Yesterday Review: A world without The Beatles

Rating: 8/10 (23 June 2019)

A world without The Beatles. As hard as a concept that is to grasp that is what Danny Boyle's new film aims to answer. It most certainly does.
Our main protagonist: "Jack Malik" played by: "Himesh Patel" is a troubled up and coming musician. Despite getting a brand-new gig to play at. Only manages to cup together a few audience members. Most of them being his group of friends and manager. His manager and best friend: "Ellie Appleton": played by the wonderful "Lily James" tries to get his mood up however that leads to film's main plot point. Which I won't spoil. The events that unfold after that point in the picture. Is where Yesterday really shines.
To me the film just sparks with energy and passion. No doubt thanks to Danny's Boyle's excellent direction and editing. Coupled with Patel's and Lily's excellent performances makes Yesterday soar into the sky instead of floundering down on the ground. This is not to say the music is anything to gloss over because the use of The Beatles music is a wonderful addition to the film and really helps elevate the film's energy to new heights. To be honest there were a few moments where I wanted to get up from the seat and dance along to the music.
Jack's sudden rise to stardom though The Beatles music is quite surprising, the film takes quite a few twists and turns as the film comes to its inevitable conclusion. The ending in of itself was quite intriguing and was not the way I envisioned the film to end. I personally thought the film reached the maximum amount of potential it could with the subject matter and it dove into the pit that was the world without The Beatles with care and interest. I felt myself drawn into Jack's character as he had a personally very relatable struggle, that no matter what he did it seemed that he would be destined to walk around in circles for the rest of his music career.
The performances by the two main leads Patel and James were fantastic and were along with Boyle's fantastic direction. It honestly really feels like this was a film made with passion and care, which is a dime a dozen in today's world. I also really enjoyed the cameos that made me chuckle quite a few times. Including one particular surprise which almost brought to tears.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this film and would personally recommend it to anyone regardless if you are a Beatles fan or not this film has the potential to change your mind.
4/5 thumbs
Highly recommended!