A Beatles Movie That Isn't Really About The Beatles

Rating: 7/10 (3 October 2019)

Let's start with what this movie is not. If you saw the previews you like think, as I did, that you are signing up for an homage to The Beatles or Danny Boyle finding a clever way to make a fanboy film. It is not. The Beatles, and their music, are used as a prop. Central to the film, yes, but a prop.

What Boyle has really made is a film that asks the essential question, given our dulled sensitivities, our distracted culture, our need to take everything creative and process it into something that can be marketed to their broadest possible audience to make the most money, if someone made great art today would we even recognize it?
Here is where The Beatles come in. Jack Malik wakes up in a world where no one has heard of The Beatles. Motivated largely by his desire to be a famous musician and to a lesser degree by a righteous indignance that those around him have not heard these great songs Malik sets out to recreate The Beatles greatest hits.
Like any true genius (even if the genius is stolen in this case), Malik is not instantly recognized and the reaction to his new songs is comical but rings true in a culture where it feels like we don't recognize or appreciate great art anymore.
Eventually the power of the songs wins out, however, and Malik is discovered by the record industry who descend on him to market his surefire hits. Unfortunately this is where the film goes a bit over the top as, no doubt in order to appeal to a U.S. audience, Kate McKinnon (of the unfunny era of SNL) was cast as the American record exec and allowed to play the part in over the top, American fashion, in what is otherwise a British comedy. It doesn't work comedically, comes across as heavy-handed, and the excess is hardly needed to make the point about how the modern music industry works.
Running throughout the film is the thread of a romantic comedy as Jack is accompanied on his adventures by his lifelong best-friend (who has had a life-long crush on him) Ellie, played by a mature Lily James.
If there is one criticism it would be that the film is of multiple minds. It starts off posing the deep question of whether we would truly recognize great art anymore, moves into satire of the music industry, dabbles in Rom-com and in one scene near the end meditates on the high cost of fame. A focus on any of these individual elements could have made for a more singularly focused and harder hitting film, but Yesterday is hardly the first movie to struggle with this.
Overall, the film is an enjoyable ride. A creative premise with comedy and a great turn by Ed Sheerhan playing himself. Definitely worth seeing and if you aren't a Beatles fan, no problem, it isn't really about The Beatles.