Hurry Up Tomorrow

What a waste of time that was. Self-indulgent storyline with plugs for the latest songs. The last 15 minutes appear to have come from a different movie and are completely nonsensical. The earlier part is a major snoozefest with shaky camera work and repetition. Not sure how this was ever greenlight but presumably due to star power. At some point during the movie, someone says to Abel that he should avoid acting and stick to what he does best. Shame he did not follow the advice - that would have saved everyone their time and money. It looks like it will bomb in the box office which is understandable. Avoid.

In the first half I was prone to say wow, this is not as bad as I expected. The cinematography was pretty decent, I liked the colors and the references (for example The Shining's hotel lobby). Plot was nearly inexistent, and it's a shame because it had lots of potential going on. I never had the chance to see more about the girl in his phone, I never actually learned the story behind Ortega's arsonicism. Nothing more than poor edging.

In the interviews, Abel is talking a lot about his traumatic event of losing his voice, but this plot was at best secondary, and i was disappointed of that too.

Overall, I really really love Abel and his music but his movies not so much.

This movie contains numerous spinning camera angles and a soundtrack that tries to imitate the Bladerunner 2049 at times. From the opening scene where the song went on a lot longer than it really should have, I already had a sinking feeling about the movie. Thirty minutes later and almost nothing about the plot has been revealed. Heck, Jenny Ortega hasn't even spoken a single word. What a complete waste of time. This movie tries way too hard to be surreal and it completely failed to do anything to make me care about any of the characters. What is this movie trying to achieve? I honestly have no idea.

The title Hurry Up Tomorrow is incredibly appropriate-because the entire time I was watching it, I just wanted it to hurry up and end. Calling this a "film" is generous; surviving it felt more like a cinematic endurance test.

The plot is laughably shallow, padded with so much pointless fluff that the pacing is downright painful. Abel Tesfaye, a.k.a. The Weeknd, essentially plays himself-and not well. His acting is so stiff, it's almost impressive. Sharing scenes with Jenna Ortega only makes it worse; she effortlessly outshines him at every turn, making his performance look like a high school drama rehearsal.

To make matters worse, the whole movie is drenched in ego. There's a scene-I'm not making this up-where Jenna's character actually analyzes the deep themes of his music. It tries to present itself as some kind of profound artistic statement, but really, it's just a 100-minute commercial for his new album.

Abel, please-stick to your day job.

Prefacing this by saying i am a huge fan of the weeknd, and was willing to give this film a chance after the idol. That being said, this film just felt wholly unneeded? It might be better than the idol, sure, but that's not saying much. But it didn't really DO anything, narrative wise, development wise, etc. The best way i'd describe this would be it feels like a long music video, with nice shots, and (maybe too many) songs, but lacks any real substance to it... i will say i appreciated some parts, especially when there was a dive into abel's introspection in the dream sequences. But the issue was, it really just didn't dive deep enough to feel meaningful, and ultimately fell flat.

Abel's acting is an improvement from his last stunt but it's not saying much. Coming from a place of love for his music and craft, i think he would be much more successful behind the scenes rather than in front of it (at least for now). Overall? I would watch it if you want to get a few laughs in from unintentionally funny scenes, and if you are a big fan of the weeknd, it's worth a shot.