You wake up one day and you are the only one who can remember The Beatles. What an interesting concept just to start out with. And in 2019, Universal Studios released the film ‘Yesterday’ based on this idea. Directed by Danny Boyle and screenplay by Richard Curtis, this film (for me) eeks out nostalgia for my upbringing in England and part of why it is this week’s Honest Book Club title.
Among other things in this film, I love the recurring gag every time Jack (our protagonist) finds something else in addition to The Beatles that has been erased from human memory! Dialogue with humor and verisimilitude (or likeness to real life) is what keeps me coming back to this movie no matter the mood or time of day. If I were to be completely honest, the music that The Beatles made (though I know it well) has rarely crossed my mind. So a film like this serves as a polite reminder that there is really great music out there I do not touch on very often. With a soundtrack like that, you know you should be glad (yeah yeah yeah).
For such a high-budget studio film, something that stuck out to me was the actors seem well, inexperienced. While Lily James is a literal Disney princess, we have a protagonist played by an actor making his first appearance on the big screen (Himesh Patel, he is outstanding!) The only other recognizable faces were comedy-actress Kate Mckinnon and singer-songwriter Ed Sheeren (a non-actor… if we don’t count GOT). Compared to other studio films that are studded with as many stars as they can find. And there is a reason that studios do this too. It is in order to minimize risks when it comes time to market the film and shove movie-goers through the box-office and into the chairs. So knowing this, I appreciate Universal even more for their casting decisions when it came to this film!
What was your favorite part of the film?
Do you have a favorite Beatles song that Jack covers in the film?
Is there a Beatles pun that I should have worked into this tidbit?