Movie Review: Hurry up Tomorow

 

Title: Hurry Up Tomorrow
Release Date: May 16, 2025
Actors: Abel Tesfaye, Jenna Ortega
Director: Trey Edward Shults
Genre: Horror, Psychological Thriller

An insomniac musician encounters a mysterious stranger, leading to a journey that challenges everything he knows about himself.

Review 

Where do I even begin? This movie was a major mind boggler. I watched this one with my boyfriend, having dragged him to see it with me not knowing what to expect from the strange movie synopsis of one line. We left the theatres confused, but after a night of sleeping on it and collecting my thoughts I wanted to flesh out what I thought about it. I wanted to watch this one because I am one of the few people who like the creative art that The Weeknd puts out, having watched the entirety of The Idol. I think there is way more to the movie than people realize, but then again maybe that is just me being a fan of The Weeknd. Nevertheless, I believe this is the peak of his style. Of course, I've heard the plethora of commentary saying that he can't act, but I want to critique the film on an artistic level, not just looking at it from a surface level. 

To begin, the plot is very odd, and we left the theatres feeling like it was a half unfinished movie. There isn't a linear beginning-middle-end to this movie. I think it is trying to make a statement more than anything, rather than deliver a typical movie experience where you're left satisfied. It makes you think about what you've watched trying to piece everything together. The story begins with Abel starting a show, and performing Wake Me Up from his new album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, with Jenna Ortega (her name in the character is Anima, but isn't even explicity mentioned) spilling gasoline on her house and burning it as she drives away. I realize that the word "Anima", the supposed name of the female lead, means "the feminine part of a male's psyche" in Jungian psychology. This is a psychological film after all, delving into Abel's psyche. This is an important point. Throughout the movie, Abel suffers psychologically from a toxic break up with one of his girls. When he meets Anima after losing his voice from being pressured into performing a show while he is struggling with his depression, Anima meets him backstage while he is running away from the performance venue and the two entwine paths, going on date to destress after his failed show. It is as if he meets his female counterpart, and Anima is like a psychological representation of who he is; the heartbreak, the longing, his hurt, his solitude. We are left with questions from the start: Why did Anima burn her house and ignoring her mom's calls? She explains vaguely to Abel during their date in the hotel with something along the lines of "she couldn't bear to stay in that place and cause her mother torment and had to leave", but I think this is symbolism of leaving the past behind and starting a life for herself. She emphasizes that "no matter where she goes, she is so alone", and this is a representation of how Abel feels although he is on top of the world with his stardom and fame. This is the feminine voice of Abel expressing everything he is feeling. Towards the end of the movie, when Anima pours gasoline on Abel in plans of burning him after killing his manager Lee, the movie comes full circle. She does not burn him after he sings "Hurry Up Tomorrow" on his deathbed moment. 

Another question is the titular significance, why is the movie called "Hurry Up Tomorrow"? In a recent turn of events, it was stated that The Weeknd, after his album also named "Hurry Up Tomorrow" would be the last one under the name "The Weekend", and that moving forward he would be going as Abel Tesfaye, his real name. The Weeknd writes songs about his darkness and hedonistic pursuits and is a persona created from toxic relationships, a theme that is prevalent throughout all his songs. 

The lyrics of the song "Hurry Up Tomorrow" is worth analyzing to further understand what Abel is trying to express: 

Wash me with your fire
Who else has to pay for my sins?My love's fabricated, it's too late to save it
Now I'm ready for the end
So burn me with your light
I have no more fights left to win[...]I took so much more than their lies
They took a piece of me, and I've been trying
To fill that void that my father left
So no one else abandons me
I'm sorry (yeah)
I promise I'm sorry, yeah
Now I'm drowning in the same tub where I learned how to swim
With my mother trying to save every ounce of my innocence
I failed her like I failed myself
I'm sorry (yeah)
Mama, I'm sorry, oh, yeah

Fire is a significant metaphor in this movie. Anima first burns her house, then attempts to burn Abel afterwards. Abel made this movie to symbolize the end of The Weeknd, by burning the old version of himself that is hedonistic and depraved. His love for all the girls he's been with is "fabricated", demonstrating the instability of his toxic relationships. But when he sings this song, Anima has a change of heart and sets him free, burning the hotel room instead. This song is his redemption song, a song that apologizes for all of his sins, and allows Abel to have a rebirth. Anima burning her house in the beginning is the foreshadowing that she will be the one who sets Abel free, "Anima", the unconscious feminine part of a male's psyche, is what Abel has been struggling with his entire life/persona begin The Weeknd. His ways of playing with women, emotionally manipulating them, being toxic, are things that he wants to let go of moving forward. In Jungian psychology, the anima is the soul or life force. It is compassion, nurturance, and a mother's love. It represents emotion, intuition, and relationship-orientation, which is everything that Abel has been missing in his The Weeknd persona. He wants to see Heaven when he dies, so he confesses his sins of heartbreak and wants to change. 

Anima is like the mother figure that Abel is apologizing to for his sins. He has failed women, in the same way that he has failed the first woman than man is ever made to love, which is his mother. His mother is an archetype representing his twisted love towards women. He has strayed so far from giving and receiving proper love that he feels guilty and tainted. Although Abel makes himself to be "supernatural" like the way his manager Lee describes him to be, it is clear that this is not the case behind doors. He is in pain from having his heart be played, the same way he plays his women. Part of the game of being a player is that he gets hurt himself. It clearly affects his psyche as invincible as everyone around him makes him to be, as he has a breakdown during his show and loses his voice--a phenomenon that according to the doctor in the film is purely psychological which is the premise of this film. 

Thus, "Hurry Up Tomorrow" is literal symbolism that Abel wants tomorrow to come faster, a tomorrow where he doesn't engage in toxic relationships, drugs, women, and hedonism. He wants to repent for his sins by burning the old The Weeknd persona and moving on to new beginnings. The movie ends with Anima disappearing from the screen and Abel starting to perform another show in his backstage room. He seems more calm and centered in this scene, after the debacle with his female unconscious, with his psyche in balance. Thus, the unconscious anima is a force that came into his life and left it as fast as it came--to give him guidance towards the right path, to a tomorrow where he changes for the better. 

Another thing I wanted to talk about is when Anima ties him up after their fight and Abel has a strange dream. He wakes up from his hotel room and finds the city deserted, goes underground the hotel to what looks like a tunnel and sees a psychotic female figure in white, as well as a child, presumed to be his younger self staring into the fire. These are all representations of the demons he struggles with--the woman in white is the psychotic females that he is afraid of from his toxic relationships, the darkness of being underground, the solitude that he experiences after he wakes up, and seeing his younger self stare back at him is a stark reminder of his former innocence that he wants to regain. The vibe of the movie is what I like to call "Toronto night life solitude", the amalgamation of darkness that is present with being surrounded by life, but also at night with the eerieness of night, coupled with fake love, fake happiness from drugs, and the loneliness that hits afterwards. This is what Abel wants to escape. At the end of the day, it is the pain of his last relationship that gives him a wake up call that he can't continue on like this, coupled with the female unconscious of his psyche that is telling him he can't be suffering psychologically from his toxic relationships with women anymore or engage in these hedonistic pleasures. 

The relationship he has with his manager Lee, is like an antithesis to his anima. Lee is the animus, the "mind" or "spirit", the unconscious masculine side of a man's psyche. He is the one who pressures him to perform even when he is depressed, giving him an emotional pep talk before his show and hyping him up with drugs. But even still, despite this emotionally charged masculine encounter, Abel is unable to perform as he loses his voice. He is missing his feminine unconscious counterpart, which he seeks through Anima who breaks him down emotionally in the hotel room after she ties him up. She plays his songs and prods him to be emotionally honest with her about his love life, and he is about to open up. This scene with Anima dancing around to his music asking him to "be honest" was particularly hard to watch because it was second-hand embarrassing to see Jennie Ortega dance around to his music, acting psychotic but I realize that it is the whole point of the film, that Abel's anima is torturing him. However, when Lee finds them in the hotel room, Anima stabs Lee, symbolizing that the feminine part of his psyche is overshadowing the Lee, the animus. It portrays that despite all the spirit in Abel's life, he still lacks the soul that is only found in a feminine mother's love and at the end of the day, it is Anima that succeeds in rewiring his path towards who he wants to become moving forward. 

Overall, this movie was a lot to think about. It is really directed towards fans of The Weeknd and those who know his lore and his persona, not for the casual movie enjoyer. If we are talking about how good the movie was from a surface level standpoint, it is hard to watch and enjoy. However, after thinking about the symbolism and the connection with The Weeknd, I will say it is interesting to think about and how it entwined the psychological components together. Other notable aspects were the music, of course, it was brilliant listening to Hurry Up Tomorrow's soundtrack on the big speakers, and the cinematography had a theme that was perfectly suited to its theme: dizzying and trippy, bringing us to another ethereal dimension. In the meantime, we can look forward to the music that Abel Tesfaye makes as he discards his The Weeknd mask, as he gives The Weeknd a soulful goodbye through "Hurry Up Tomorrow". 

Olivia