Yesterday (B or 3/4 stars)
'Yesterday' (directed by Danny Boyle, of Slumdog Millionaire, & written by Richard Curtis, of Four Weddings & a Funeral, Love Actually & more) is a sci-fi fantasy/romantic comedy hybrid that offers up a crazy concept: what if the world existed without Beatles music? Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), a genial, struggling singer/songwriter, is hit by a bus in England during a mysterious 12-second worldwide blackout. When he recovers - and missing 2 of his teeth - he returns to a world where he is the only person who remembers The Beatles. One of the many funny scenes in this film involve Jack strumming "Yesterday" while his astonished friends, including best friend/manager, Ellie (Lily James), act as if they've never heard the song before.
NO ONE has heard of the Beatles, or Coca Cola, or cigarettes; even Google searches come up empty {haha}. So what does our struggling artist do? He starts recording their songs as his own. After recording a few of The Beatles' songs in a studio, Jack gets phone calls from Ed Sheeran {yes, the real Sheeran}, who shows up at his house one night to ask Jack to 'open' for him in Moscow {"You're Mozart,” Sheeran tells him, "and I'm definitely Salieri"}. Stunned & excited, Jack now needs roadie Ellie; but she can't leave because she is a schoolteacher. And being over in Russia, this is Jack's big shot to debut "Back in the USSR", which goes over like gangbusters; shooting him to lucrative superstardom.
Sheeran's own power-hungry manager, Debra Hammer (SNL's Kate McKinnon), takes Jack under her wing. But when Ellie finds out that Jack is leaving for L.A. - and having suppressed her romantic feelings for him for so many years - she realizes that things will never be the same. While in Los Angeles, Jack can't seem to remember the words to songs like "Eleanor Rigby" & "Penny Lane", so he flies home for research. It is then, when Ellie comes to visit him, that Jack {finally!} realizes he has always loved her, too -- but she has moved on. He's also been having palpable regrets about claiming The Beatles' music as his own & maybe being exposed as a fraud. Jack has everything at his feet: fame, $$, stardom. But does he REALLY have it all?
So this is a cute movie. Cute. Sweet. Well-performed. Nicely directed & edited. Best of all ... it's funny. But I don't know that its premise was wholly successful. With a high-concept premise like this one {after a worldwide black-out, The Beatles just don't ... exist!}, that could skew either - as I've said - "cute" - or simply stupid. I don't think this film hits a homerun in the end. But it is light, easy-going & enjoyable enough for recommendation. The big success of 'Yesterday' rests on the performance by relative newcomer, Himesh Patel. Simply put, his talent abounds. He sings incredibly well, does his own stellar guitar-playing and, best of all, he doesn't overplay Jack's dilemma; his facial expressions do most of the talking. Loved that.
The romance between Jack & Ellie is gentle & affectionate ... if not incendiary. The camera adores Lily James. Himesh Patel has a sweet presence. So their chemistry is lovely. But whether it's the construct of their romance that plays out in the plot or not, there just wasn't a fire there. It doesn't ruin the movie or anything. But I wanted passion. I enjoyed the actors who portrayed Jack's parents; they consistently made me chuckle. i.e., when Jacks is trying desperately to play "Let It Be' to them & they keep innocently interrupting him. And Kate McKinnon steals scenes with her acerbic wit as Debra, the Manager from Hell, haha. McKinnon kind of overplays the part {like she's in a different movie}, but I didn't mind. She made me laugh, too.
You know, 'Yesterday' is fun, but feels like some of the rough edges had been sanded-off of a harder screenplay. This movie is geared for the mainstream masses; nothing R-rated about it. To that, I was missing some heft {Jack's soul-searching, music of Then vs. Now and what that might mean in today's pop culture}. That may be attributed to Richard Curtis' typically mild-mannered scripts, & to kinetic, if feel-good director Danny Boyle (just think of Slumdog Millionaire). So yeah, those expecting something a little more inventive & containing wall-to-wall Beatles music {like my dad would}, might be slightly disappointed; 20-ish songs pop-up, but no full renditions occur. All in all - and with full approval from Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr - 'Yesterday' is best when it plays for laughs, & offers a relatively delightful antiserum to the typically gargantuan summer fare.
NO ONE has heard of the Beatles, or Coca Cola, or cigarettes; even Google searches come up empty {haha}. So what does our struggling artist do? He starts recording their songs as his own. After recording a few of The Beatles' songs in a studio, Jack gets phone calls from Ed Sheeran {yes, the real Sheeran}, who shows up at his house one night to ask Jack to 'open' for him in Moscow {"You're Mozart,” Sheeran tells him, "and I'm definitely Salieri"}. Stunned & excited, Jack now needs roadie Ellie; but she can't leave because she is a schoolteacher. And being over in Russia, this is Jack's big shot to debut "Back in the USSR", which goes over like gangbusters; shooting him to lucrative superstardom.
Sheeran's own power-hungry manager, Debra Hammer (SNL's Kate McKinnon), takes Jack under her wing. But when Ellie finds out that Jack is leaving for L.A. - and having suppressed her romantic feelings for him for so many years - she realizes that things will never be the same. While in Los Angeles, Jack can't seem to remember the words to songs like "Eleanor Rigby" & "Penny Lane", so he flies home for research. It is then, when Ellie comes to visit him, that Jack {finally!} realizes he has always loved her, too -- but she has moved on. He's also been having palpable regrets about claiming The Beatles' music as his own & maybe being exposed as a fraud. Jack has everything at his feet: fame, $$, stardom. But does he REALLY have it all?
So this is a cute movie. Cute. Sweet. Well-performed. Nicely directed & edited. Best of all ... it's funny. But I don't know that its premise was wholly successful. With a high-concept premise like this one {after a worldwide black-out, The Beatles just don't ... exist!}, that could skew either - as I've said - "cute" - or simply stupid. I don't think this film hits a homerun in the end. But it is light, easy-going & enjoyable enough for recommendation. The big success of 'Yesterday' rests on the performance by relative newcomer, Himesh Patel. Simply put, his talent abounds. He sings incredibly well, does his own stellar guitar-playing and, best of all, he doesn't overplay Jack's dilemma; his facial expressions do most of the talking. Loved that.
The romance between Jack & Ellie is gentle & affectionate ... if not incendiary. The camera adores Lily James. Himesh Patel has a sweet presence. So their chemistry is lovely. But whether it's the construct of their romance that plays out in the plot or not, there just wasn't a fire there. It doesn't ruin the movie or anything. But I wanted passion. I enjoyed the actors who portrayed Jack's parents; they consistently made me chuckle. i.e., when Jacks is trying desperately to play "Let It Be' to them & they keep innocently interrupting him. And Kate McKinnon steals scenes with her acerbic wit as Debra, the Manager from Hell, haha. McKinnon kind of overplays the part {like she's in a different movie}, but I didn't mind. She made me laugh, too.
You know, 'Yesterday' is fun, but feels like some of the rough edges had been sanded-off of a harder screenplay. This movie is geared for the mainstream masses; nothing R-rated about it. To that, I was missing some heft {Jack's soul-searching, music of Then vs. Now and what that might mean in today's pop culture}. That may be attributed to Richard Curtis' typically mild-mannered scripts, & to kinetic, if feel-good director Danny Boyle (just think of Slumdog Millionaire). So yeah, those expecting something a little more inventive & containing wall-to-wall Beatles music {like my dad would}, might be slightly disappointed; 20-ish songs pop-up, but no full renditions occur. All in all - and with full approval from Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr - 'Yesterday' is best when it plays for laughs, & offers a relatively delightful antiserum to the typically gargantuan summer fare.