Hurry Up Tomorrow review – The Weeknd’s meta-thriller plays like a music video

Visually effective yet narratively meandering, the star’s moody psycho-thriller-cum-therapy-session is a missed opportunity Regrets? The Weeknd has a few. In Hurry Up Tomorrow, a celluloid roman-à-clef pegged to his sixth studio album , the Grammy-winning multi-hyphenate puzzles through the consequences of hooking up with a deranged groupie who forces him to reckon with his rock star flings. But it’s viewers who will probably be feeling rueful over nearly two hours lost in the end. Though technically a thriller, Tomorrow takes inspiration from a real-life moment of weakness: the Weeknd – born Abel Tesfaye – losing his voice while filming The Idol TV series in between a global stadium tour. As with most of his artistic efforts, the Weeknd makes the job of distinguishing his sincere reflections from his satirical self-observations impossibly hard on audiences and smirks when they don’t get the joke. Recall his dizzying Super Bowl half-time show and face-bandage stunt he pulled to p...

Big Boys review – an achingly brilliant queer coming-of-age classic

BFI Flare festival
Isaac Krasner delivers a sublime breakout performance as a lovestruck teen in Corey Sherman’s restrained but magical debut

With its come-on of a title, its coming-of-age narrative and its teen hero on the verge of coming out, Big Boys sounds like the sort of LGBTQIA+ fare that grows on trees. In fact, this debut from the writer-director Corey Sherman is a real four-leaf clover: delicate, unique and subtly magical.

In its 16-year-old lead actor, Isaac Krasner, the film boasts a star and a breakthrough performance reminiscent of Jason Schwartzman in Rushmore. (No wonder he has just been snapped up to star with Nicole Kidman in the thriller Holland, Michigan.) His 14-year-old character, Jamie, also exudes the studied charm and comic fastidiousness of Rushmore’s hero Max Fischer. Preparing for a long weekend at Lake Arrowhead, California, with his loutish brother Will (Taj Cross) and their doting older cousin, Allie (Dora Madison), Jamie – whose hero is Anthony Bourdain – packs an array of spices to season the campfire meat.

Big Boys premiered at the BFI Flare festival.

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