Entertainment
A 14% Rotten Tomatoes Misfire Hooks Viewers as 2025’s Most Debated Film
Some movies don’t need good reviews — they just need curiosity. And Hurry Up Tomorrow has that in spades. Despite landing with a 14% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, the divisive 2025 thriller has surged into Starz’s Top 3, cementing itself as one of the most talked-about streaming titles of the moment. Love it or loathe it, viewers are pressing play in huge numbers — and staying to see what all the fuss is about.
The film stars The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) as a fictionalized version of himself: a world-famous musician spiraling under the weight of fame, insomnia, regret, and a recent emotional fracture. Directed by Trey Edward Shults, the movie doubles as a companion piece to Tesfaye’s album of the same name — a choice that has fueled much of the backlash and the fascination.
Is ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ Worth Watching?
Collider’s Jeff Ewing stated that Hurry Up Tomorrow was an ambitious but uneven multimedia experiment that struggled to stand on its own as a feature film. Tied closely to Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye’s album of the same name, the thriller leaned heavily into mood and imagery, often feeling more like an extended music video than a fully realized narrative. Tesfaye delivered a solid, more confident performance than in past acting efforts, while Jenna Ortega stood out as the film’s emotional engine, bringing intensity and unpredictability to an otherwise underwritten role.
“Hurry Up Tomorrow has a lot going for it. As masterfully showcased in films like It Comes at Night, Shults exhibits a keen sense of vivid, memorable visuals in the film, and there’s clear technical prowess in its construction and design. Jenna Ortega gives a passionate, singular performance, and Tesfaye delivers some excellent and emotive moments despite shallow writing for his fictional on-screen persona. These factors aren’t nearly enough to save a movie in need of a far better script. Characters aren’t given sufficient depth, story beats are repetitive (we get it, you’re stressed walking out to perform), and it’s too late by the time it gets going in the final act.”
Hurry Up Tomorrow is streaming now on Starz.
- Release Date
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May 16, 2025
- Runtime
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106 minutes
- Director
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Trey Edward Shults
- Writers
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Reza Fahim, Trey Edward Shults, The Weeknd
- Producers
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Kevin Turen, The Weeknd, Harrison Kreiss