‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ Review — Self-important and cringeworthy, which is why it’s worthwhile

A review of the new thriller, in theaters now

Why do we cringe? What’s at the root of that response, which often feels visceral, like something involuntary and physical? We see someone doing something that makes us uncomfortable — often something too emotionally naked, too earnest, something that flies in the face of our notions of “good taste” — and our response is to furrow our brow, to shrink away, and to say, “Oof, that’s hard to watch.”

Does that say more about us than it says about them?

Hurry Up Tomorrow is a new thriller in theaters now. It’s directed by Trey Edward Shults, the man behind It Comes At Night, and it focuses on The Weeknd, the stage name of the singer born Abel Tesfaye. This film is a strange object: it’s part longform music video, part surrealist nightmare, part excavation of (and, fans tell me, a goodbye to) a stage persona. Sure, it’s full of clichés and has all the emotional depth of a Live, Laugh, Love sign, but there’s something compelling about seeing one of the biggest stars in the world make something so nakedly, thuddingly emotional. I’m not willing to write it off simply because it makes us uncomfortable to see someone take their own art so seriously.