Trey Edward Shults was one recently of the most promising filmmakers in Hollywood, following up his magnificent directorial debut Krisha with the solid atmospheric horror film It Comes at Night and the near masterpiece Waves. Since Waves debuted in 2019 I have been eagerly anticipating his next project, and while a film centering around Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd) isn't what I would have expected, I was still highly anticipating this one. Hurry Up Tomorrow is unfortunately one of the most disappointing times I've had with a movie in recent memory.
The film follows Abel as a fictionalized version of himself at a time of struggle during a world tour. He meets a young woman named Anima (although I don't think we ever actually learn her name) played by Jenna Ortega, who unravels his tortured persona. That's the best I have for a plot synopsis, and the one on Letterboxd isn't much help either, largely because from a narrative standpoint it is near impossible to tell someone what this is about. That isn't because this is in the vein of classic arthouse think pieces, but rather that it offers next to nothing for the viewer aside from its visuals. The best way I can think of to describe this film is if someone took the exterior of a Porsche and gave it the engine of a run down Honda Civic; sure it looks cool, but there's simply nothing under the hood.
Shults' previous work has all shown a sharp propensity for visual storytelling, and admittedly there are some very strong visual moments here, especially in the way the visuals play with the music. The problem? These strong visual moments essentially mean nothing. The half-baked script on display is severely lacking in any semblance of character depth or development, giving us a protagonist clearly going through something but never giving us any inkling of why or why we should care about him. The same goes for Jenna Ortega as his opposite, the first thing we see her do is burn down a building but we never learn a thing about her other than her mom seems to be upset with her and she has strong opinions on The Weeknd's music. There is a scene around the middle once the two meet that starts to feel romantic that had me thinking I might start liking the film, but no matter how dreamlike or well crafted the scene was I couldn't shake the feeling that there was nothing of any depth or emotion behind the visuals.
It is also worth noting, no matter how strong some visual choices are, emotionally hollow as they may be, Shults and Abel also make some bogglingly bad choices. I love a film with a pulsing soundtrack and flashing lights, but the way some of the scenes early on are cut together honestly just grossed me out. I'm not epileptic but I would be shocked if no one had a seizure from this, and it ultimately just doesn't look very good. The music is a constant strength thanks to Abel's discography, but it often feels like it's drowning out the rest of the film. Maybe that's a good thing though with how hollow this feels.
Abel is at the forefront as both the subject and the star, and his performance is a major mixed bag. There are a handful of moments where I thought he actually showed some decent promise as an actor, but there are so many more where it looks like he has no clue what he's doing. Part of this is a frankly laughably cringey script, but he is one of the writers on the project so I don't think I can give much benefit of the doubt there. Jenna Ortega is fine, but her character does such an absurd 180 tonally that I found her completely unconvincing, although this again is largely thanks to the poor script. I actually found Barry Keoghan to be a bright spot, he was mostly able to elevate the script and I was never upset seeing him on screen.
One of the biggest things that upsets me about this one is that it doesn't even feel all that original. The first two acts are a mess of random ideas and visuals thrown at the wall, and when we finally get somewhere narratively it winds up just feeling like an empty attempt at Misery with a pop star, lacking any of the character work that made that story work so well. There was that strongish scene in the middle that had me thinking my thoughts on the film might be changing for the better, but almost immediately after that scenes Abel and Shults made more bizarre decisions creatively that sucked all the wind from their sails. I did still see promise in Shults as a visual storyteller, but this is just lacking all of the emotion that allowed those visuals to hit home in Waves. I will still eagerly anticipated what he does next, but waiting over half a decade for his next project and to be left with frankly an absolute mess is a real disappointment. 1.5/5
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