Just last Friday, Abel Tesfaye — aka music megastar The Weeknd — dropped Hurry Up Tomorrow, the blockbuster finale to a trilogy of albums that started with 2020's After Hours and continued in 2022 with Dawn FM. A high-concept, semi-autobiographical deconstruction of the fame monster laden with synths, hooky beats, and a brooding noirish undercurrent, Tomorrow doesn't just feel like a movie — it's about to become one. Directed by Trey Edward Shults (It Comes At Night) and starring Tesfaye, Jenna Ortega, and Barry Keoghan, the cinematic version of The Weeknd's latest — and supposedly last — album is an insomniac odyssey in which the pop icon plays a version of himself as he comes undone.

Abel in the tub. Abel in the club. Abel in the arena. Abel in a big ol' house looking deeply troubled. Yeah, we're thinking Tesfaye's got a lot on his mind as he sets about completing his widely publicised mission to kill off The Weeknd for good. We'd be lying if we said it was obvious exactly what's going on here, but at the very minimum it's looking like Abel, burnt out and sleepless from the so-called high life of celebrity, is getting kidnapped by yer gal Jenna Ortega and taken back to a fancy mansion, wherein — amid a sea of burning effigies, masked weirdos, and intense confrontations — Tesfaye experiences a long night of the soul as his warring personae are forced to figure their shit out. "Call me by the old familiar name," intones an anonymised voice that may or may not be a cypher for The Weeknd at one point; "Abel!" cries Ortega's unnamed captor moments later. How exactly Keoghan, who appears as a kind of hype man for Abel early doors, factors into the equation remains to be seen for now, but our Shifty Barry senses are tingling and we wouldn't be surprised if he has a part to play in Gen Z Annie Wilkes Ortega's plans.

Tesfaye and Shults co-wrote the screenplay for this one with The Idol writer Reza Fahim. But for those who had the dubious pleasure of experiencing Fahim and Tesfaye's first team-up, don't let that association put you off. With Shults behind the camera, Ortega and Keoghan clearly game for whatever The Weeknd has been cooking here, and an early album of the year contender providing the backdrop to the whole endeavour, we do actually want Hurry Up Tomorrow to hurry up tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that. In fact, we want it to hurry up all the way until the movie lands in cinemas on 16 May. Perhaps we'll just take a Big Sleep until then...