Wick's Review

Summary - Great 4.0

Yesterday is the best high-concept movie in recent memory. What if the entire world never knew of the Beatles? No Hey Jude, no Sgt. Peppers, no Revolution, no Fab Four. John, Paul, George & Ringo, just lads.

Except one guy never forgot, a failed singer-songwriter who only needed one great song to succeed, let alone the greatest songbook in music history. He knew them like we know them. It’s a primo high-concept.

Two great actresses – Lily James & Kate McKinnon – rule Yesterday. Actually the Beatles songbook rules Yesterday, but it wouldn’t be half as charming or incisive were it not for Lovely Lily & Killer Kate.

• Lovely Lily: We see the Beatles through her eyes. After all, we already know and love the Beatles, as does Jack, the musician she loves. But she’s hearing Yesterday, And I Love Her, I Want to Hold Your Hand and so many more for the first time. She carries the weight of representing humanity’s first exposure to Beatles songs. One look at her in the nearby poster makes clear she’s up for it.
• Killer Kate: She’s the business in show business, razor sharp and just as cuddly. McKinnon brings the laughs, always. She’s succeeded Bill Hader as the SNL comedy stud of this movie moment.

Back to the Beatles songbook, the contrast between – say – The Long & Winding Road and what a merely competent songwriter might create is like the contrast between Steph Curry and competent jump-shooters.

To wit, Ed Sheeran gamely costars in Yesterday, proving two things. First, he can play himself, plus is a good sport in benchmarking his songs against Lennon & McCartney’s. Like him, they started off appealing to girls, which they did better than even the enormously popular young Brit. Then they went on to create dozens of stylistically diverse songs about a cosmically wide set of topics. They went Across the Universe.

Richard Curtis has a knack for writing poppy romcoms like Yesterday. It’s kinda like his Pirate Radio set to the Beatles, while Danny Boyle is easily up to directing such a dramedic confection. Their movie hits a peak when its hero finally breaks through to stardom with a punky Back in the USSR in 2019 Moscow, finally getting girl reaction on a mass scale. Even Ed Sheeran is amazed. We Beatles fans, we’re delighted.

Acting - Great 4.0

Himesh Patel carries the day as a semi-competent songwriter yet fully competent singer. Patel is called upon to look uncomfortable and to sing. He does both well, especially the singing and the rocking.

Lily James charms the hell out of us, but not him, as the girl he grew up with. So she wonders what the hell is coming out of his mouth when he starts spewing Beatles songs. Baby Driver’s darling is a true moviestar.

• Karma Sood plays him as a youngster, while Jaimie Kollmer plays her as a youngster.
• Kate McKinnon slays as big-time Hollywood music manager Debra Hammer. Hammer!
• Ed Sheeran plays his own shaggy self. Nice guy superstar.
• Lamorne Morris slays as a Hollywood record company Head of Marketing.
• James Corden is an ideal cameo choice.
• Sanjeev Bhaskar & Meera Syal are slyly funny as Jack’s parents.
• Robert Carlyle makes a convincing and appealing John Lennon.

Film - Great 4.0

Interestingly, the surviving Beatles themselves don’t seem to have been involved with Yesterday. Thank Yous at the end don’t include Paul or Ringo, though they do thank Apple Corps, which apparently received $10 million in royalties for use of the songs. That’s not enough to change Paul or Ringo’s lifestyle.

Some random highlights

• The Hollywood marketing meeting of all marketing meetings is a hoot.
• The film is so British, today’s melting pot British. Hence the colorblind casting of a brown Brit as the hero. His middle-class British parents are the sort of normal Brits the Beatles would recognize.

Other Beatles Movies

• A Hard Day’s Night – Perfect
• Across the Universe – Great
• Nowhere Boy – Great
• The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years – Perfect

Edge - Risqué 1.8

Reality - Glib 2.0

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