YESTERDAY (2019)

Rated:  PG-13

STARS: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon, Ed Sheeran
DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle
GENRE: Comedy/ Romance/ Fantasy


What a pedigree this one has going in! It's directed by Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) and written by Jack Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill). Their hand prints are all over Yesterday, in the skillful way that Boyle builds dramatic tension layer by layer, and the way Curtis plays on our heartstrings with that sweet sappy love vibe. 

After a worldwide blackout during which he gets hit by a bus, struggling English musician Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) wakes up in a parallel universe where the Beatles didn't exist. He's the only one who remembers them. Malik has gone nowhere performing his own material, but he soon catches on that by learning and relearning the Beatles' songs from memory and claiming them as his own, folks are awe-struck. They've never heard anything like it. Literally. Now he's on the fast track to becoming a mega-star!

Along for the ride is his manager and childhood friend, Ellie (Lily James), who has believed in him through thick and thin. Ellie has harbored a secret passion for more than Jack's music, but has kept it under wraps all this time. With Jack's newfound fame, their bond will be sorely tested.

Yesterday makes some bold assumptions. The first being that you could separate the songs--as brilliant as they are--from The Fab Four themselves and have just any fairly competent singer perform them and that he would weave the same kind of magic and create the same unprecedented phenomenon as The Beatles themselves. (If that were true, Bing Crosby's rendition of "Hey Jude" would have been a chart topper!) No, it was all about John, Paul, George, and Ringo and who they were individually and collectively. And assuming that our younger generation of iPhone zombies--influenced by a lot of the garbage and the gangsta-rap crap that passes for music today would resonate with the innocent exuberance of an "I Want To Hold Your Hand" is the second big leap of faith. But without it, of course, you have no movie. So the willing suspension of disbelief has to kick in for you to enjoy Yesterday to the fullest. Still, it's good to hear all the old Beatles classics again, and watching the crowds go irrationally berserk for Jack and his music brings back golden memories of a sweeter day.

The cast features Kate Mckinnon in a funny turn as a corporate shrew who wants to ride Jack's wave for her own personal profit, and the real Ed Sheeran is here, playing himself, so the younger crowd--most of whom have no real grasp on what the Beatles' true legacy was--will at least have a contemporary musician they can identify with. 

Himesh Patel as Jack is an affable presence, and we are rooting for him for the most part, though we wonder if and when his conscience will get the best of him, and he will come clean about his deception. Lily James as Ellie is so vulnerable and sweet, I don't know why anybody wouldn't fall in love with her. And despite its flaws, you might fall in love with Yesterday too.

Grade:  B

JILL'S TAKE 


I enjoyed reading Tim's review a helluva a lot more than I did watching Yesterday. The creators, Jack Barth and Richard Curtis, obviously thought their brilliantly original concept (i.e. deleting The Beatles' existence) would carry this film. It did not. Not for me, anyway. So they tossed in a love story in case the audience didn't relate to all those classic Beatles' ditties.


And the constant repetition of being interrupted—while auditioning his 'latest song' for his non musical parents, trying to get romantic with his up-till-then platonic gal pal, attempting to ward off his Hollywood agent's unreasonable demands—got tiresome. Shakespeare did it with style. These guys simply overdid it.


I'll give the male lead Himesh Patel points for his vocal renderings. Especially his heartfelt version of "Yesterday." But I found it ironic that his character's last name Malik is similar to the real actor's last name Malek who played Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. I'd say the latter performed g-clef circles around the former....


There were some really funny one-liners. But I had trouble deciphering a lot of the dialogue. Should I blame the actors? The sound engineer? Or my auditory abilities?
This was no Slumdog Millionaire. Lord knows, it tried to be. But that meandering script sunk the proverbial ship
Grade: C -

127 HOURS--2010

Rated: R

Stars: James Franco, Clemence Poesy, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn

Director: Danny Boyle

Genre: Drama/Biographical Adventure

The trouble with loners is that when they get into trouble, they are usually alone. That's what led to Aron Ralston's bizarre, real life struggle for survival out in the wilds of Utah's Bluejohn Canyon. Dude falls into a deep crevasse...this big-ass boulder tumbles down and pins his arm...can't get it loose...out of food and water after five days stuck like that...he is faced with a literal do or die decision. Everyone knows the story.

The challenge for director Danny Boyle was how to make a compelling, standard length (about an hour and a half) feature film out of this situation. Even before I saw 127 Hours, I knew that he would succeed because, hey--he's DANNY BOYLE! (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting.)

Boyle uses flashbacks interspersed with the present-time mind f*ck Ralston's ordeal is putting him through--from the initial incredulity at his predicament, to the physical struggle to free himself, (whole) to going a little cuckoo and performing for an imaginary audience while his video camera records it as his possible farewell to the world, his family, and anyone who should stumble across his carcass. Meanwhile, we sit there wondering if WE would have the stones--or the stomach--to cut through the natural revulsion we would feel and do what he ultimately did in a last-ditch effort to save himself. The realization that everything that occurred previously in his life had been leading him to this one self-defining moment, was for me the most powerful element of 127 Hours.

The survival instinct must never be underestimated.

James Franco received an academy award nomination for his portrayal of Ralston--a gung-ho guy with too much confidence in himself for his own good--and he deserved it. DAMN-- this kid is a good actor !!!

Indian film composer A. R. Rahman, with two Academy Awards in his pocket from Slumdog Millionaire, again teams up with Danny Boyle--and it's as if Boyle told him: SURPRISE ME ! Given the subject matter, the surprises-- which include a song by Dido--hit with an OOH and an AHH, and brought a smile to my face at how compellingly apropos they were after all.

The gruesome part of 127 Hours is minimal, though you still might want to look away at certain moments, depending on how much of that jumbo size popcorn you've already gobbled. Be thoughtful of those around you and don't bring that up again.

GRADE: A-