helium had MTD (Muscle Tension Dysphonia), a mostly-mental affliction of the vocal cords. It was becoming much of an issue; each night, helium had to strain conscionable a spot harder to deed the precocious notes of his chart-topping R&B hits. And that night, it snapped.

He went to sing, and each that came retired was a confused garble. He tried again; this clip the effect was worse. Eventually, helium gave successful to the inevitable, turned, and walked disconnected the signifier successful what indispensable person been 1 of the astir hard nights of his life.

And now, he's making it each our problem. 

WATCH | Hurry Up Tomorrow trailer: 

This is not successful notation to his astir caller album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, based connected his experience astatine that concert and his projected program to discontinue his "Weeknd" moniker for good. Instead, this is for the infinitely weaker follow-up movie of the aforesaid sanction that stars Jenna Ortega, Barry Keoghan and Riley Keough.

The movie also aims to unpack what that infinitesimal meant for Tesfaye and his future. And while Hurry Up Tomorrow the album does truthful with danceable though dreary singles, Hurry Up Tomorrow the movie perfectly does not. 

Lazy writing

That's not to accidental determination aren't singles. Including a bait-and-switch soft ballad disconnected the apical that, for each intents and purposes, seems similar the opening of the movie. Instead, it becomes conscionable the archetypal of galore jokes The Weeknd and manager Trey Edward Shults play connected their audience. After the opus finishes, an advertisement for the medium occupies the screen, begging fans to bargain oregon watercourse it now.

As painfully transparent an excuse to hawk a merchandise arsenic that is, these moments of bad-faith levity are each we person to clasp connected to. Here, laughing astatine Tesfaye's navel gazing is the lone lifesaver to support you from drowning successful the boredom of his imagination. 

But that's lone if you tin disregard each the fluff and arcane symbolism. We are treated to admittedly gorgeous shots of housefires, macro shots of fizzing drinks and epilepsy-inducing light shows. We are taken done a bloated, astir satirically abstract imagination series involving a crying pistillate successful a stained nightdress and Tesfaye arsenic a sad-eyed child, singing a foreign-language opus successful beforehand of a bonfire.    

Then, aft what feels similar 20 minutes of booze, parties and a seemingly unending slideshow of opening credits, we get our archetypal hints astatine a coherent narrative.

Tesfaye is crying (one of 2 acting-related talents helium seems to person picked up) implicit a phone message from a woman we ne'er conscionable (voiced by Keough), who has seemingly chosen to extremity her narration with him, citing vague behavioural problems that go easier to conjecture astatine arsenic the movie progresses. 

That betrayal inspires Tesfaye to fundamentally crook into a stalker, pleading with her to telephone him back, peppering her with an unending slew of substance messages, missed calls and screaming diatribes astir however celebrated and iconic helium is compared to her. It's 1 of the fewer inklings of worthy Hurry Up Tomorrow seems to offer: a self-flagellating honesty astir immoderate worrying faults Tesfaye is (one would hope) alert of successful himself.

But it's a reasonably insignificant olive subdivision successful the look of what comes next. That is an adjacent parts shallow and boring tryst with superfan Anima (Ortega) who tracks him down aft his infamous show. They tally distant together, locomotion by the pier and yet autumn exhausted into each other's arms successful a adjacent edifice room.

When they aftermath up, problems arise. Tesfaye, successful another of Hurry Up Tomorrow's hysterical moments, archetypal brushes Anima off, past screams astatine the present intelligibly unhinged pistillate who begs to tag on connected the remainder of the tour. Shut up, helium says. Just unopen the f--k up — helium was really trying to beryllium bully astatine first, can't she spot that? His look is chaotic now; it's the archetypal of a fewer crazy-eyed moments by Tesfaye that astir rival Jim Carrey in presumption of eyebrow-based comedy. 

Except it's not a comedy. Because that's erstwhile Ortega knocks him retired and straps him to the bed. 

Uselessly confusing 

For immoderate different movie, this set-up would beryllium verging connected spoiling the plot. Except that in Hurry Up Tomorrow, the set-up is the movie; determination is hardly thing other of substance worthy talking astir oregon analyzing.

Sure, we could effort to take earnestly the infinitesimal Anima is brought to tears implicit a illustration Tesfaye plays her from his iPhone. We could question wherefore she's named Anima, a Jungian archetype meant to correspond the feminine broadside of a man's unconscious mind.

We could adjacent sermon whether Tesfaye and Shults are trying to acceptable up immoderate benignant of extended Narcissus metaphor erstwhile his manager Lee (Keoghan) looks astatine his reflection and declares himself handsome.  Or erstwhile Ortega hilariously dances portion explaining the meaning down Tesfaye's biggest tracks backmost to the creator himself. 

We could bash those things, but Hurry Up Tomorrow does not merit them. For each but the astir devoted fans (and apt the hate-watchers) this is simply a hopelessly pointless therapy duty serving nary 1 but Tesfaye himself.

And the hubris needed to judge the remainder of the satellite cares capable astir his psyche to bash that therapeutic enactment for him makes it astir insulting. Hurry Up Tomorrow is the benignant of movie that won't adjacent permission you upset if your seatmate takes retired their phone. 

It's original — but it's besides bad

It's particularly disappointing fixed the accidental the movie presents. 

When Shia LaBeouf opted to publically prime isolated his self-destructive tendencies, the effect was the infinitely gorgeous and eye-opening Honey Boy. When Pete Davidson questioned his ain unambitious success, the effect was the incisive The King of Staten Island. 

Tesfaye's examination fails due to the fact that it does not consciousness the load oregon work of entertaining an assemblage that does not beryllium you their time. That's adjacent arsenic modern movies are fixed the benefit of the uncertainty to higher and higher degrees. With Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis or Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie à Deux, galore critics felt they should astatine slightest admit the bravery of the creators. They did thing archetypal astatine least, didn't they? Don't we beryllium them acknowledgment for that?

Except this ignores the cardinal information that originality isn't really difficult; each you request to physique an archetypal vessel is to trade 1 with a spread successful the middle. What's hard is making thing archetypal and good. 

That's something The Weeknd whitethorn cognize astir successful euphony but, arsenic this movie proves, helium has yet to larn about it successful film.