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Hurry Up Tomorrow centres around pop star The Weeknd, playing a fictionalised version of himself, and using his real name, Abel Tesfaye (and who was also in Netflix’s excellent Uncut Gems).
Plot-wise, such that it is, he’s clearly had a bad breakup with girlfriend Anima (Jenna Ortega – Death Of A Unicorn) – for which she blames him for whatever happened to cause it, the reason for which is never disclosed to us, to the point where she sets fire to their house as she leaves it, at the same time while he’s on stage. However, I was too busy trying to work out the logistics of the scene where she’s stealing petrol from another car at the filling station.
The way it pans out, is that the owner of the car has gone into the shop to pay, whilst putting the pump into the petrol tank and letting it fill up on its own. Now, that’s dangerous enough, in itself, since if it falls out, the petrol will spill out everywhere, and some, at least, even if the pump needs you to hold onto it to deliver the contents, as is the way in the UK.
Yet, he appears to be paying for it, not only while it’s still filling up, but with time taken out for her to remove the pump, put it into her own can, and then return it to the car. You literally cannot pay the final figure when it hasn’t yet been determined.
Along the way, he’s trying to get hold of her on the phone, whilst indulging in a huge, drugs-filled hotel party with his manager, Lee (Barry Keoghan – Saltburn), and unsurprisingly suffering health problems including with his vocal chords and stress.
Hurry Up Tomorrow starts off intriguing, but as you’re wondering when it then goes, it doesn’t really go anywhere at all, and gets quite dull, ending up as arty-farty nonsense and just being weird for the sake of weird.
This is backed-up with the fact that it keeps changing aspect ratios. Initially, it starts as 4:3, then slowly zooms out to 1.85:1 as he heads out on stage to perform, stays that way for some time, then later slowly changes to 2.39:1 around the second performance, then back to 1.85:1 at a scene change, as a new day starts.
When watching this on a 2.39:1 screen, given that it’s all within a 1.85:1 container, the 2.39:1 scenes end up windowboxed. The fact the aspect ratio keeps changing doesn’t make sense, either, unlike the way it did in Xavier Dolan’s 2014 film, Mommy, as it reflected the turmoil for Anne Dorval’s titular character.
Ultimately, the two lead characters are both as bad as each other, neither having any redeeming characteristics, and are better off separated. Additionally, that’s also happened for anyone planning to see this at Odeon, hence why I had to see it elsewhere. It’s still the breakdown of their deal with Lionsgate, as began with the total lack of screenings for The Penguin Lessons, after a lot of promotion with trailers and posters. The John Wick spin-off, Ballerina, is the next one that Odeon will miss out on, unless they get this fixed. And that one’s not far away, on June 6th.
Clearly, hardly anyone’s going to watch this, as in my Cineworld’s biggest non-premium screen, there were just 4 people in there (including myself). That was a Sunday at 2.40pm. For the same time, the day before, there were 7 showing on the seat map. Yes, I did check that out of curiosity. Feel free to call me a nerd about such things.
Since I don’t follow modern music, I only know of The Weeknd’s hit track, Blinding Lights, as it sounds like something that would be in Grand Theft Auto Vice City, but I found out later that Hurry Up Tomorrow is also the title of his latest album, and so it’s just his pet project with zero substance.
Does Hurry Up Tomorrow contain any mid-credit scenes or post-credit scenes? No.
Hurry Up Tomorrow is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 105 minutes
Release date: May 16th 2025
Studio: Lionsgate UK
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1, 1.33:1 (some scenes), 2.39:1 (some scenes) (Anamorphic Panavision, Super 35)
Cinema: Cineworld Didsbury
Rating: 3/10
Director: Trey Edward Shults
Producers: Reza Fahim, Harrison Kreiss, Kevin Turen, The Weeknd
Screenplay: Reza Fahim, Trey Edward Shults, The Weeknd
Music: Daniel Lopatin, The Weeknd
Cast:
Himself: The Weeknd (as Abel Tesfaye)
Anima: Jenna Ortega
Lee: Barry Keoghan
Girl on Voicemail/Mother: Riley Keough
Doctor: Ash T
Lavi: Paul L Davis
Security: Sebastian Villalobos
Driver: Roman Mitichyan
Child Abel: Ivan Troy
Jessica: Kiara Liz
Veronica: Olga Safari
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.