The internet goes bonkers whenever a global pop star known for sultry anthems and legendarily stylised imagery film puts out a movie. But that hype gets cancelled whenever that movie is ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow,’ a hyper-chaotic mixture of surrealism, psychological drama, and blatant self-indulgence.

The Weeknd, more famously known as Abel Tesfaye, co-wrote and co-produced the abhorrent cinematic attempt, and it sure as heck looked like it based on the trailer. The show truly offers a gripping glimpse into the psyche of a troubled artist, but it still somehow misses the mark.

Image Credit: Nicolas Padovani from Wikimedia Commons

Looking back at reader Instagram post reviews seemingly guaranteed 90 minutes of frantic camera spins paired with emotional incoherence. It bore Hollywood critics’ egos.

How in the world did 2025’s most anticipated pop-culture crossover become defined by the overwhelming laughter? Let's get into the controversy behind this Hollywood mess.

The Premise: Fame, Fanatics, and Inner Demons

Hurry Up Tomorrow follows a loosely fictional version of Tesfaye himself, and around an emotionally unstable superstar is a pile of elements such as vocal injuries, heartbreak, and a pivotal performance looming over them. It's a very deep look at how fame can take a toll on a person psychologically.

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Jenna Ortega steps into the role of Anima, the dark and a bit delusional fan, much more than a mere obsessive enthusiast, bordering dangerously close to both a muse and a killer. Ortega’s character could easily be the sympathizable character in the film, or at the very least the thumping, bloody heartbeat of its chaos.

In some way, She is a spiritual paradox. Like any prototypical fan, she nurtures admiration first but does not progress healthily. Instead, she shifts to a fully unhinged direction and gradually worsens her fixation. Barry Keoghan takes the role of the baffling manager, who is the opposite of composed and a bit sweaty bravado ripped out of another genre.

These days, the stylistic moulds are very rigid. The film consists of whirling 360-degree shots, jarring edits, chronic visions that melt into the eyes, hallucination after hallucination, and too many lens flares for a single human to handle. Everything falls within the realms of extreme performance arts, designed to simulate the dizzying high along the low surface of the life of a celebrity. But while some appreciate this vision as art, others see it as an impending headache.

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Critical Fallout: From Passion Project to Punching Bag

Now, let's talk about the reviews of the movie. Hurry Up Tomorrow premiered to a staggering 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes, drawing comparison not to art house elevators, but to films such as Cats and The Room. EW claimed it was astonishingly boring, The Daily Beast called it ‘the worst film of the year’ and IndiaTimes referred to it as a soulless vanity project.

The biggest flaw everybody complained about was the lack of structure, something that is highly needed in a film. Reviewers found messy themes of grief, identity, and creative burnout but claimed that the themes were muddled between melodrama and overwhelming symbolism. Ortega, who fans adored for her role in Wednesday and Scream, her character is equally inexplicable and frustratingly underexplored, leaving her motivations unknowable. What could’ve been an enthralling psychological profile plays out like a fever dream without an endpoint.

Keoghan’s performance, although energetic, was regarded as too over-the-top for the surrounding material. His dialogues, which border between a pep-talk and an existential rant, add to the confusion, leaving audiences to question whether the movie is a satire on celebrity culture or an honest cry for help.

Image Credit: Nicolas Padovani from Wikimedia Commons

The Backstory: From SoFi Stadium to the Silver Screen

A lot of people don't get the main storyline of this film. What you need to know is that Abel suffered a very sudden crisis in the SoFi stadium concert he was set to perform in 2022 when he suddenly lost his voice in the middle of a song. He was left distraught after this incident and had to go through some sort of internal monologue which would later help him find the direction for his new album alongside a new deeply introspective film. In interviews, Tesfaye referred to the project as a cathartic experience and, in his own words, “[his] most intimate work to date.”

Creatively, the film aligns with the concept of a montage telling the story of a character that the vocalist has been crafting over the years: the pop singer whose life is a cycle of uncontrollable whirlwinds of adoration and illusion—fame. However, many times, metric subtitled artistry does not work when applied to real life. The Weeknd, who is exquisite in creating the essence needed in music, lacks the smooth progression required to intertwine the emotions within films.

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In the end, despite how talented the Weeknd is, or how much thought and soul he puts into the cinematography, there are flaws in this film we cannot avoid. Compared to his latest work, The Idol, we still see Weeknd struggling to act naturally, making him look rather cringe for a lot of viewers. So, what do you think of this film? Leave in the comments.