#jack barth

Yesterday (2019)

Directed by Danny Boyle

Yesterday is hugely charming, a crowd-pleaser with some clever ideas and by choosing the delightful Himesh Patel as its lead, it scores big points. It’s only the conventional ending that leaves something to be desired.

After a worldwide blackout, Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) wakes up to find the world’s just a little bit different. He’s still the struggling musician he was before. His best friend/manager Ellie (Lily James) still obviously has feelings for him - feelings he’s oblivious to - but no one else remembers the Beatles or their songs. By claiming their hits as his own, he skyrockets to stardom but how long until the shoe drops?

The movie this will likely remind you of a number of works (apparently there’s some controversy about how original the story is). For me, it's a better, smarter version of The Invention of Lying. This film works because our history could’ve conceivably gone the same way it did - for the most part - without John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. From there, interesting questions come up. Is what Jack is doing wrong? In a way yes. He didn’t write the songs. He says he did. In his defense, who'd believe him if he said “Actually, I come from an alternate universe where this band…” so I forgave him. Dude’s so charming he deserves a break and life's given him one. He’s still playing guitar, he’s still singing and if the Beatles’ songs are really that good, isn’t the world a lesser place without them? This is, unfortunately, where the story is a bit routine. If the film made some bold decisions during the ending - it looked as though it was going to for a while - then this would be a much better film. That’s saying something as this is a thoroughly enjoyable romantic comedy.

Obviously, Yesterday features a great soundtrack but the performer who brings them to us deserves much credit too. I foresee this as the first step in a major career for Patel. He’s got the comedic timing down and has great chemistry with Lily James (also a delight). Director Danny Boyle makes great use of his cast. Kate McKinnon as an unscrupulous music producer, Joel Fry as Jack’s roadie friend Rocky, even Ed Sheeran playing himself is surprisingly good. There are many hearty laughs throughout. You want to see the romantic story all the way through. You’re intrigued by the plot (even if, as I said, it goes exactly where you’d expect it to) and just like Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody, you get a slew of favorite tunes played on the big screen with a great sound system so it’s a bit of a mini-concert experience as well.

The best word to describe Yesterday is cute. It’d be a great flick to take a date to. (Theatrical version on the big screen, July 3, 2019)

“By the time I realized I needed to get the story out there myself, it was really hard to pitch something that was for a film that had come out eight months earlier. Most of the media is concerned with just promoting the current films, they’re not interested in a story about the abuse of the powerless by the powerful.”

This journalistic apathy in turn, is sadly understandable. Covering entertainment requires access, and in times of precarity, when so many seemingly well-established colleagues are being furloughed or laid off, annoying the powerful — which once upon a time journalists considered their main function — is mostly just a professional liability. The same high risk/low reward calculation probably contributes to those producers and agents involved not wanting to participate in the story.

"Yesterday" (idem) - amazon prime.

Depois de um longo período, finalmente fomos visitar alguém! Na conversa pessoalmente citaram esse filme. Já conhecia a premissa, músico sem sucesso acorda um dia e só ele no mundo inteiro lembra das músicas dos Beatles. Os elogios simpáticos do amigo trouxeram a vontade de ver. 

Review: ‘Yesterday’

Yesterday | Danny Boyle | June 28, 2019

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