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When I was a kid, the guy who taught music classes in my school was an aging hippie with a long beard. He'd hand out tambourines and triangles and teach us simple songs. At the end of each class, he would regale us, unprompted, with first-hand stories of Beatlemania. He basically lived out the real-life version of Robert Zemeckis' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," traveling to New York City with his friends to try to score tickets to "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the Beatles' historic first appearance. (He failed, but he did stand in the mob outside the hotel where the Beatles were staying.) We were 8 years old and had no idea what he was talking about. His enthusiasm was catching, though. I learned how to harmonize by singing along to my parents' Beatles albums. (I recommend this approach.) The Beatles were just there , absorbed by osmosis. If nothing else, Danny Boyle's "Yesterday," which imagines a world where the Beatles never happened, made me think about what would it be like to hear "Yesterday" for the first time, what life would be like if the Beatles didn't exist. The film, scripted by Richard Curtis , explores some of the implications of its premise, but, frustratingly, skips over others.

To call Jack ( Himesh Patel ) a "struggling musician" is an understatement. He plays in coffee shops, populated only by his friends. He sings on an empty boardwalk. His childhood friend Ellie ( Lily James ), who fell in love with him—and his music—when he played Oasis' "Wonderwall" at a talent show in grade school, acts as his manager, giving him pep talks, fired up by her belief in him. He lives with his parents in Suffolk, and is ready to throw in the towel when, one night, the earth experiences a 12-second blackout. During those 12 seconds, Jack is hit by a bus, and when he wakes up in the hospital realizes something weird has happened when he says to Ellie "Will you still feed me when I'm 64?" and she doesn't recognize the lyrics. “Why 64?” she asks with curiosity. Jack races to Google, and no matter what the combination of search terms, no trace of the Beatles is to be found. Curtis has a lot of fun with how absurd it would be if you mentioned "The Beatles” to people and they asked "What's that?" Jack makes the choice to start playing these "lost" songs, passing them off as his own.

He plays "Yesterday" for his friends, and the looks on their listening faces is a potent—and welcome—reminder of the song's melancholy beauty. The entire film stops, allowing us the space to really listen. But when Jack plays the songs at gigs, he's just background noise. So this makes him wonder: maybe it's me who is the problem? The songs are great, but I am not. There was an alchemical thing that happened with the Fab Four, and without that, maybe the rest wouldn’t have followed. This is an interesting possibility, which the film for the most part does not explore. Eventually, Jack records a few of the songs, appearing on local television shows to promote “his" music. Ed Sheeran (playing himself in a very self-deprecating cameo) catches one of these television spots, and swoops in to take Jack on tour with him. When Jack decides to play "Back in the U.S.S.R." to an all-Russian crowd in Moscow, mayhem erupts (it's a great scene), and the video of the performance goes viral. Sheeran murmurs, "I was always told someone would come along and be better than me. You're Mozart and I'm Salieri."

Debra Hammer ( Kate McKinnon ), a shark-like record label exec sidles up to Jack after a show, talons out, and before he knows it, he's in Los Angeles being offered "the poisoned chalice" of fame (as Debra calls it). McKinnon puts such a deadpan spin on lines like: "I have a question, Jack. Is this as good as you can look?" that she almost single-handedly indicts the entire PR machinery of show business. The music industry is lightly lampooned, when some ad exec. nixes the album title Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as having "too many words" and points out that calling an album The White Album has "serious diversity issues." There are some fun sequences, like Jack trying, with a sense of increasing urgency, to remember the lyrics to "Eleanor Rigby," fearing if he doesn't the song will be lost forever.

"Yesterday” dodges many of its most interesting ideas. Jack is a worldwide phenomenon almost instantly. But if the Beatles hadn't happened, there would have been a ripple effect. It's incorrect to say "Well, if it hadn't been the Beatles, it would have been someone else." That's not how culture works. So much of it is lightning not striking twice, of right-place-right-time mixed with the right combination of people at the right moment. It had to be John, Paul, George and Ringo. In "Yesterday," the music business is more or less the same as it is now. But how many artists have been inspired by the Beatles, and then that inspiration flowed into the next generation and the next? How many contemporary songwriters still show the Beatles' influence? It's very intriguing early on when Jack plays Beatles songs at coffee-shop gigs, and nobody even looks over. The music has zero impact on these people. What if things had developed so differently in the Beatles' absence that people would have no idea what they were missing, and, frankly, wouldn't care, because how can you miss what you've never had? These ideas are present, but "Yesterday" doesn't dig into them.

The film gets caught up in the relationship between Jack and Ellie, which is not all that interesting, pieced together with cliches from other films. "Yesterday" wants to be a feel-good movie, and much of it did make me feel good. The looks on his friends' faces when they hear "Yesterday" for the first time was very moving. I am conflicted about a choice made late in the film. You'll know it when you see it. It felt cheap to me, and also strangely underdeveloped, although the line "It is so good to see you" got to me. Like I said: conflicted.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

Yesterday (2019)

Rated PG-13 for suggestive content and language.

112 minutes

Himesh Patel as Jack Malik

Lily James as Ellie Appleton

Ed Sheeran as Ed Sheeran

Kate McKinnon as Debra Hammer

Camille Chen as Wendy

Maryana Spivak as Alexa

Lamorne Morris as Head of Marketing

James Corden as James Corden

Danny Boyle

Writer (story by)

Richard Curtis

Cinematographer

Christopher Ross
Daniel Pemberton

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Yesterday Reviews

If the best part of a film about The Beatles is a lame Ed Sheeran joke, we’ve got problems.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Mar 21, 2024

The movie doesn't explore the depth of the consequences of the ploy the protagonist plays... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jun 21, 2023

Yesterday might be directed by someone willing to take more chances, and it might have been a memorable, trippy film. As it stands, it’s a slight affair with a few good jokes and some nice Beatles covers. But it’s definitely not a “Revolution.”

Full Review | Jun 5, 2023

It's funny, romantic, thought-provoking and ultimately just one of the most satisfying movies in years.

Full Review | Mar 31, 2023

It was an enjoyable film that focused on the importance of music, but in the end, it was just another forgettable summer film.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Jan 22, 2023

Yesterday might be an unforgettable pop song but the film itself is unlikely to stick in the mind.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 10, 2022

The premise is silly and makes little sense..it zips through parts of the story too fast for us to ever get our footing. But as a pop music fairy tale and a reminder of how these songs stand the test of time, there is certainly room for a movie like this.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 20, 2022

While I admired several moments of the high concept film Yesterday, it’s ultimately an odd mix of originality and a typical Hollywood playbook.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 20, 2022

A perfectly pleasant film with a brilliantly original concept and charming performances that cannot help but occasionally stray into shockingly typical plot lines.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jun 30, 2022

Yesterday may prove to be a disappointment for Boyle loyalists, even though it contains all the vulnerable romanticism and witty pop-culture humor of Curtis' output

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 2, 2022

Boyle and Curtis do a great job in dealing with a premise that has a slightly supernatural aspect. Much like Curtis' previous film, About Time, the cosmic phenomenon is there. It's a part of the story, but the narrative doesn't hinge on it.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 22, 2022

This such a great way, rather than your traditional musical biopic, to... pay homage to legendary music.

Full Review | Sep 29, 2021

So much more than predictable romance and mild jokes seemed possible from the plot springboard and talent involved.

Full Review | Jul 23, 2021

Yesterday proves that you need much more than a high concept to make a successful movie. The music of The Beatles is legendary and will be celebrated for the foreseeable future, but this film is not the showcase that it could have been.

Full Review | Feb 18, 2021

If the movie is going to bring up such ideas, does it have an obligation to explore them in any real way? I'm actually going to argue it doesn't.

Full Review | Feb 8, 2021

Asks and answers simple life questions. As a study in what makes people happy - money and success or a simple life filled with love and joy - it embraces the hokey nature of the story to convey real tuneful truths.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 31, 2021

Yesterday is a charming film for its music and humor, but the script plays out in a predictable manner and leaves you feeling lukewarm by the end.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 2, 2021

It's a charming, breezy bit of entertainment with a pricey yet rockin' soundtrack.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 7, 2020

An unexpected delight, the old-fashioned sensibility of the movie (think Frank Capra) plays surprisingly well under Danny Boyle's deft direction while Hamesh Patel delivers a rousing, sympathetic performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.0/4.0 | Nov 21, 2020

A struggling musician breathes fresh life into the classics in this charming movie.

Full Review | Nov 10, 2020

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“Yesterday,” Reviewed: Danny Boyle’s Comedic Fantasy About a World Without the Beatles

By Richard Brody

Himesh Patel plays guitar for Lily James in “Yesterday.”

Danny Boyle’s comedic fantasy “ Yesterday ,” from a script by Richard Curtis, is a high-concept film in the best possible way: its idea has such symbolic power that it renders the details of the action and the direction not quite superfluous but secondary. Which is to say, it’s the kind of film that, in its elevator-pitch version—a singer-songwriter awakens from an accident to discover that he’s the only person in the world who knows the Beatles and their songs—packs enough implications to seem like an ample experience in advance.

The musician, Jack Malik ( Himesh Patel ), a man in his late twenties, is of South Asian descent. He lives with his parents (Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar) in their modest family home in Suffolk, England; he formerly worked as a schoolteacher but gave up that full-time job to pursue a career in music. Now he lurches between low-paying and poorly attended solo gigs and takes a part-time job as a discount-store stock clerk. His manager, Ellie Appleton (Lily James), his lifelong friend, is currently a full-time math teacher who also works indefatigably to get him gigs (and drives him to and from them, since he has no license) while expressing confidence that he’ll ultimately be a musical success.

But, after yet another humiliating performance to a venue of empty seats, Jack decides to give up. He bicycles home at night, is distracted by a sudden blackout (it’s worldwide, and lasts twelve seconds), gets hit by a bus, wakes up in a hospital bed, bruised and bloodied—and, in the course of his recovery, finds that even his closest friends don’t get any of his Beatles references. Google kicks his “Beatles” search to “beetles,” and, when he sings one of the band’s songs for his friends, they enthuse about his songwriting, which gives him the idea to transcribe them from memory (since, of course, their albums have vanished from his collection) and perform them as his own.

Jack becomes a local success, and is interviewed on local television; Ed Sheeran (playing himself) happens to catch the show and invites Jack to open for him. Onstage for Ed’s Moscow concert, Jack becomes an instant sensation with “Back in the U.S.S.R.”; backstage, Ed defers to the newcomer, calling himself the Salieri to Jack’s Mozart. Then a Mephistophelian manager, Debra Hammer (Kate McKinnon), lures him to Los Angeles and takes control of his career with promises of wealth and stardom—and she quickly makes it happen, with a well-orchestrated series of moves ranging from recording sessions (Ed encourages him to turn “Hey, Jude” into “Hey, Dude”) to marketing meetings and online track drops and a concert for the album release. Yet the eternal devilry of romance gets in the way, and Jack, forced by circumstances to face the fraudulence of his fame, is, unsurprisingly, led to embrace the authenticity of love.

“Yesterday” is ultimately a romantic comedy, but a conceptually complex one, built on a peculiarly reactionary framework of private life and a culturally conservative pop classicism. The action begins with Ellie doing two jobs so that Jack can, essentially, do none—she steadfastly supports the artist in his creative, if unlucrative, endeavors. (Whatever her manager’s percentage of his earnings may be, it wouldn’t even pay for gasoline.) Yet, as a manager, Ellie isn’t given a chance to say much about the course of Jack’s career; she’s more of a factotum than a guide, and she doesn’t offer any suggestions as to what he might do to improve his work (which she enthuses about unconditionally) or his chances.

Hapless Jack is a virtual adult child, living with his parents, having no sex life or romantic relationship, unable to support himself (or, rather, unwilling to do so—his job as a teacher would have sufficed, as does Ellie’s), and the catalyst to his independence is his total dependence upon the work of others. What’s more, it’s only when he becomes rich and famous that he’s even able to consider his emotional life and the lives of others in his midst with any honesty and clarity. As a story about the deforming torment of failure and the liberating energy of success, “Yesterday” is radically immodest, brazen in its celebration of Jack’s acclaim on the (invisible) shoulders of giants and on the industry-standard marketing vulgarity and image manipulation on which that success depends. The movie is more than a celebration of a particular strain of musical history; it’s a celebration of back catalogue, of the genius of the system at large—and of the power of that system to create mighty classics that win mass adulation (indeed, to do so twice over).

Yet “Yesterday” doesn’t at all address the question of what, besides the songs themselves, would be missing if the Beatles’ music were erased. The movie could have had bold fun imagining what wouldn’t have happened had the Beatles not existed and all that might have happened instead—whether the resulting relative poverty and stuntedness of the current musical scene or the blooming of other, currently overshadowed musical varieties—but Boyle and Curtis don’t seem willing to go out on such an extreme limb of fantasy, let alone historical analysis and critical imagination.

Nonetheless, what’s fascinating about the movie—and what stays in mind long after its soft-soap particulars and flimsy dramatics fade from view—is the notion of artists as archeologists, archivists, curators, and impresarios of lost or obscured historical treasures. No less than a movie by Quentin Tarantino, with its plethora of references flattering the knowledge and the tastes of critics, “Yesterday” is a movie built to gratify critics by praising what they can do: fight against cultural oblivion. The movie crystallizes the feeling that an obscure or forgotten body of work is the most important art in the world, and that it’s one’s personal mission to bring it the attention and the love that it deserves. Those who can’t do, curate.

The fear of cultural loss and the urge for restoration have unleashed huge conceptual swings on the part of other filmmakers of different talents and interests. In Michel Gondry’s “ Be Kind Rewind ,” from 2008, the concept of “sweded” movies—homemade versions of Hollywood films made by two video-store employees to replace an archive of erased tapes—is grander, giddier, and more enduring than any of the film’s dramatic specifics. The idea also inspired the greatest movie ever made, Jean-Luc Godard ’s “King Lear,” a fantasy from 1987 in which the world’s great art has been lost as a result of Chernobyl . In an era when physical media are being supplanted by streaming, the prevalence of rock docs and anniversary celebrations evokes the sense of impending disaster and the shoring up of fragments against ruins. “Yesterday” is also a story of the failures of the system—a literal failure of the global grid that results in a colossal blank of cultural memory. Beneath its comedy, “Yesterday” is a horror film about a real-time disaster in the making.

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Pick a different tune… Himesh Patel in Yesterday.

Yesterday review – predictable romcom

T his high-concept romantic comedy is billed as a collaboration between two of the most distinctive voices in British cinema. But, in fact, it is Richard Curtis who hogs the mic here, with director Danny Boyle rather drowned out by Curtis’s instantly recognisable writing style. In fairness, it’s a style that has proven highly successful over the years: the joshing, bantering dialogue; the mannered inarticulacy with members of the opposite sex; the mortifying public declaration at the crest of the third act. But it feels a bit like an overfamiliar playlist of greatest hits. There’s a heart-sinking moment when you realise that you know exactly where the story is going. And you wish that Curtis could be prised away from the karaoke machine and let someone else pick a tune.

Yesterday envisages a world in which aspiring singer-songwriter Jack Malik ( Himesh Patel ) is hit by a bus at the same time as a freak cosmic glitch plunges the world into darkness. He wakes in a parallel dimension in which the Beatles never existed and he alone remembers their music. Painstakingly recreating the songs from memory, he passes them off as his own. Success is almost instantaneous, thanks to a cameo performance from Ed Sheeran (who has the screen presence of a turnip but is gamely good-natured). But Jack finds himself cynically packaged as a product by his slick new manager (Kate McKinnon, doing her best with a pantomime witch of a role). And he realises, belatedly, that all he really wants is artistic credibility and the love of Ellie (Lily James), the girl who believed in him back when he was average.

There’s a zesty spark between Patel and James, and for a while the film chugs along happily on the goodwill bought by the soundtrack. Then one honkingly misjudged scene knocks the whole movie off key, heralding a toe-curling, tone-deaf terrace chant of an ending.

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Yesterday review: Sweet and satisfying but completely hollow

A surprising collaboration between richard curtis and danny boyle, this beatles-themed romcom is an instant crowd-pleaser, article bookmarked.

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Dir: Danny Boyle. Starring: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Meera Syal, and Ed Sheeran. 12A cert, 116 mins

What would a world without The Beatles look like? Would pop music be anything close to the cultural and artistic force it is today? Would the counterculture movement of the 1960s have thrived without one of its biggest icons? Would we think of The Catcher in the Rye differently if it hadn’t been used as the inspiration for John Lennon ’s murder? And, most pressingly, who would have written “Live and Let Die”, arguably the greatest of all the Bond themes?

None of these questions and more are answered in Yesterday , a surprising collaboration between two British behemoths, screenwriter Richard Curtis and director Danny Boyle . You’d think a meeting between romcom royalty and a man of such kinetic artistic vision would result in something genuinely experimental. But Yesterday is little more than a standard Curtis outing with a bumped up number of jaunty Dutch angles. It’s a chocolate egg of a film: sweet and satisfying enough to distract you from the fact it’s completely hollow inside.

Our luckless, thoroughly Curtis-esque protagonist here is Jack Malik ( EastEnders ’ Himesh Patel), whose dreams of musical stardom have both started and ended in his hometown of Clacton-on-Sea, where he spends his days performing to empty seafronts and disinterested pub-goers. His only support is Ellie (Lily James), his best friend, who we soon discover is also madly (and unrequitedly) in love with him.

As Jack decides to pack up his guitar for good, he tells Ellie: “We’re in a little story and it ends now.” But it doesn’t. During a global blackout that lasts 12 seconds in total, Jack is hit by a bus. What at first seems like terrible luck actually puts him in the position of being one of the most important men in the world: somehow, the blackout created a reality where The Beatles never existed. And Jack is the only one who remembers them. When he plays “Yesterday” for his friends, they all react with shock, wondering how Jack managed to whip up something so emotionally profound.

Yet, Yesterday proposes that we might not be as equipped to recognise pure genius as we’d like to think, especially when it’s not been pre-packaged as such by a corporate giant. A friend’s reaction to “Yesterday” is a casual, “Well, it’s not Coldplay”, while Jack’s parents (Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar) can’t even sit still long enough to be the first people ever to hear “Let It Be”, an experience Jack describes as akin to “if Da Vinci was painting the Mona Lisa in front of your bloody eyes”. In fact, his rise to fame only catches on after he’s noticed by Ed Sheeran, who here is positioned as the Salieri to Jack’s plagiarist Mozart. Although Sheeran’s role in the film is actually far less intrusive and irritating than you’d expect from an A-list pop star cameo, and he’s game for taking potshots at his own image, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone willing to argue that it’s normal and acceptable to position him as second best to The Beatles.

The Beatles’ White Album at 50

Sheeran’s prestige is just one of a long list of assertions that we’re simply meant to accept without questioning. We’re meant to agree that the world would be at a great loss without the music of The Beatles, despite the fact that both the musical landscape and society at large are shown to be pretty much unchanged without their presence – outside of a throwaway joke about Oasis having never existed. Add to that, the history of The Beatles themselves is whitewashed in a way that may prove controversial. Here, they are simply merry music-makers behind some of the greatest ever songs – and that does a disservice to the band, whatever your opinion of them may be.

Danny Boyle: ‘I’d be an imposter if I did a film with a female lead’

But, really, Yesterday isn’t about the cultural impact of The Beatles. The idea that they’ve ceased to exist is merely the high-concept, sci-fi tinged packaging the film comes in, not unlike Curtis’s own About Time , about a man who uses time travel to get the woman of his dreams. And, to his credit, Curtis’s usual trademarks still have their charm here: someone stands in a doorway in the pouring rain; there’s a last-minute rush to stop someone’s travel plans, and Jack is surrounded by friends who are as supportive as they are cruel in their jibes.

The film is frequently sharp and funny in its observations, too, while Boyle directs the musical performances with enough gleeful energy to keep the momentum up. Patel and James, meanwhile, make for bubbly, delightful romantic leads and are surrounded by a strong supporting cast. Even Saturday Night Live ’s Kate McKinnon shows up as Jack’s conniving American manager, channelling her trademark swaggering weirdness into a walking metaphor of US corporate culture, in contrast to her client’s own humdrum British origins.

In the end, while it’s easy to have expected more from the creative convergence of Curtis and Boyle, there’s no denying that they’ve created an instant crowd-pleaser.

Yesterday is released in UK cinemas on 28 June

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Yesterday is a sweet Beatles musical, but the whimsy turns sour

At least the songs are good.

Have you ever felt bad watching a feel-good movie? Yesterday lets attractive people sing some of history’s best rock songs along postcard English coastlands, where the red Sheerans grow. Himesh Patel is Jack, a hard-luck singer. His manager, Ellie ( Lily James ), is his only fan. How could she not love him? Even his massive head wound is charming. Hit by a bus during a global blackout, he wakes up in a world where nobody knows the Beatles. He can take credit for “All You Need Is Love,” though for some reason he never gets around to “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?”

Yesterday was made by its own British supergroup, uniting director Danny Boyle ( Trainspotting ) and screenwriter Richard Curtis ( Love Actually ). And there’s Ed Sheeran playing himself, a cameo that turns into a trusty-mentor supporting role. Patel has a charming voice, even if the movie mostly flattens the Beatles sound into singer-songwriter coffee rock. Patel sings the title tune at an outdoor pub overlooking a bay, and you get wrapped up in his performance. The meandering plot all but demands in-theater sing-alongs. So what’s the problem?

Well, Curtis’ script is full of cheap gags: When Jack’s not saying “The guitar needs to gently weep more,” he’s explaining how musical success is “the difference between Jay-Z and Jay-Y.” James acts the hell out of a stale patient-love-interest role, the kind of part that requires dutiful patience and a speech about choosing love over fame. Not much you can do with lines like “I’ll always just be Ellie with the frizzy hair,” really.

And the whimsical rom-com charms of Yesterday ‘s first half mostly disappear as Jack achieves worldwide fame. His stolen songs lead to widespread acclaim — and carry the movie into broad, limp showbiz satire. The depiction of the music industry should inspire a bumper crop of Star is Born -ish thinkpieces, and Kate McKinnon chews the scenery as a devouring record executive.

I guess I’m as much as a Beatles fan as the next person, insofar as I sung along to their music when I was a kid, sought deeper meaning in their weird period during dazed college days, and now frequently turn to the Beatles Sirius XM radio station when there’s nothing else on the hundred other channels. So I appreciated the songbook quality of Yesterday , and found something profoundly disquieting in its drugless, sexless version of the Beatles. One twist is downright ghoulish.

I suspect all involved with this movie would declare it a “fairy tale” — the plot is not overly interested in pinning down the nature of its fantasy, and nothing about Jack’s rockstar lifestyle would offend the churchy elders who once viewed rock so suspiciously. But fairy tales edge toward strangeness, and the sanded edges of Yesterday ultimately feel more like a flashy commercial — one of those recent music documentaries commissioned by the people on screen, propaganda with feels.

The music’s good, duh, and it’ll be just as good when your local high school performs Yesterday . Which lucky kid gets to play Ed Sheeran?

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Common sense media reviewers.

Sweet romance, some swearing in appealing comedy/fantasy.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Themes of courage, integrity predominate, with cha

Jack's iffy actions are easy to understand: Few pe

Only one scene is violent: the early one in which

Jack and Ellie share a loyal, long friendship befo

Infrequent cursing includes "s--t," "son of a bitc

Promotes Ed Sheeran and the Beatles/their songs.

Adults drink at parties and gatherings; in one sce

Positive Messages

Themes of courage, integrity predominate, with characters making choices because they're morally correct -- even though they're also sometimes uncomfortable and inconvenient. That said, main character also gets ahead based on a deception (which he's conflicted about).

Positive Role Models

Jack's iffy actions are easy to understand: Few people could resist unlimited fame and money, particularly if they're unlikely to get caught in a lie. Jack's parents are supportive and loving. Jack and Ellie have a genuine friendship. Ellie shows integrity when she refuses to accompany Jack to America to work on his music because it would let down her students. Jack and Ellie's friends are thoughtful and kind, coming to Jack's performances, letting a friend crash on their couch when he's between jobs. Jack is played by an English actor of Indian descent; his ethnicity is never mentioned.

Violence & Scariness

Only one scene is violent: the early one in which Jack is hit by a bus. The bus hits his bike, and he flies into the air; there's a terrible thud when he lands. Viewers see his bruised, battered face and broken teeth (camera zooms in on the teeth and then the holes where the teeth were).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Jack and Ellie share a loyal, long friendship before they decide they have romantic feelings for each other. They kiss and fall into bed; the camera then cuts away to Jack shirtless in front of a window. A couple agrees not to have sex because they want to have a relationship, not just a "one-night stand."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent cursing includes "s--t," "son of a bitch," "ass," "hell," "goddamn." Some language has an English slant: "bloody," "shag." A cut off "motherf---."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Adults drink at parties and gatherings; in one scene, they drink to excess in order to give themselves courage to get physical with each other. People who've been drinking say too much and are sloppy. A running gag confuses "coke" (cocaine) with Coke (the drink).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Yesterday is a comedy with fantasy elements about a musician named Jack (Himesh Patel) who, after an accident, wakes up to a world in which the Beatles never existed -- and all their hit songs can be his. The movie's levels of sex, violence, and language are appropriate for teen viewers, making this a good choice for cross-generational viewing. Violence is limited to an early scene in which Jack is hit by a bus (and the aftermath, in which viewers repeatedly see him with broken and missing teeth). Characters kiss and fall into bed together in a couple of scenes, but there's no sex. A sweet romance builds over time between well-drawn characters who both have agency; it stalls at one point because they agree they don't want to start a romance if they aren't ready for it to get serious. Adults drink at parties and celebratory moments; at one point, two characters decide to get drunk so they can find the courage to kiss. Language is infrequent but includes "s--t," "son of a bitch," "damn," and "bloody." The cast is diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, and class, with both women and people of color in strong central roles. And characters are thoughtful and respectful; they make mistakes but make up for them and do better, sending clear messages of integrity and courage. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (22)
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Based on 22 parent reviews

THE BEETLES

Great feel good movie, what's the story.

YESTERDAY, Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) was a struggling singer-songwriter who played music that nobody really liked, except for his loyal best friend and manager, Ellie ( Lily James ). But then Jack gets hit by a bus at the exact same time as a mysterious global blackout. When he returns to consciousness, it's to a world in which the Beatles never existed: Only Jack remembers their songs. He starts performing the Fab Four's hits as his, and he leapfrogs to success thanks to the backing of Ed Sheeran and new power-hungry manager Debra Hammer ( Kate McKinnon ), leaving Ellie out in the cold. But is it really success if, deep down, all the adulation doesn't make Jack feel truly happy -- or deserving?

Is It Any Good?

With a high-concept premise that could skew either cute or pretty stupid, this easygoing fantasy romcom sticks the landing overall. Patel can actually sing -- he capably performs almost every Beatles song in the movie (from "Let It Be" to "Back in the U.S.S.R.") -- and he's both sweet and relatable. So much so that it would be almost painful to watch him struggle onstage at the beginning of the movie if you didn't know exactly where the story was going. Since you do, the indignities visited on him have a kind of pre-Wonka Charlie Bucket shine, with suffering bearable as a prelude to wild success.

The light touch that Yesterday gives to Jack's rags-to-riches journey is carried forth throughout the entire movie -- nothing's too intense or harsh. The romance between Jack and Ellie is affectionate and gentle; Jack's parents wander through, alternately hugging their son and looking for snacks; the worst thing that the movie's only villain manages to do is tell Jack he's unattractive. At one point, two romantic rivals even resolve their differences with a friendly handshake. It feels like all the rough edges have been sanded off, which isn't an insult: Yesterday is a lot of fun. But you also won't be surprised to find out that the film was scripted by Richard Curtis (he of the similarly mild and enjoyable films Love Actually , Bridget Jones's Diary , and Notting Hill ) and directed by Danny Boyle with a Slumdog Millionaire air. If any of those movies are on your faves list, put this one in the "must watch" queue.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about romantic comedies. What does Yesterday have in common with other films in the genre? How does it break the mold? Is it typical in romcoms that two characters who are clearly meant to be together have something that keeps them apart until the end? What's the "something" here? Is it believable?

What messages does this movie send about success and fame? Do those things make Jack happy? Why or why not? What does the movie imply is the source of his true happiness?

How does Jack's resolution to his dilemma demonstrate integrity and courage ? Why are these important character strengths ?

Movie Details

In theaters : June 28, 2019
On DVD or streaming : September 24, 2019
Cast : Himesh Patel , Lily James , Kate McKinnon , Sophia Di Martino
Director : Danny Boyle
Inclusion Information : Indian/South Asian actors, Female actors, Lesbian actors
Studio : Universal Pictures
Genre : Comedy
Topics : Music and Sing-Along
Character Strengths : Courage , Integrity
Run time : 116 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : suggestive content and language
Last updated : March 10, 2024

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‘Yesterday’ Review: In a Beatles-Less World, Love Really Is All You Need

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Imagine that the world has blacked out for a snap. When everything comes back, you find yourself in a timeline where John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr hadn’t come together to form the Beatles ? You could try to find this quartet of Liverpudlians and hope that lightning strikes again. Or: You could use this alt-history reboot to write the complete catalog of the Fab Four and claim it as your own, earning fame, fortune and the chance to be named the greatest songwriter of all time.

50 Greatest Romantic Comedies of All Time

That’s the premise of Yesterday, a light summer breeze of escapist fun courtesy of high-powered director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Richard Curtis. In this setup, struggling musician Jack Malik — played by British actor Himesh Patel in a scrappy feature debut — suffers a freak accident while biking home from another failed local gig in Sussex. When the lights go out for 12 seconds, a bus hits Jack, sending him to a hospital with two teeth missing. Also missing: the existence of the Beatles. When Jack asks his loyal, improbably gorgeous manager, Ellie (Lily James), “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?” she replies, baffled, “Why 64?”

And we’re off, with Curtis ( Love Actually, Notting Hill ) laying on his trademarked blend of snarky and sentimental. Jack litters his bedroom wall with Post-its of every Beatles song he can remember. Soon, he starts passing off the greatest songbook in pop-music history as his own. Superstardom follows. So does guilt.

It’s cute when Jack can’t remember the tricky lyrics to “Eleanor Rigby,” and his parents get bored when he plays them “Let It Be.” And it stings when Jack sings “Yesterday” and a friend objects to him describing McCartney’s ballad as the most beautiful love song ever written. (“It’s not Coldplay,” she says, unimpressed. “It’s not ‘Fix You.'”) Scenes like that make you wish the Curtis script had cut deeper into what kind of reaction the Beatles’ music would have on millennials hearing it for the first time. yet it’s a treat when Ed Sheeran shows up as himself, marveling at Jack’s songwriting chops. He challenges the new kid in town to a competition over who can write a catchier tune in 10 minutes. Then Jack comes up with “The Long and Winding Road,” and the self-proclaimed “ginger geezer” hilariously throws in the towel.

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All this puts a lot of pressure on Patel to deliver, which he does with becoming modesty and undeniable talent. The actor has a sweet voice, more McCartney than Lennon, and he evokes the Beatles without slavishly imitating them. For instance, his driving take on “Help!” carries a desperation that speaks to Jack’s own situation as a man out of his depth. It’s telling that both he and Ellie are gifted teachers sidetracked into music careers to which neither is ideally suited.

Patel and James play the standard-issue love story with touching conviction. Still, maintaining a rooting interest is a tall order. That’s where Boyle comes in. The Oscar-winning director, who made his bones with edgy films like Trainspotting, gives the film a muscular energy when things threaten to get too sappy and syrupy. With the help of cinematographer Christopher Ross ( Black Sea ) and editor Jon Harris ( 127 Hours ), Boyle brings propulsive life to what could have been a static canvas. The film takes some seriously wrong turns, such as an awful surprise cameo near the end and an unexplored argument about whether imitation Beatles is better than no Beatles at all. Yesterday has its heart firmly in the right place. It’s the challenge to take it to the next level that’s missing.

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Yesterday Has a Fun Premise, But Doesn’t Know What to Do With It

The fantasy-comedy Yesterday poses the question “What if there were a rupture in the space-time continuum so that the Beatles never existed, but somehow you remembered them and could reconstruct their songs and pass yourself off as the greatest songwriter of all time?” Yes, that’s quite a hypothetical, but a lot of good movies are born from dopey adolescent fantasies (”What if I could go back in time and … ,” “What if a spider bit me and … ”), and this one at least has some element of shame built in. The daydream isn’t “What if I had actually written those songs?” but “What if I could be famous for something someone else did?” In a fame-whoring age, it’s a good, dumb premise.

Only the first half works, though. It’s fun when our failed musician turned superstar hero, Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), realizes what has happened and “writes” one classic after the next, attracting the attention of an awed Ed Sheeran (amusing as himself). There are a few irresistible scenes: Jack’s attempt to play “Let It Be” to his distracted parents, the withering patter of a talent agent (Kate McKinnon) as she assesses Jack’s look (“You are skinny … yet somehow round”). The screenwriter, Richard Curtis, is nearly unrivaled at tracing the alternating currents of grandiosity and abashment that fuel a certain kind of child-man, but after a jolly start ( Blackadder , Notting Hill ), he went a little soft in the head ( Love Actually ), and Yesterday finally comes down to whether Jack can get up the nerve to tell his lifelong best friend, Ellie Appleton (Lily James), that he, you know, likes her that way, while she wishes he were still a failed musician and could be with someone as modest and mousy as she is. Can you imagine? You get credit for writing the Beatles’ songs, but it still can’t buy you love.

Curtis isn’t the director of Yesterday ; Danny Boyle has been brought in to lend his shallow virtuosity. But fluid transitions don’t make the movie less clunky. Patel has an appealing presence and a lovely, McCartney-like tenor, but the musical numbers leave an odd taste. Beyond the individual songs, it’s the Beatles’ evolution — their long and winding road — that fires our collective imagination. Watching people go bananas over “She Loves You” in 2019 just seems wrong, especially when it’s side by side with “Let It Be” and “Something.” You can suspend your disbelief over the global blackout that wipes the Beatles (and Coca-Cola) from history, but “I Want to Hold Your Hand” released simultaneously with “Hey Jude?” You can’t be serious.

Yesterday directed by Danny Boyle. Universal Pictures. PG-13.

*This article appears in the June 24, 2019, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!

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Film Review: ‘Yesterday’

Danny Boyle's musical fairy tale about a world without the Beatles, in which an indie rocker brings them back, is really a fantasy of rebooting the Beatles. It's cute and watchable, but it lacks the magic of discovery.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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'Yesterday' Review: A Fairy Tale in Which the Beatles Get Rebooted

The Beatles wrote many of the greatest songs of all time, and they also wrote a lot of the greatest movie songs. To know that, all you have to do is see the title sequence of “A Hard Day’s Night,” which electrifies you from its opening THRUM!!! , or (in the same film) the Beatles blasting the sonic bliss of “I Should Have Known Better” from inside a train storage compartment, or the sublime melting psychedelia of the “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” flying-damsel fantasia from “Yellow Submarine,” or Paul gazing into the camera as he delivers the hymn-like rapture of the title song from “Let It Be.” The Beatles showed you, over and over, what a pop musical movie sequence could be, and that’s why you can go back to those movies — those scenes — again and again.

“ Yesterday ,” a wide-eyed musical fairy tale written by Richard Curtis (“Notting Hill,” “Love Actually”) and directed by Danny Boyle (“Trainspotting,” “Slumdog Millionaire”), is a movie that wants to celebrate the magic of the Beatles. Yet there isn’t a scene in it that gives you that same kind of high. Granted, we aren’t watching the Beatles! We’re seeing a kind of pop-culture what-if? joke, all revolving around the modest figure of Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), an appealing if painfully earnest 27-year-old Indian-British singer-songwriter who can barely get a dozen people to show up for his gig at a music festival.

One night, a cosmic freak accident takes place — a blackout all over the world. It lasts for 12 seconds, but during that time Jack gets hit by a bus, which conks him right out. He wakes up with a gap where two of his front teeth should be, but that’s far from the biggest change in his life. When he’s handed a new guitar as a recovery gift, Jack christens the instrument by serenading a handful of friends with his rendition of the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” and the friends can scarcely believe what a beautiful song it is. That’s because they’ve never heard it before.

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The blackout, you see, replaced the world as we know it with one in which the Beatles never existed. That puts Jack in the position of being the only person on Earth who knows the group’s songs. (It’s a good thing that bus didn’t kill him.) He figures this out by Googling “the Beatles” (all that comes up is beetles) and then the title of “Sgt. Pepper” (all that comes up is red peppers). Is it any wonder that as he starts to go out and perform the music of the Beatles, everyone who hears the songs falls in love with them? Before long, Jack is the hottest thing in music.

“Yesterday” milks most of this for light comedy. After Jack sings “Yesterday,” one of his friends comments that it’s a “nice” song, and Jack, incensed at the understatement, declares, “It’s one of the greatest songs ever written!” But considering that everyone there thinks he wrote it, it just sounds like his ego has gone off the charts, and one friend tries to put Jack in his place (and the song, too) by saying, “It’s not Coldplay.”

The cute gags don’t stop there. Jack sits down at the piano in his parents’ living room and tries to play “Let It Be” for them, but each time he gets rolling they insist on interrupting him, which leaves him beyond exasperated. He says, “It’s as if Da Vinci was painting the Mona Lisa in front of your bloody eyes!” And after he goes on a local talk show and sings “In My Life,” he gets a call, out of the blue, from Ed Sheeran (who plays himself in the movie). Ed is knocked out by what a great songwriter Jack is, and invites him to open up for him on tour. But Ed, who’s like a sexy Muppet, has an ego as well. Even though he’s the one who sought Jack out, he senses a rival and challenges him, on the spot, to a 10-minute songwriting competition.

Ed comes back with a terrific song: catchy, soulful, seamlessly melodic. Jack, however, comes back with “The Long and Winding Road,” which leaves Ed and everyone around him spellbound. (Though what isn’t clear is why Jack changes some of the chords; he actually makes them mellower.) Ed tells Jack: Okay, you really are better than me! And we chuckle — because it’s an amusing gag, if a rather coy, goofy one. We also chuckle (a bit) when Ed suggests that Jack change the title of “Hey Jude” to “Hey Dude.”

In “Yesterday,” the greatness of the Beatles is like a trump card that Jack, and the filmmakers, keep playing. Yet the greatness of the Beatles is never something the film invites us to discover . The songs, to be fair, are iconic — but that said, some Beatles songs are more iconic than others. And “Yesterday” features nothing but the Beatles tracks that you would put on a “12 All-Time Greatest Songs of the Beatles!” collection. It’s not even so much that the song selection is famous-to-a-fault but that the movie treats the songs as official facts of beauty, rather than as melodies that could strike us with the freshness they’re supposed to be hitting this suddenly un-Beatle-ized world with.

The songs flash by quickly: Jack doing “Back in the U.S.S.R.” in concert (which inspires the crowd to a frat-house chorus of Woo-woo-ooos! ), Jack in the recording studio performing an amped-up montage of tracks from “Meet the Beatles,” Jack turning “Help!” into a speedy punk anthem, Jack’s running attempt to piece together the lyrics of “Eleanor Rigby.” But there’s never a moment in “Yesterday” when a Beatles song does what almost any Beatles song can do — takes us on a journey, so that by the time the song ends our spirits are in a radically different place. The fact that there’s hardly a song choice that comes at us from a realm of idiosyncratic beauty (why not “Lovely Rita” or “You Won’t See Me” or “Dig a Pony” or “Martha My Dear”?) is connected to how the filmmakers reduce the Beatles to a kind of karaoke kitsch epiphany. In “Yesterday,” there’s no mystery to these songs. The whole joke is what cosmically known quantities they are.

Speaking of known quantities, Jack, as a failed indie rocker, has been friends with his manager, a schoolteacher named Ellie (Lily James), since they were kids, but the two of them somehow slipped past the love zone. And that’s the film’s slender romantic-comedy plot: watching them try and unhook their platonic friendship. Patel and James look like they belong together, but there’s not much conflict or tension there; their bond is sweetness in search of fire.

“Yesterday” skates along on the musical and emotional surface of the Beatles’ incandescence, and the reason for that, I think, is that the movie isn’t truly about the world discovering the Beatles. If it were, Curtis and Boyle would have worked out a way to show us how the world minus the Beatles was a more barren place. But in “Yesterday,” a world without the Beatles doesn’t look any different, so there’s little potency to the film’s fantasy of the Beatles coming back. At heart, the movie is a fantasy of rebooting the Beatles — of imagining that if their music came at us now, for the first time, it would be, in a word, yuge.

That’s certainly the fantasy pushed by Debra (Kate McKinnon), Ed Sheeran’s (fictional) manager, who agrees to manage Jack and comes up with a master plan to launch his brilliant songs into the world. First, they’ll distribute five tracks online. Then, with everyone’s appetite whetted, they’ll put out the greatest double album of all time. They will also, by then, have figured out how to give Jack a makeover, since one of the film’s running gags is that Debra thinks he’s a totally pathetic loser-schlub. Kate McKinnon pushes her postmodern sarcasm to the wall — in “Yesterday,” she’s the acid-tongued incarnation of music-industry corruption.

Yet beneath it all, there isn’t much difference between what Debra does and what Boyle and Curtis are doing. They’re selling the Beatles all over again. In “Yesterday,” they reduce the Beatles to the ultimate product by declaring, at every turn, “These songs are transcendent!” And it’s the fact that they keep telling us, rather than showing us (i.e., with musical sequences that earned their transcendence), that makes “Yesterday,” for all the timeless songs in it, a cut-and-dried, rotely whimsical, prefab experience. The movie is a rom-com wallpapered with the Beatles’ greatness.

Reviewed at Tribeca Film Festival (Gala), May 4, 2019. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 116 MIN.

Production: A Universal Pictures release of a Working Title Films, Decibel Films, Etalon Films production. Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Bernie Bellew, Matthew James Wilkinson, Richard Curtis, Danny Boyle. Executive producers: Nick Angel, Lee Brazier.
Crew: Director: Danny Boyle. Screenplay: Richard Curtis. Camera (color, widescreen): Christopher Ross. Editor: Jon Harris. Music: Daniel Pemberton, The Beatles.
With: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon, Ed Sheeran, James Corden, Ana de Armas.

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Movies | ‘Yesterday’ movie review: Nothing makes sense…

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Movies | ‘yesterday’ movie review: nothing makes sense or is explained, but there’s beatles music.

This heightened high-concept magical dramedy presents the idea that a weird electrical blip/solar flare causes electricity all over the world to go out, while simultaneously wiping our collective consciousness clean of all traces of the Beatles. Jack (Himesh Patel), a struggling pub musician and busker, is at that moment hit by a bus (thank goodness he’s wearing a helmet), totaling his teeth and his bike tire. But somehow, his memory of the Beatles remains magically intact. He discovers the quirk when, as a get well gift, his pals get him a guitar. And because “a great guitar deserves a great song,” he plays a few bars of the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” absolutely flooring his friends, who wonder when and how he wrote the tune.

Jack’s the only person in the world who remembers the band (or so it seems). And so, through a series of jogs in the rain clutching his forehead, he ultimately decides to capitalize on it, sending his career into overdrive. His trajectory to the top is aided by Ed Sheeran, who is apparently now the world’s best songwriter (in this timeline, Oasis does not exist, but the Rolling Stones do), and his manager, Deborah (Kate McKinnon) hears Jack’s crooning and sees dollar signs.

Written by Jack Barth and Richard Curtis, the king of the British rom-com (“Love Actually,” “Four Weddings and Funeral,” “About Time”), “Yesterday” is a love story disguised as a high-concept music film. Jack has friend-zoned his best mate, Ellie (Lily James), and through the Beatles’ music and his journey to global superstardom and back, he learns what’s really important in life. But with Curtisian flair, Jack of course can’t just tell Ellie, he needs to make a grand gesture that puts her in a high-pressure situation: How about the Wembley Stadium Jumbotron for a declaration of love?

Everything in the film is high: high concept, high pressure, high stakes and it often feels bizarrely forced. Nothing makes any sense and is never explained. No one has any memory of Coca-Cola or cigarettes for some reason, either. The script wobbles underneath its own weight, but Boyle distracts from the issues with his feverish direction, characteristically throwing everything at the screen and bringing his signature sense of visual dynamism, filled with movement, light and color.

The songs? Great, of course. The story? Strange at best. The characters and aesthetic? Aces. Everyone on screen is just so likable (even McKinnon, playing the villain), especially the earnest, open Patel, in a star-making heartthrob turn featuring his crystal-clear singing voice. “Yesterday” is just so expertly directed by Boyle, and perfectly cast that it’s almost impossible not to like. (Joel Fry is a standout as Jack’s roadie.) Even if this modern fairy tale doesn’t hold up on close inspection, Boyle does his best to make sure the ride is enjoyable.

“Yesterday” — 2.5 stars

MPAA rating : PG-13 (for suggestive content and language)

Running time : 1:56

Opens: Friday

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In Theaters

June 28, 2019
Himesh Patel as Jack Malik; Lily James as Ellie Appleton; Joel Fry as Rocky; Kate McKinnon as Debra Hammer; Ed Sheeran as himself

Home Release Date

September 24, 2019
Danny Boyle

Distributor

Universal Pictures

Movie Review

A blackout swept around the entire globe. Things went missing.

But Jack remembered.

Just the night before, Jack had decided to bail on his dream of being a performer. And the truth is, it wasn’t even a hard decision. His songs are insipidly bland. He’s not all that personable or attractive. His singer-songwriter shtick barely draws flies. So, what’s the point? Time to go back to a “real” job, he figures.

To be frank, pretty much all Jack has going for him is his best friend and manager, Ellie. She’s his polar opposite. Where he’s dark and gloomy, she’s sunny. Where he sees the worst, she spots the silver lining. He’s a rumpled schlub, she’s girl-next-door beautiful.

On top of all that, Ellie is dedicated and encouraging, and she regularly picks him up after every miserable performance stumble. It’s been that way ever since elementary school, where the two of them met after Jack performed an Oasis song at a school talent show.

Ellie is like Jack’s best friend, sister, guardian angel and primary cheerleader all wrapped up in one adorable package. And it’s not that Jack can’t see all that wonderfulness; he just has a hard time seeing … past his own flaws.

But then the blackout happens.

Par for the course, the lights blink out and Jack is promptly hit by a bus, knocked off his bike and sent face-first into the asphalt in the pitch black. When he wakes up, he missing two front teeth and has a face full of bruises and cuts.

After being released from the hospital, Jack gets together with some friends. Of course, they’re all focused on how many jokes they can come up with about his vibrant road-rash makeover. Everyone except loyal Ellie, that is. While the others tease, she just smiles winsomely and presents him with a new guitar she’d purchased to replace the one broken during in the accident.

“The accident was a message from God,” Ellie declares brightly. “God doesn’t want you to give up your music.” She earnestly means every word.

Jack takes the guitar gratefully and sits to play a song. (Not one of his own, mind you. Why make anyone suffer through that?) Instead, he plays The Beatles’ “Yesterday.” That seems fitting.

Then something amazing happens: His friends sit there listening, with their mouths hanging open in rapt amazement. Ellie nearly cries. “When did you write that ?” she asks, wiping a tear from her eye.

Jack thinks she and all the others are just having him on. Another joke at his expense. He even gets a little angry at their teasing. OK, so he doesn’t sing it like McCartney. But who does?

It’s only later that Jack realizes that Ellie wasn’t joking. And he soon discovers why none of his friends recognized that iconic Beatles song. According to the internet, the British group never existed. There was never a Paul McCartney or a “Yesterday” or Beatlemania or anything. Nor were there a number of other things. Coca-Cola anyone? Smoking? The band Oasis? Nope. Nada. Not in this universe.

How could this be? Jack wonders. What does it mean? But then a bigger question hits him: What now?

Slowly, the implications of it all begin to sink in: If this is true, he’s the only person in the world who’s ever heard some of the most revolutionary pop songs ever written. In fact, any time he plays one, people instantly think he’s the author. The Lennon-McCartney catalogue is apparently his to do with as he pleases. Suddenly his dreams of fame and acclaim are well within his reach.

All Jack has to do now is remember the songs chords and lyrics. Oh, and not crack under the increasing pressure of being crowned as the greatest pop genius in history for songs he didn’t actually write.

Positive Elements

Jack’s seeming good fortune does indeed generate fame and wealth for him. But he eventually realizes that those longed-for rewards can come at an unexpectedly high price. To gain them, he has to sacrifice things that he really values, including an important relationship and his own integrity.

Ellie, for her part, is always consistent, supportive and loving toward Jack. “I want you to be happy,” she earnestly tells him, even though she obviously knows he’s not making the wisest choices—choices that are quietly breaking her heart.

The film suggests that the simple joys of life—love, marriage, family—yield the richest, most satisfying rewards. For instance, Jack meets a man who was famous and died young in Jack’s world; but in this alternate reality, he’s a simple man who lived a long, productive life. The man speaks warmly of the joys of loving dearly, and living plainly and having integrity. He suggests that there’s a simple way for Jack to deal with his own relational woes: “Tell the girl you love that you love her,” the man says warmly. “And tell the truth whenever you can.” That lesson is reinforced by the time the credits roll.

Spiritual Elements

As mentioned above, Ellie declares that she believes God wants Jack to perform and share his musical gifts. Real world pop singer Ed Sheeran takes an interest in Jack, and his manager, Debra, takes Jack on as a client. She suggests that Sheeran is the equivalent of John the Baptist, “Basically warming the world up for you, The Messiah!” We also see a reference to the pope on a computer screen.

Sexual Content

It quickly becomes clear that Jack and Ellie have never had a physically intimate side to their longstanding relationships. “Not once,” Ellie proclaims when someone presumes they’ve had sex (though she does, perhaps jokingly, reference other casual flings she’s had). Their physical contact is generally limited to a hug and a peck on the cheek. (In fact, a good friend of Jack’s named Rocky repeatedly mentions, in lightly crude terms, that if he were Jack he would get physical with Ellie in a hurry.)

Ellie casually enquires about Jack’s sex life after he becomes a rock star. Jack self-consciously admits that there was a certain Russian girl he connected with. That encounter apparently took place after someone told Jack he should find someone to “shag” following a mesmerizing performance.

As their relationship gradually progress, Jack and Ellie grow more affectionate as Jack realizes he has feelings for her, too. One booze-filled night ends with the pair of them in Jack’s hotel room, where they begin kissing passionately. It looks as if they’re about to consummate their relationship, but Ellie worries that Jack still isn’t willing to make an emotional commitment that matches the physical one. “I have no desire to be a one night stand,” Ellie tells him before awkwardly and abruptly leaving. Soon, Jack learns that she’s in a relationship with one of their other friends.

Eventually they do share a night together. We see them tumble onto a bed locked in an embrace, but the camera cuts away after that. (We see Jack shirtless the next morning as Ellie wraps her arms around him while standing at a bedroom window.) They voice their love for each other. [ Spoiler Warning ] Shortly after that consummation, they marry and have a couple of children.

Some of Ellie’s outfits reveal cleavage. Jack’s manager at one point tries to kiss him, perhaps intent on something more, but the two of them are interrupted.

Violent Content

Jack gets hit by a bus while riding on a dark street, and he lands painfully on his face. After the accident, he just lies on the ground barely moving and moaning until someone from the bus helps him. He’s hospitalized, his face a bruised and swollen mess (and now minus two teeth).

Crude or Profane Language

Several s-words and one unfinished pairing of “mother” with the f-word join exclamations of “a–” and “h—” and a half dozen uses of “d–n.” Jesus’ name is misused about eight times, and God’s is profaned a half dozen times (twice in combination with the word “d–“). We also hear quite a few uses of the British profanity “bloody.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Jack, Ellie and most of the other characters drink beer, wine or champagne regularly and at nearly every social and party setting. In a couple cases, Ellie gets a bit tipsy and unsteady on her feet. One time, she and Jack party all night, consuming beer, glasses of brandy and about a dozen or so small bottles of booze from a hotel room’s mini-bar. They both get quite drunk.

At one point, Jack asks for a Coke and a flight attendant balks, thinking he’s referencing the narcotic (since Coca-Cola and cigarettes don’t exist in this alternate reality).

Jack’s slightly goofy friend Rocky self-describes himself as a “useless druggy and drunk” (which is a fairly accurate self-portrait), and indeed we do see him seemingly under the influence on a regular basis. Even when he claims to be sober at one point, he quickly amends that statement to admit he’s already had a couple of drinks that day.

Other Negative Elements

Jack lies repeatedly about his songwriting abilities. That said, the ongoing deception clearly takes a toll on him as well, which suggests that the film understands the cost of living a lie.

Jack’s friends aren’t always very kind in their teasing ways. And Jack’s new manager, Debra, repeatedly grouses about having to deal with the fact that Jack is so physically unappealing and unpresentable. She’s also driven by a single motivation in life: making money. And she makes it plain that she’ll take advantage of anyone, including Jack, to stockpile more of it.

The Beatles famously opined that even a pile of cash “Can’t Buy Me Love.” No matter who you are, though, it can be pretty tempting to sit back after a hard day’s night and fantasize about having, or being , more. It’s a temptation, albeit perhaps a theoretical one, that we’re all vulnerable to:

What if a roving Hollywood rep spotted your photogenic grace via social media?

What if the lead singer of your favorite band heard you singing along at a concert and invited you onstage to take over?

What if the local sports team inexplicably recognized your superior athletic gifts and offered you a multi-million dollar contract to sign with them?

Of course, in the face of all those fantasy what ifs , it’s always good to have something that’ll bring you safely back to Earth, too: some person to point at the truly valuable stuff of life and remind you of the possible costs that accompany fame, ease and plenty. Yesterday is that kind of fable-like reminder. It’s sentimentally sweet, funny, endearing and thoughtful. And it’s filled with tons of incredible Beatles tunes to boot.

However—and this is a pretty sizable however —there are a number of things in this romantic comedy that could leave moviegoers hesitant about making this flight of fancy their date -night choice. Viewers will need to navigate quite a bit of drinking and some suggestively sensual moments. On top of that, there are enough profane misuses of Jesus’ name alone to make many viewers, uh, “Twist and Shout.”

All in all, Yesterday’ s missteps may leave some viewers pining for the even sweeter movie it could have been.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Why Ana de Armas Was Cut From Yesterday (Despite Appearing In The Trailer)

Yesterday: every beatles easter egg & reference, yesterday’s john lennon cameo proves what the movie is really about.

In Yesterday Jack's rise to stardom with Beatles music is based on a lie, leading to a dilemma with his newfound fame.
The Yesterday movie ending leaves the world without the Beatles, sparking questions about the reality-altering blackout.
Yesterday celebrates the timeless impact of the Beatles' music, highlighting the enduring power of their songs.

The Yesterday movie ending does something totally unexpected with the world it envisions where the Beatles never existed. In Yesterday , a struggling British musician named Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) becomes the only person in the world (or so he thinks) who remembers the Beatles and their music. He soon becomes a global pop superstar by claiming the songs John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr as his own. Yesterday 's reality-altering event is a sudden global blackout. For 12 seconds, the entire world lost power at 12:01 am. When electricity was restored, everything resumed as normal, almost.

Jack was struck by a bus during the blackout and ended up hospitalized. When he recovered, he played "Yesterday" by the Beatles , and he was baffled that no one recognized the song. When Jack realized the Beatles were somehow wiped from history, he began recording their music and touring with Ed Sheeran. Performing the Beatles' music unexpectedly propels Jack to a record deal, because everyone believed he had written some of the greatest rock songs ever. However, the Yesterday movie ending raises eyebrows by what it chooses not to resolve.

Yesterday is available to stream on Netflix.

Ana de Armas doesn't appear in the Beatles-centric romantic comedy Yesterday, but she was in the trailers. Why was her role cut from the movie?

What Happens In The Yesterday Ending

Jack feels guilty about stealing the beatles' music and confesses to the world.

By the time the Yesterday movie ending has arrived, Jack struggles with the reality that he's a fraud benefiting from the work of legends — albeit legends no one has ever heard of. While his new Los Angeles-based record label and manager Debra Hammer (Kate McKinnon) oversee his burgeoning superstardom, Jack realizes that Ellie has loved him since they met as children, but he's now about to lose her forever.

Jack's solution is to confess that the Beatles wrote all of the songs , to not accept any money, and to release the Beatles' music digitally for free. He also publicly declares his love for Ellie at Wembley Stadium.

Yesterday's Ending Keeps The World Without The Beatles

The altered world isn't corrected after jack does the right thing.

The Yesterday movie ends without the world ever going back to the way things were before the blackout — and the Beatles continue to have never existed . Because the film is a romantic comedy primarily focused on Jack, Ellie, and their plight, there is little explanation for the blackout and how or why it occurred. It simply happened, was an odd event that everyone in the world knows about, but life otherwise continued unabated. Further, the new reality of the world without the Beatles caused by the blackout is never reversed, and the film simply lets it be.

Yesterday doesn't play by the rules of similar films where reality is changed, such as Groundhog Day .

Interestingly, Yesterday doesn't play by the rules of similar films where reality is changed, such as Groundhog Day . By the rules of Bill Murray's beloved film, the Groundhog Day time loop he was caught up in could only be reversed once he became a better person. Yesterday is similarly focused on Jack doing the right thing by admitting he'd been lying about writing the Beatles music and choosing Ellie over being a superstar, but once he did so, the world didn't change — meaning the blackout wasn't contingent at all on Jack's behavior.

Jack is further shocked when he gradually learns that the Beatles aren't the only things erased from history : Coca-Cola, cigarettes, and even Harry Potter no longer exist in Yesterday 's post-blackout timeline. However, Jack also learns, to his relief, that he's not the only one who remembers the Beatles once existed. Two other Beatles fans are also aware that the world has been altered: a British woman named Liz (Sarah Lancashire) and a Russian named Leo (Justin Edwards). Perhaps even more people retain memories of how things used to be , but the Yesterday movie ending's main focus is the happiness of Jack and Ellie.

Yesterday doesn't just feature the songs of The Beatles, it also includes several Easter eggs and references to the legendary band's career.

What Happened To John, Paul, George, And Ringo In Yesterday's World?

John was never assassinated in 1980.

The whereabouts of the Beatles are a mystery in Yesterday , with one major exception: John Lennon (Robert Carlyle) is shockingly alive . Thanks to Liz and Leo giving Jack Lennon's address, he was able to visit the founding Beatle-who-never-was at his seaside home. Amazingly, John is 78 years old and lives a quiet life in solitude. He never recorded any music or wrote any of the songs that would make him world-famous, and he was obviously never assassinated in 1980.

However, Yesterday doesn't reveal what became of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison . Paul and Ringo appear in the film during a dream sequence where Jack is a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden , and he's horrified when the host surprises him with the two men who really wrote the famous songs. However, Paul and Ringo's faces are never seen in the film. Meanwhile, George Harrison is merely mentioned and doesn't make any kind of appearance, so it's possible that he still died in 2001 in Yesterday 's altered reality.

Yesterday’s shocking cameo brings the narrative full circle. Here's why it matters, and what it says about The Beatles' cultural legacy.

What Yesterday's Ending Really Means

It's a celebration of the beatles' timeless music.

Yesterday celebrates the timelessness of the Beatles' music and its importance to the world. Even though the band itself was never formed, through Jack performing their music, the film clearly demonstrates that people all over the world in any era are still affected by the uplifting and joyful power of the Beatles' songs. However, since those songs were created in the 1960s and 1970s, Yesterday also notes how dated many aspects of the Beatles music are. For example, Jack's label rejects the band's classic album titles like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band and The White Album.

In the end, Yesterday reaffirms that the Beatles' catalog remains among the greatest songs ever written.

The straightforward simplicity of Jack supposedly writing and performing all of the songs himself, with no sampling, no mixing, no guest vocals from modern artists like Cardi B, becomes what is so paradoxically impactful about the Beatles' music reintroduced into this reality's current pop music scene. In the end, Yesterday reaffirms that the Beatles' catalog remains among the greatest songs ever written.

They both realized how much they missed the simpler times of their 'yesterday' when it was just the two of them struggling in vain to launch Jack's music career in Suffolk.

For Jack and Ellie, however, the Beatles' music charts the arc of their love story in Yesterday . Ellie quietly maintained an unrequited love for Jack for twenty years, though Jack was largely oblivious to her affections. After he recovered from his accident, Jack performing "Yesterday" affected Ellie the most and, as his sudden pop music career took Jack to L.A. and away from Ellie, they both realized how much they missed the simpler times of their 'yesterday' when it was just the two of them struggling in vain to launch Jack's music career in Suffolk.

After they finally get together as the couple they were meant to be, the Yesterday movies ends with a lovely montage of Jack and Ellie marrying, raising children, and living a happy life together set to "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da". As a schoolteacher, Jack also continues to share the Beatles' music to a new generation. The message of Yesterday is simply that while the Beatles helped change the world , the true and lasting impact of their music is in how they can become the soundtrack of a person's life and add even deeper joy to your happiest moments.

Written by famous rom-com director Richard Curtis, Yesterday follows Jack Malik, a struggling musician who one day wakes up to discover that he is the only person who remembers famous 1960s rock band The Beatles. As Jack begins using his exclusive knowledge to his advantage, he must reckon with the burden of it and the price that comes with his newfound fame. The film stars Himesh Patel as Jack, with a supporting cast of Lily James, Joel Fry, Kate McKinnon, and Ed Sheeran.

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8 New Movies Our Critics Are Talking About This Week

Whether you’re a casual moviegoer or an avid buff, our reviewers think these films are worth knowing about.

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By The New York Times

A feature-length stunt reel (in a good way).

A man in a blue jumpsuit adjusts the hat strap of a woman staring at him.

‘The Fall Guy’

After the lead of a blockbuster action movie goes missing, his stunt double, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), must try to find him. This action romp includes an impressive array of stunts.

From our review:

Directed by David Leitch, “The Fall Guy” is divertingly slick, playful nonsense about a guy who lives to get brutalized again and again — soon after it starts, Colt suffers a catastrophic accident — which may be a metaphor for contemporary masculinity and its discontents, though perhaps not. More unambiguously, the movie is a feature-length stunt-highlight reel that’s been padded with romance, a minor mystery, winking jokes and the kind of unembarrassed self-regard for moviemaking that film people have indulged in for nearly as long as cinema has been in existence. For once, this swaggering pretense is largely justified.

In theaters. Read the full review .

CRITIC’S PICK

Fresh out of the toaster, a corporate saga.

‘unfrosted: the pop-tart story’.

Jerry Seinfeld imagines a heavily embellished version of the invention Pop-Tarts in this kooky comedy. The film also features Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan and a host of other famous faces.

As junk food goes, “Unfrosted” is delightful with a sprinkle of morbidity. Building on last December’s publicity stunt where an anthropomorphic Pop-Tart cooked and served itself to the Kansas State Wildcats, we’re here treated to a funeral where the deceased is given Full Cereal Honors. I will spoil nothing except to say Snap, Crackle and Pop have a ceremonial duty. The jokes spill forth so fast that there’s no time for the shtick to get soggy.

Watch on Netflix . Read the full review .

It’s not technically Harry Styles fan fiction, but it’s close.

‘the idea of you’.

Anne Hathaway stars as Solène Marchand, a 40-year-old mom who has a chance encounter with a (much younger) member of a wildly popular boy band. The two must navigate the complications of celebrity and romance.

It’s probably coincidental that “The Idea of You” comes on the heels of Taylor Swift’s latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on which she strongly implies that her carefully cultivated fandom has made her love life a nightmare. But spiritually, at least, they’re of a piece — even if the origins of the film’s plot seem as much borne of parasociality as a critique of it. And that makes Hathaway’s performance extra poignant. She’s been dragged into that buzz saw before. And somehow, she’s figured out how to make a life on the other side of it.

Watch on Prime Video . Read the full review .

Jeanne du Boring.

‘jeanne du barry’.

The most prominent mistress of King Louis XV, Jeanne du Barry, gets the “girl boss” treatment in this historical drama written, directed by and starring Maïwenn alongside Johnny Depp.

The meticulous and lush production design by Angelo Zamparutti, captured with practically dewy appreciation by the cinematographer Laurent Dailland, makes the movie easy on the eyes, but every so often its prettiness edges over into souvenir-shop kitsch.

Through the TV looking glass.

‘i saw the tv glow’.

In this feature from writer-director Jane Schoenbrun, two teenagers bond over their love for a mysterious television show, but the fictional universe starts to feel more real (and less stifling) than their suburban reality.

We’ve forgotten how hard being a fan used to be. You had to labor at it in multiple media: scouring listings and keeping tabs on schedules, reading books of lore and compiling episode recaps. … “I Saw the TV Glow” captures this obsessive, anticipatory submersion in a long-form weekly TV show, to the point where it ignites the same feeling. A lot of movies tell you stories, but the films of the writer and director Jane Schoenbrun evoke them; to borrow a term, they’re a vibe. Like “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” Schoenbrun’s previous film, this one isn’t quite horror, but it gives you the same kind of scalp crawl. In this case I think it’s the mark of recognition, of feeling a tug at your subconscious.

The coming-of-age movie goes to therapy.

‘turtles all the way down’.

Adapted from John Green’s YA novel of the same name, Hannah Marks’s drama follows Aza (Isabela Merced), a teenager with obsessive-compulsive disorder, as she struggles to manage her anxieties.

What “Turtles” does offer in surplus is texture, thanks to Marks’s springy, stylish direction. Any time Aza confronts a thought spiral about germs, Marks pairs voice-over of Aza’s frantic inner monologue with images of neon-colored microbes writhing in a petri dish. These moments are intrusive and unsettling, and together form one of the more dynamically authentic on-screen depictions of O.C.D. that I’ve seen.

Watch on Max . Read the full review .

Who’s afraid of Flannery O’Connor?

Ethan Hawke directs his daughter, Maya Hawke, in a Flannery O’Connor biopic that mixes in visualizations of the American writer’s famously unnerving short stories.

Maya Hawke’s performance, in turn, is muddled; she can be strong as O’Connor, but in the fictional pieces, her portrayals are often reduced to clumsy caricatures. The period re-creation is striking and helps generate occasionally spellbinding imagery, but the enduring sense of the film is of a family project that is by turns frustrating and briefly enlightening.

The dark side of glamping.

‘evil does not exist’.

In a small village outside Tokyo, Takumi (Hitoshi Omika) and his daughter (Ryo Nishikawa) contend with a development company that plans to build a glamping site that may well spoil their rural oasis. It’s the latest from writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”).

I have watched “Evil Does Not Exist” twice, and each time the stealthy power of Hamaguchi’s filmmaking startles me anew. Some of my reaction has to do with how he uses fragments from everyday life to build a world that is so intimate and recognizable — filled with faces, homes and lives as familiar as your own — that the movie’s artistry almost comes as a shock.

Bonus Review: An Asexual Romance

“Slow,” a relationship drama from Lithuania in theaters now, offers an understanding of intimacy that is rare in romance movies.

Elena (Greta Grineviciute), a contemporary dancer, meets Dovydas (Kestutis Cicenas), a sign language interpreter, at a class for deaf adolescents — she teaches the steps; he translates her instructions. The 30-somethings begin a modest flirtation that inches toward the physical, but Dovydas pulls out a wild card when Elena invites him to her room: He is asexual.

“Slow,” directed by Marija Kavtaradze, takes this difference as its point of departure. What does a relationship look like when you factor out the sex? It’s clear that Elena has a hard time accepting Dovydas as he is. Grineviciute and Cicenas, however, give depth to a story that becomes stuck on the sorrows of the couple’s discrepancies. Throughout Dovydas enthusiastically performs a kind of sign language karaoke. The film makes too little of this intuitive connection between lovers, both adept, in their own ways, at communicating passion by other means. — Beatrice Loayza

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

The Netflix stalker series “ Baby Reindeer ” combines the appeal of a twisty thriller with a deep sense of empathy. The ending illustrates why it’s become such a hit .

We have entered the golden age of Mid TV, where we have a profusion of well-cast, sleekly produced competence, our critic writes .

The writer-director Alex Garland has made it clear that “Civil War” should be a warning. Instead, the ugliness of war comes across as comforting thrills .

Studios obsessively focused on PG-13 franchises and animation in recent years, but movies like “Challengers” and “Saltburn” show that Hollywood is embracing sex again .

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime and Hulu to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

IMAGES

Yesterday
"Yesterday" Movie Review
'Yesterday' Movie Review: The Beatles Deserve Better
Review: Yesterday (2019)
Yesterday (2019)
Yesterday (2019)

COMMENTS

Yesterday movie review & film summary (2019)
A film that imagines a world where the Beatles never happened and a struggling musician (Himesh Patel) claims their songs as his own. Sheila O'Malley praises the film's music scenes but criticizes its romance and its avoidance of the cultural implications of the premise.
Yesterday
Yesterday is a musical fantasy rom-com about a singer who becomes famous for covering The Beatles songs in a world where they never existed. See the trailer, cast, photos, and critic and audience ratings for this 2019 film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis.
'Yesterday' Review: I Saw a Film Today, Oh Boy
This is devastating news to his biggest and quite possibly only fan, Ellie (Lily James), who is also his road manager, chauffeur and best friend. She's carrying a torch for him visible from ...
Yesterday review
Moreover, Curtis scholars will see how Yesterday is a gender-switch version of Notting Hill, featuring an ordinary guy getting a brush with uber-glamour, with Joel Fry in the Rhys Ifans role of ...
Yesterday
Read critics' and audience's opinions on Yesterday, a romantic comedy about a musician who wakes up in a world where The Beatles never existed. See the Tomatometer score, clips, videos and more.
Yesterday (2019)
Yesterday: Directed by Danny Boyle. With Himesh Patel, Lily James, Sophia Di Martino, Ellise Chappell. A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate reality where they never existed.
"Yesterday," Reviewed: Danny Boyle's Comedic Fantasy About a World
Richard Brody reviews Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle's "Yesterday," a comedic fantasy about a world without memory of the Beatles that stars Himesh Patel, Lily James, Ed Sheeran, and Kate ...
Yesterday review
Yesterday envisages a world in which aspiring singer-songwriter Jack Malik ( Himesh Patel) is hit by a bus at the same time as a freak cosmic glitch plunges the world into darkness. He wakes in a ...
Yesterday
Yesterday, everyone knew The Beatles. Today, only Jack remembers their songs. Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) is a struggling singer-songwriter in a tiny English seaside town whose dreams of fame are rapidly fading, despite the fierce devotion and support of his childhood best friend, Ellie (Lily James). Then, after a freak bus accident during a mysterious global blackout, Jack wakes up to discover ...
Yesterday review: Sweet and satisfying but completely hollow
The film is frequently sharp and funny in its observations, too, while Boyle directs the musical performances with enough gleeful energy to keep the momentum up. Patel and James, meanwhile, make ...
Yesterday movie review: Beatles musical is sweet, but the whimsy turns sour
is a sweet Beatles musical, but the whimsy turns sour. At least the songs are good. Have you ever felt bad watching a feel-good movie? Yesterday lets attractive people sing some of history's ...
Yesterday (2019 film)
Yesterday is a 2019 musical romantic comedy film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis, based on a story by Jack Barth and Curtis. Himesh Patel stars as struggling musician Jack Malik who suddenly finds himself as the only person who remembers the Beatles and becomes famous for performing their songs. The film also stars Lily James, Joel Fry, Ed Sheeran, and Kate McKinnon.
Yesterday Movie Review
Kids say ( 47 ): With a high-concept premise that could skew either cute or pretty stupid, this easygoing fantasy romcom sticks the landing overall. Patel can actually sing -- he capably performs almost every Beatles song in the movie (from "Let It Be" to "Back in the U.S.S.R.") -- and he's both sweet and relatable.
'Yesterday' Movie Review: Beatles Romcom Proves Love Is All You Need
Patel and James play the standard-issue love story with touching conviction. Still, maintaining a rooting interest is a tall order. That's where Boyle comes in. The Oscar-winning director, who ...
Yesterday 2019 Movie Review
Written by Richard Curtis and directed by Danny Boyle, Yesterday has a good, dumb premise, but only the first half of this fantasy-comedy (starring Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon, and Ed ...
'Yesterday' Review: A Fairy Tale in Which the Beatles Get Rebooted
Camera (color, widescreen): Christopher Ross. Editor: Jon Harris. Music: Daniel Pemberton, The Beatles. With: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon, Ed Sheeran, James Corden, Ana de Armas. A ...
Yesterday Review
Yesterday's story zips along at a considerable clip, and its many parts contribute what they need to exactly when they need to do it. That leaves the film feeling a little too polished. Even ...
Yesterday (2019)
Yesterday So much of this movie was charming, brilliantly acted, and inventive, however somewhere around the middle of the movie, (the missing the train scene) it just turned into a big farce. The plot just became unbelievable, it also turned corny and over-sentimental. Of course I accept the whole movie was built on supernatural premise but what follows must hang together and keep the ...
Yesterday (2019) Movie Review
Behind the camera, Danny Boyle helps to further liven things up with his efforts as Yesterday's director.The Oscar-winner's live-wire filmmaking befits the story here, and elevates what could've been a visually bland movie into a collection of energetic sequences (of both the musical and everyday variety) and playful scenic transitions once Jack starts hopping from one side of the pond to the ...
'Yesterday' movie review: Nothing makes sense or is explained, but
Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis' "Yesterday" requires its viewers to take quite a few leaps of faith. First, you have to wholeheartedly buy into the rule that, categorically, the b…
Yesterday
Movie Review. A blackout swept around the entire globe. Things went missing. But Jack remembered. Just the night before, Jack had decided to bail on his dream of being a performer. And the truth is, it wasn't even a hard decision. His songs are insipidly bland. He's not all that personable or attractive. His singer-songwriter shtick barely ...
Yesterday's Ending Does Something Shocking With The No Beatles World
The Yesterday movie ending does something totally unexpected with the world it envisions where the Beatles never existed. In Yesterday, a struggling British musician named Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) becomes the only person in the world (or so he thinks) who remembers the Beatles and their music.He soon becomes a global pop superstar by claiming the songs John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George ...
The results are in from yesterday's debate
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After the lead of a blockbuster action movie goes missing, his stunt double, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), must try to find him. This action romp includes an impressive array of stunts. From our ...