Yesterday – 4/5 stars
All my troubles seemed so far away
A musician (Himesh Patel) struggles to find his big break with his manager (Lily James) being the only person who believes in him. Then, the night he decides to give up his dream, all the power in the world shuts off for 12 seconds for an unknown reason. During this blackout, Jack Malik is hit by a bus and after he wakes up in the hospital, he discovers that no one else remembers The Beatles. Realizing this, Jack starts to play their songs as his own and quickly gains success and stardom.
Yesterday was released June 28, 2019, and was directed by Danny Boyle (127 Hours, Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days Later). I have been wanting to see this for a while now and I’m glad I finally did. I’ve never been a big fan of The Beatles, but I do like their songs. Since I saw the trailer, this just seemed to have an interesting take on a music/band-focused movie. Instead of having the usual biographical history of the band, this movie creates an interesting Groundhog Day-like magical spin around the songs. I thought Himesh Patel did a fantastic job recreating the songs and portraying the role of a struggling musician becoming a superstar almost overnight, all the while housing the guilt that all these amazing songs he was getting credit for weren’t really his.
I liked it showing the process and all the work that goes into creating the multi-layered songs. I also liked it showing the process of Jack struggling to come up with the lyrics of some of the songs, because even with our favorite musicians, how confident are you that you could recite the lyrics without being able to look them up? Because of this, he had to actually go to the places the songs were about for inspiration. This movie acted as a tribute to the Beatles and the timelessness of their songs. There was also a touching tribute to one of the Beatles in the film that discusses what success really means.
Overall, I thought this movie was lighthearted, fun and worth the watch. I’d rate it 4 out of 5 stars and even if you’re not a big Beatles fan, I think you’d still enjoy this movie and you should give it a shot. And also, start memorizing those Beatles’ song lyrics, just in case!