Hurry Up Tomorrow

The Weeknd gets a pep talk from his manager, Lee (Barry Keoghan), in Hurry Up Tomorrow (Distributed by Lionsgate)

Deconstructing celebrity, especially a specific famous person (what makes them successful, what drives them as an artist, what could unravel their success), is a challenging prospect. If that artist is involved in the creative aspect of the project, it could tip way over into pretentious narcissism. The music-filled drama Hurry Up Tomorrow, starring/cowritten by Abel Tesfaye AKA music superstar The Weeknd, definitely crosses that line, though to occasionally fascinating results.

This is where I should admit that I barely know who the guy is, so I certainly would not be considered a part of the target audience for this. A lot of it (evidently) plays on his history, his persona and opinions of his songs. It is likely that the filmmakers expected its audience to bring their feelings for him to the movie, to apply them to its abstract ideas.

Hurry Up Tomorrow scarcely has a plot, is light on dialogue and seems to base most of its themes on what Abel Tesfaye thinks about himself. Depth is replaced by lots of closeups of his face and distorted shots of him looking contemplative. The quick-cutting and flashes of images are reminiscent of music videos, but it is shot like an independently made character study. Cowriter/director Trey Edward Shults (who made the excellent independent character study Waves) has an overly meditative approach for a story that has essentially nothing to it. There is no insight into this man. Luckily, things pick up approximately an hour through and the last forty minutes or so are genuinely compelling. That isn’t enough to recommend it, but it is a weirdly interesting peek into the mind of this artist, even if that peek is insanely self-indulgent.

Anima (Jenna Ortega) watches a concert

The Weeknd plays a version of himself, a music megastar dealing with guilt and feelings of inadequacy following a painful breakup, which seems to have been entirely his fault. He is struggling to get by, surviving his tour only with the use of copious amounts of drugs and alcohol. The other important character is a young woman on the run after torching a house, who appears to feel some kind of connection toward him. When their paths cross, it will make him reassess what he knows about himself.

Since one of the major talking points coming out of this is The Weeknd’s performance, I’ll just say he isn’t great. He seems to be trying to do too much in a lot of scenes, not allowing the moment to handle itself. When he is given the opportunity to display his emotions through song, he’s good. Thankfully, Hurry Up Tomorrow (100 minutes, without the end credits) doesn’t force him to monologue or have any complicated speeches. He’s clearly limited, which handicaps Shults a little since the movie is basically about this man’s identity, yet they work around it enough that the flaws aren’t due to the performance.

The other main character is played by Jenna Ortega and she is given all of the thematic heavy lifting. It is actually pretty impressive work from her, carrying the weight of the massively underdeveloped screenplay. When she takes over in the final act, it seems like the story may finally be about something. It doesn’t really stick the landing; meandering deep into pretension at the end. However, she is featured in all the moments that got me to engage with what was on screen.

I commend The Weeknd and his team for taking a risk with his big debut as the lead of his own movie. I just expect that, outside of the biggest of die-hard fans, the best reaction to this will be “Good for him for trying.”

2½ out of 5

Cast:

Abel Tesfaye as The Weeknd

Jenna Ortega as Anima

Barry Keoghan as Lee

Directed by Trey Edward Shults

Written by Reza Fahim, Trey Edward Shults and The Weeknd