An intriguing, yet somewhat safe take on a unique "what-if" scenario.

Rating: 7/10 (5 July 2019)

Yesterday was brought to us by the director of Slumdog Millionaire and stars Himesh Patel as a down on his luck musician who wants more in his profession. One night however, his luck changes when the entire world forgets about The Beatles aside from him, so he naturally takes advantage of it.
For the longest time, I had no idea what this film was about, yet I was still fasinated by it. Coming out of the theater, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. Yesterday presents a genius "what-if" scenario that presents many different questions that provoke thoughts like wat would happen to the person if they remembered The Beatles while everyone else didn't. While I mostly enjoyed how it was executed, I had a few problems with the film.
The film's casting was really will-done. It has some great performances from Lily James and Ed Sheeran, but I was mostly surprised with Himesh Patel as Jack. What mostly surprised me is how amazing his singing voice was and how well he took advantage of it. I thought the first half of the movie was also pretty thought-provoking with its themes and concept. One question that the movie answers is what the world would look like if The Beatles didn't exist. I also appreciated how the movie didn't go into severaly dark territory. When we have a film like Yesterday, which is essentially a fantasy, I was genuinely happier with its lighter tone, as opposed to a realistic biopic. It has both heartbreaking and heartwarming moments all around, and that made for an overall pleasant experience.
Despite being satisfied with the film's execution, I felt as if the second half felt too safe. I thought it could've been a lot more interesting; it could've gone into more depth on the problems of plagiarism and taking advantage of someone else's work despite the fact that everyone forgot about it. The film doesn't raise those question enough for me to care, and I wanted to care more about the inner conflict. I also think this film is a little out-of-touch with how modern-day music is conceived. The movie takes place over the span of months, and music tends to come and go, rather than be timeless, which is what the movie intends to say to its audience. Personally, I don't understand that logic given modern times. My final issue with the movie is that there is a cameo during the third act that I think shouldn't be there.
Regardless of my issues with the film, I still enjoyed it for its light tone and interesting concepts.
7/10