REVIEW: Yesterday, The Beatles Movie With An Exciting Concept That Falls A Bit Flat
The Beatles movie, ‘Yesterday’, boasts a ton of intrigue, but was it any good? Let’s discuss…
Jeff (71/100): ‘Yesterday’ has a hard time capturing enough magic to properly execute its incredibly intriguing concept. Set in a world where The Beatles don’t exist, the movie still boasts an enjoyable story but doesn’t find the top-notch groove you’d expect from the dynamic duo of Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis.
Seemingly bursting out of nowhere, there was a lot of buzz for ‘Yesterday’ when the first trailer hit the internet. After last year’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, people have been clamoring for more creative takes on famous musicians and their songs (‘Rocketman’ delivered on this, by the way). Everyone knows about The Beatles, so a traditional music biopic would have been nothing but a boring history lesson. Even with its flaws, ‘Yesterday’ does a fantastic job at honoring The Beatles in a way that doesn’t make you feel as though you’re watching a VH1 documentary. Fans of the iconic group will likely really enjoy this movie.
The performances from Himesh Patel and Lily James are very solid and hold the movie up well, even if their characters weren’t perfectly written. Hell, even everyone’s favorite ‘Game of Thrones’ actor Ed Sheeran does a fine job in the movie. Overall, there is enough light-hearted fun to make this movie well worth a watch.
For me, though, the movie just simply doesn’t do enough to reach the levels that I thought it would soar. Without spoiling anything, ‘Yesterday’ doesn’t hit a real crescendo or grandiose movie and goes out with a bit of a whimper. When I think Danny Boyle, I think about ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, one of my favorite movies of all time. Is it fair to compare the two? Probably not, but I still expected more of a punch from ‘Yesterday’, especially since the main character has woven together so much deception within his rise to stardom.
The movie feels a bit rushed at times and, as a result, doesn’t develop its characters as well as it should have. Jack Malik is supposed to be a regular, down-on-his-luck guy who turns into a superstar. But you never really feel like you’re watching anything more than a regular guy who happens to know songs from The Beatles. The character plateaus out and becomes bland when it should be thrilling to watch him become a sensation for pretending to write so many classic hits. Where one character feels too reserved and dialed back, another character, the one played by Kate McKinnon, gives off the exact opposite vibe. While she is supposed to be an obnoxious music agent, every time McKinnon is on screen, the character’s way over the top vibe and presence is like getting punched in the fucking face. I am a fan of McKinnon’s, but her character is a terrible contrast to the main character in Malik and it’s incredibly jarring to watch.
Maybe my expectations were a touch too high, but I was let down by ‘Yesterday’ despite having a mostly good time watching the movie. In the least, I tip my cap to both Boyle and Curtis for going out there and making something unique and different. I’d much rather watching something like this movie than a run-of-the-mill biopic.
KenJac (69/100): This movie had a fantastic “what if?” premise that was accompanied by an ultimately dull and predictable storyline. The music is as great as expected and the performances are fine, but it leaves you feeling very unfulfilled by the third act.
Himesh Patel and Lily James play a struggling musical artist and manager, respectively. Their chemistry is actually quite great and is definitely one of the high points. Patel can sing quite well and had the acting chops to back up the role. James, as we know from ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”, matches that ability and they bounce quite well off each other. A big problem with this movie was Kate McKinnon. This whole movie had the trademark British humor attached to it, marked with subtlety and sharp quips. McKinnon enters and does her trademark comedy, which is bombastic, in-your-face, loud humor. The point of her character was for her to be an annoying agent and maybe a stereotype of Americans, but it was just too much and conflicted with the tone of the movie.
The actual movie zips by pretty quickly but, as I mentioned, it’s just baseline and predictable. I’m not sure if I expected something fresh to the romance angle, but I certainly wanted something different. Without spoiling, there is one moment that I believe was supposed to be very deep and profound for Beatles fans. Personally, I don’t think that moment was as impactful as they thought it would be, and I found it to be a bit much. One other aspect I don’t think they explored enough was the residual effects of the world without the Beatles. They touch on it slightly, but The Beatles were one of the most, if not the most, influential music groups of all time. I think their absence would affect the cultural progress of the 20th century a lot more than what was noted in the movie.
It’s not exactly a waste of a good premise, but director Danny Boyle also didn’t take full advantage of it. If you want to hear more from Boyle himself, you can listen to Robbie Fox interview him and Richard Curtis at this link.
—
‘Yesterday’ is Officially Buttered as it just hits the 69/100 average line required to earn the distinction. Tune in to this week’s Lights, Camera, Barstool for our full review of ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Annabelle Comes Home’.
2019:
January: https://goo.gl/forms/tyUaQnv8QgMyHfcf1
February: https://goo.gl/forms/N98XcvIy3SukhrIw2
March: https://goo.gl/forms/4QbmSMj6wK0feMZ13
April: https://forms.gle/uRUg5xPyfsE8bk9B6
May: https://forms.gle/cdBDBdjNcHZ93sog6
June: https://forms.gle/z3cK9LSRCzNCwxYS8
2018:
January: https://goo.gl/forms/nNzX19HbebeQMUAA3
February: https://goo.gl/forms/DWG9TJMISLzUunsu2
March: https://goo.gl/forms/k0dL5ozOrhwJ2Bk03
April: https://goo.gl/forms/Z218hqWq3XGyqi9C3
May: https://goo.gl/forms/f5aYcpJHnBMmkcs52
June: https://goo.gl/forms/1sfizEF3LCTcXFrh2
July: https://goo.gl/forms/czBxbSMjxAUC6CiI3
August: https://goo.gl/forms/QrUn8VtKXvshaWoO2
September: https://goo.gl/forms/99QlmfQM9AQC5xFj2
October: https://goo.gl/forms/nNzX19HbebeQMUAA3
November: https://goo.gl/forms/vhhLrmGdJUnEBeqn1
December: https://goo.gl/forms/waFMZz5jmTCBJkp43