Welcome everyone to a new catch up review! Today we will be reviewing the newest movie from director, Danny Boyle, one that has quite the high concept to it, “What if the Beatles never existed and only one guy remembered their songs?”. That has a lot of potential on paper and it opens up the door to a lot of fun possibilities. Add in the fact that I am a very big fan of the Beatles, and their music which has inspired so many people, and naturally I was very much eager to check this one out especially when we’ve been getting a lot of other music based movies about or related to famous bands/singers like Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman, and Blinded by the Light. Fortunately I did have a good time with this one even though it doesn’t quite reach the heights as much as it could’ve. Now time to see what happens in a world where George, Paul, John, and Ringo never got together and what one guy decides to do with their songs.
In this story we follow a young songwriter-singer named Jack Malik from the town of Lowestoft who plays small little gigs for small crowds. While his manager/friend, Ellie, still continues to encourage him to not give up on his big dream, Jack can’t help but be unsure whether his music career will ever take off as he struggles to come up with new tunes. Then one night when Jack is on his way home a blackout suddenly occurs around the entire world and he gets struck by a bus. Everything seems normal at first when he wakes up in the hospital, but when he goes to visit some friends and plays the song “Yesterday” by the Beatles on his new guitar he sees that they seem to have no recollection of the iconic band. Thinking this is some kind of sick joke at first, Jack then begins to realize that the world has completely forgotten them. So since he played “Yesterday” so well on his guitar he decides to try and remember the songs, perform them, and pass them off as his own. From there he starts to make a big name for himself playing for big crowds and hitting a big record label. But even as he accomplishes his life long dream can he be able to keep up this for much longer, and will his relationship with Ellie suffer because of his new found success?
There is a lot that can be done with this specific premise so it is a little disappointing how this movie mostly goes for a more surface level execution of it with the focus primarily being on Jack’s romance with Ellie. The story doesn’t seem to delve too deeply into how the Beatles not existing would affect our world, pop culture in general, or any big music movements which was a bit of a missed opportunity in showing how influential they really were. Still though there are some fun little things like how certain things also don’t exist in this world (got some good laughs whenever Jack had to google something up) and there is a great scene which kind of looks into the album covers, and titles of the Beatles without any context which were really entertaining. That and it does have a very good message of not using plagiarism to accomplish your goals in life which is best exemplified in the ending where (spoilers) Jack decides to tell the truth to the world about his songs and it does works as a nice celebration of the bands music with plenty of things fans will appreciate. As for the romantic side of the story it works well enough for what it is. It may not break any new ground and it hits the expected beats but it still is pretty sweet at times, and gives the movie some nice emotion when needed. There are a couple of scenes where things could drag, and be a little redundant but the movie overall is still pretty well paced and doesn’t overstay its welcome even though a longer running time could’ve helped in developing the world even more. Still though for what the story is in its final form it still gets the job done even if it could’ve reached greater heights.
As stated before, Danny Boyle is behind the camera for this one and he does a pretty good job overall in making a pretty well made film with a couple of stand out sequences. The direction is pretty good even if its not anything too amazing but there are certain scenes like in the concerts where there’s some nice energy going around that made them fun to watch. There was also one part in particular that was really cool, when Jack’s popularity is increasing and we see this really colorful, and psychedelic sequence that very visually inventive and cool to see unfold on screen. It may not be as cinematic as something like Blinded by the Light or even Bohemian Rhapsody, but it still looks good for a small scale production and Danny Boyle does do a good job to liven the proceedings. Now as for the cast I was really impressed with Himesh Patel’s performance as Jack as he was a lot of fun, and charismatic in the role. He also did a really good job when it came to performing renditions of the Beatles songs and I really am curious to see what he does next. His chemistry with Lily James’s Ellie is also very sweet, and nice and they both help elevate the fine (if conventional) love story that transpires between them and their characters are both likable enough to root for. They really do carry this feature though the rest of the supporting players provide plenty of amusement, in particular Joel Fry as Jack’s under achieving friend/assistance Rocky who gets some good laughs from his antics. Kate McKinnon does her usual schtick as Jack’s new manager, Debra, which while funny does feel a little out of place at times (though it does make her otherwise typical villain manager character stand out a little) while Ed Sheeran gets a good sized appearance as himself which was amusing. Still this is Patel’s, and James’s show and they help make this movie.
Yesterday is neither as great as it could’ve been given the its premise but it still is a solid crowd pleaser that I had a good time with. It may not dig too deep into the ramifications of the Beatles not existing, the main romance is pretty standard, and it isn’t as inventive visually as other films of its ilk. Still though it does have a very nice theme, is well made with a couple of knock out parts, some amusing humor mined from the situation, and two great leads carrying the picture. For those that love the Beatles and just enjoy a nice feel good story like this, you will most likely be satisfied with what was given here. While I do wish it were better and even if I do prefer the overlooked Blinded by the Light which also came out last summer, it still is quite a bit of fun and does work better as a nice tribute to the legendary band and their work and it is always great to see a smaller movie like this be a big success at the box office.
Rating: B
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