Yesterday (2019) review - Movie Thoughts (Chapter 6) 🎸

Hello everyone,

Today's review was another film I was excited to catch up on, and was kind of disappointed with things by the end. I hate it when a film makes me feel like that, but I hope my thoughts do my conflicted thoughts justice....

(**disclaimer: the following thoughts are 100% my opinion, you do not have to agree with them - film is inherently subjective and everyone's perspective is valid! Also, there are probably spoilers in the following, read at your own risk. Now onto some thoughts....**)

Source: IMDB

A curious alternate reality musical combo and a love letter to the hits of The Beatles, Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis have created a heartfelt story with only surface level pizzazz and shine. Struggling singer Jack (Himesh Patel) is poised to give up his dreams of fame, before a freak electricity vortex erases certain pop culture from the world and allows Jack to repurpose some classic tunes. His rollercoaster rise to fame

Director Boyle (a la Slumdog Millionaire) and screenwriter Curtis (a la Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually) form a lucrative cinematic pair, but their vibrant narrative of an oddly specific world without crazes like The Beatles, Coca Cola, Oasis, cigarettes and Harry Potter wasn’t perfect. Don’t worry, The Rolling Stones, Pepsi and Donald Glover are all still present (as Jack makes sure to hilariously double check), so it’s not a complete dystopian mess. Yet there’s an eeriness in the audience and Jack’s shared knowledge that some things are drastically different. It’s a quirky concept that isn’t explored enough to justify it beyond simply a plot device. The pace at which this new reality and its consequences play out for Jack is patchy, and particularly odd towards the end. A weird time jump ending and a peculiar scene with someone surprisingly alive and well especially depleted the quality of the film’s climax.

The film’s protagonist is easygoing, yet many of his actions are questionable. A Post-It note obsessed guy who has spent his life putting things (and people) into columns, Jack is catapulted to international fame off the back of singing classic songs as his own. Yet when asked what they mean to him he hasn’t got the answers to back up their emotional intensity. There’s no denying Jack (and Patel) is talented, what quickly emerges is a duplicitous inner demon of conscience and plagiarism that feeds Jack’s paranoia, and audiences are forced to agree with the demon of plagiarism because it’s correct. This off-kilter obsession plagues Jack throughout the film because he knows exactly what he is doing, and he’s just waiting for someone to see through his façade and expose him. Patel gives an adequately complex performance as the troubled protagonist with parents who don’t really understand or respect his musical dream from the start, but there’s an emotional hole in the base conception of Jack as a character that’s hard to get past.

Intertwined into Jack’s brush with fame is the underlying significance of music. Presenting a story where Jack achieves success with these songs, yet his unhappiness at the top is a clique yet curious idea. The connection between songs and the artists who create them is stitched together here with Jack’s constant feverish recollection of melodies and lyrics, yet there is crucial missing link left out of much of this film’s thematic musings: the why. The emotional stories and moments that inspired the likes of ‘Penny Lane’, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Hey Jude’. Even when Jack and Rocky (Joel Fry) travel to Liverpool to jog Jack’s memory, the concept of memory is still glossed over. Curtis wrote into the script “you can’t sing songs about places you’ve never been”, yet the heart and soul of exploring this concept to its fullest potential was sorely missed. Using them as a tool without all the layers of explanation drags the overall atmosphere beneath the mark of something truly brilliant.

All the scenes with Ed Sheeran (playing himself), whilst necessary for the development of the plot and perpetuating this perception of Jack as the new “Shakespeare of pop music”, felt a little awkward. The same could be said for Ed’s business savvy and straight talking manager Deborah Hammer, played by comedic specialist Kate McKinnon. Although her vapid and selfish antics are necessary to add layers to the plot, those scenes were also quite dull and lacked a bit of spark.

Conversely, high school maths teacher Ellie, a delightful standout performance by Lily James, is Jack’s best friend who has been put in the friendzone over the years. She is the emotional core of the film with her supportive and sugar sweet demeanour. James’ earnest delivery of  some amazing dialogue in the Liverpool station café scene is the most well-written in the film, and highlights a poignancy that was unfortunately missing from large chunks of Yesterday.

Oozing with vibrant aesthetics, great energy throughout the whole cast and fun musical sequences, this film is a solid musical rom-com with underlying plot and conceptual flaws. An easy-listening acoustic soundtrack full of classic hits goes hand in hand with this wacky concept, yet their appeal wasn’t enough to overcome Yesterday’s mixed bag of highs and lows.

7.5/10, 3 STARS

Thanks for reading,

Love and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band, Emily 🎸