A wonderfully crafted piece of wholesomeness and creativity

Rating: 10/10 (14 July 2019)

Some movies are just too good to be true. Yesterday is one of them.
Now, let's be clear. I was desperate to like this movie, I wished so hard to love it I was actually convinced I would end up being disappointed in some way.
Turns out, I was wrong. This is a perfect breath of fresh air, a wonderfully crafted piece of wholesomeness and creativity, two hours that manage to conjointly celebrate nostalgia and hope towards the future.
There are so many ways in which this movie could have turned out extremely wrong: we could have been left with the whole "it was just a dream" narrative, or quickly sent into a series of catastrophes thrown on Jack's head for his lies. Instead of that, we are granted with what we have been wishing from the very first time we heard about the premise of the movie: incredibly funny misunderstandings, clever details which really constitute the marrow of the movie, loads of music (from the Beatles, but not only, a smart move again), vibrant performances and genuinely heartfelt moments. The directing itself is overloading with fresh, uplifting and stimulating ideas, mixing traditional representations of both romantic comedy and musical biopic, while adding a whole new layer of absurd humor.
The most amazing thing about the film is that not only it doesn't instrumentalize the incredible potential of the Beatles' music (by simply pulling some easy nostalgic strings), but moreover, it manages to celebrate their legacy while letting room for each spectator to bring what the Beatles mean to them. Someone who grew up listening to the Beatles will be able to feel the fresh, sweet vibration of childhood and marvelment, while someone who associates these songs to adolescence (such as myself) or adulthood will be able to grasp a more mature understanding of the movie. Indeed, Yesterday is both about the innocent joy of first discoveries (the joy of all the people around Jack, who discover all of the Beatles' discography in the span of a few weeks - lucky them) and the meditation about maturity, growth, what art brings to oneself and how one can profoundly change thanks to it (as Jack in the movies, who starts off seeing the Beatles' work as a tool, something he possesses and will be able to make flourish, and who ends up understanding the incredible power of reunion of these music, its ability to create shared feelings, empathy, new bonds between people.
That was cheesy, I know. I stand by it.
Yesterday is of course a crowd-pleaser - what else could a movie based on the most unanimously acclaimed music band ever turn out to be? But it manages to outreach that aspect, and become something more, something spontaneous, optimistic, that focuses on talent, collaboration, art, communion and empathy rather than greed, jealousy and lies. It manages to create laughter, emotion, and above everything else, that great emotion that no medium can create better than cinema: wonder. Yesterday successfully asks the famous question of the "what if" and delivers a perfectly satisfying answer, without ever denying itself. And I'm just so grateful about that.
Now you know what to do.
Go on, watch this movie, it will take only two hours of your time, and it will for sure make your life a bit lighter.