Review: Yesterday
(based on the movie's Wikipedia summary)
Pitching movies and writing movies are two very different skills, and a film like Yesterday illustrates the chasm between the two. "Man wakes up in a world where the Beatles don't exist" is an intriguing premise. It also sounds like a movie I would never want to watch.
This makes Yesterday a perfect test flight for this very dumb newsletter, which will be devoted to reviewing movies solely based on their Wikipedia synopses. Let's roll:
Jack Malik is a struggling singer-songwriter from Lowestoft, supported by his manager and childhood friend Ellie. After Jack is hit by a bus during a global blackout, he discovers that no one else on Earth remembers the Beatles.
First off: is the world really worse off without the Beatles?
This isn't a comment on the Beatles' music. I'm sure some bright-eyed scholars from the very-made-up-sounding town of Lowestoft have written entire dissertations about how the Beatles' Music Is Perfect, Actually. I have no interest in debating over the musical talents of a band whose discography is so vast I can only comfortably name like 10% of it.
HOWEVER, I will argue that the whole Beatles thing is a bit much and they could stand to not exist. They've dominated our culture for decades and it's time to call it quits. Let some other band become Simpsons episode levels of popular in an alternate reality.
So yes, as far as a setup for a movie goes, this sucks. If I were Jack and I found out that the Beatles don't exist, I'd shrug and busy myself listening to the INFINITE NUMBER OF OTHER PERFECTLY GOOD SONGS IN THE WORLD. But this movie is written by a 62-year-old British man and directed by a different 62-year-old British man so instead what happens is...
Jack begins performing their songs, claiming he wrote them, and records a demo with local music producer Gavin.
Imagine being lucky enough to live in a world where one of the most omnipresent franchises ends, and deciding to resurrect it. Why would Jack do this? Fate has given him a break from being reminded of the Beatles, and he’s just going to toss that gift away? Is this just a specific devotion to the Beatles or does he feel compelled to uphold the traditions of all mass entertainment? If the Marvel Cinematic Universe disappeared overnight, would he be sweding Doctor Strange in his backyard?
But maybe the movie plays off Jack’s choice as a sort of get-rich-and/or-famous scheme, so fine. Much respect to him for stumbling into a different timeline and finding an immediate way to monetize it.
Following a performance on local television, Jack is invited by pop star Ed Sheeran to support him in Moscow.
In case you’re wondering how the lack of Beatlemania has affected the course of pop music, the answer is apparently “Not at all! People still love exactly the same musicians.” In fact, looking ahead, the full summary of this movie suggests that losing the Beatles wouldn’t affect the world at all - which is an unintentional but devastating burn from a movie that seems like an elaborate handjob to the Fab Four.
If the aim of the movie is to show how important the Beatles are, lean into it. Show us the nightmarish future that we avoided by listening to “Paperback Writer” eleventy million times. The Cold War still rages! All music is banned except for the theremin! Other, more cogent examples!
The Ed Sheeran concert is in Moscow just so they can play “Back in the USSR,” right?
Ellie declines to join him, saying she has to work at her day job as a schoolteacher, so Jack's roadie friend Rocky travels with him instead.
Ah okay, this a “love or fame” movie. Got it.
After the gig, Jack is signed by Sheeran's agent, Debra Hammer, and rises to global fame.
First off, blessed name. Second off, I love when Wikipedia movie summarizers mention a character offhandedly once and then never again. It gives me a clue that there was a very watchable performance here - a very likely scenario because the cast list says Debra was played by Kate McKinnon.
At a party in Jack's home, Ellie confesses that she has always been in love with him. Hoping to trigger more memories of Beatles songs, Jack goes to Liverpool, visiting landmarks such as Strawberry Field, Penny Lane, and the grave of Eleanor Rigby.
The idea of him performing a bunch of songs he half-remembers is kind of funny, but it’s also just another excuse to kiss the Beatles’ ass. The movie is arguing that the songs are so objectively good that even someone playing imperfect copies would become an overnight sensation. I could see how watching someone clumsily recreate classics he can’t quite recall would make for some good scenes, though.
However, would going to Strawberry Field the place actually make you...remember “Strawberry Fields” the song? Are the Beatles’ songs just thorough physical descriptions of Liverpool landmarks? Does “Penny Lane” have a verse about the ample bike lane?
“This is a movie with feelings,” you say. “Stop acting like one of those logic lords on YouTube that make embarrassing money pointing out minor plot holes. He’s going to these landmarks in hopes of feeling what the Beatles felt decades ago when they wrote these songs.”
No, he’s going to these landmarks so there’s footage of these landmarks for this 116-minute Beatles commercial. I can just picture him saying “Eleanor Rigby…” to himself while nodding thoughtfully at Eleanor Rigby’s grave while “Eleanor Rigby” plays. Shudder.
Jack spends a drunken evening with Ellie, and they kiss. However, Ellie tells him she is not interested in a one-night stand. The next morning, Jack and Rocky pursue Ellie to Liverpool train station, but Ellie reminds Jack about making a choice between her and his career. Heartbroken, Jack returns to Los Angeles.
Will he choose love or fame?!
The record label prepares to launch Jack's debut album. The producers reject his suggested titles, taken from Beatles records, and name the album One Man Only, pushing his talent.
Record companies are bad guys in every music movie but I’m really not sure whose side to take in a dispute between the guy who plagiarized a band that doesn’t exist anymore and the music label whose marketing plan deviates from the accepted lore of a band that doesn’t exist anymore. I wish more of the Wikipedia summary was devoted to this argument though because the sheer absurdity is the most interesting part of the movie so far.
Jack persuades his label to launch the album with a performance in Gorleston. Backstage, Jack is approached by two Beatles fans who tell him they know he plagiarised the songs; however, they thank him, fearing the music of the Beatles had gone forever. They give him the address of Beatle John Lennon, who has lived into old age. Jack asks John if he has led a successful life; John replies that he has led a happy life, and tells him to chase the one he loves.
This seems like another case where the movie stumbles into shitting on the Beatles. Not only would pop music be just fine without Beatlemania, this movie argues, but John Lennon would still be alive. It’s probably accurate but man, that’s harsher than anything I could ever come up with.
Having Lennon be Bagger Vance to our main character does seem exactly like this movie’s brand of hagiography, though.
Ed arranges for Jack to perform at Wembley Stadium. Jack confesses to the crowd that he plagiarised the music and that he loves Ellie, and has Rocky upload the songs free to the internet, sabotaging the record release.
Love or fame? Readers, he picked love. But he’s also famous now. Oops!
If you’re wondering why I’ve said almost nothing about the romance plot, it’s because A) that sort of thing doesn’t translate well to a summary because they rarely give you a sense of the chemistry between the leads, B) it sounds boring as hell.
Anyway: nostalgia’s a plague on the entertainment industry! This thought’s hitting me especially hard this month. Eighties remembrance/horror show Stranger Things Season 3 just debuted amidst a flood of cross-promotions from various brands who want to remind you that they too existed during that decade. I just went to see Spider-Man: Far from Home, a movie in which an 18-year-old kid exclaims, “I love AC-DC!” and songs by Go-Go’s and Ramones are used for key scenes. One of the trailers before the movie was for Blinded by the Light, a film about a teenager whose life is transformed by the music of Bruce Springsteen.
I understand that, much like reboots and adaptations and sequels, these nostalgia vehicles are smart business decisions. They already have their own built-in audiences. “Remember those songs from when you were young and hot as hell?” is always going to get people to involuntarily fish for their wallet. People love these things, so they’ll love the thing one step removed from it.
This movie feels like something different than mere remembrance, though. It’s nostalgia in its most baroque form. Isn’t it enough for the Beatles’ music to be ubiquitous in our society? We now have to watch fictional 2019 people who have never heard of the Beatles swoon over their music like they’re being faith healed, to prove that it really is that good and we’d love it even if we didn’t grow up surrounded by it? The movie is going to such absurd lengths to both prove the Beatles’ relevance but also find a fresh way to monetize it. It’s late-stage nostalgia capitalism.
But in spite of the weird motivations behind it, the movie’s not all that weird! It’s just a very mechanical rom-com with Boomer insecurity layered on top of it. The structure of romance plot, at least from the view of someone who’s never watched it, seems like it was pulled from a screenwriting book (“There are only three actual stories in recorded history,” the author opines). With the exception of a record label executive named like an Ace Attorney character, the cast sounds like a bunch of nothings. The Beatles affection is eye-rolly and the movie doesn’t make a convincing case that the Beatles even needed to exist. I’m fascinated that someone felt the need to make this movie but I’m not fascinated at all by the thing they made.
Jack and Ellie marry, and Jack realises he is the only person who remembers Harry Potter.
If only!
RATING: 1 out of 5 crippling nostalgias.