Film: Yesterday

GENRE: Comedy, Fantasy

RATING: PG-13 for language
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 56 minutes

STARRING: Himesh Patel (EastEnders - British TV series)

Lily James (Baby Driver, Cinderella), Joel Fry (Game of Thrones)

DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionare, 127 Hours)

WRITER: Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral)

PLOT: A struggling musician miraculously becomes the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles and uses it to his advantage.  

FULL DISCLOSURE: Love the premise. Love The Beatles.

STORY STUFF: I love a good ‘what if’ film. Films like Big, Liar Liar and Truman Show always make you think while having a good time at the theatre. This film is no exception. How would I handle it if I was in this situation? I love some of the twists and turns Curtis employs. While some might not like the resolution, I have no problem with it. My one issue is how moronic Jack is by not recognizing the amazingness of Ellie right from the start. She’s a ray of sunshine that cannot be ignored. I also took some offense to a line the implied that a school teacher does not have time to engage in outside creative endeavors. I beg to differ.

ACTING STUFF: Patel plays the struggling musician well with his charm and internal conflict. Again, he is also moronically blind. Like I said, James is a ray of sunshine. Fry is bumbling fun as a sidekick. Kate McKinnon (SNL) goes big but that is to be expected. Ed Sheeran has fun with his persona (that ringtone – so tacky). Alexander Arnold plays a small role but his performance reminded me of a mix between Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins) and Stephen Merchant (Extras). Fun stuff.

ARTISTIC STUFF: Great use of music. (Thanks Beatles.) Liked the editing with the jumps to the Google search. Some of the camera angles did not work for me. A dutch tilt is used early in the film and it looked awkward, and not in a good way.

VERDICT: Four and a half stars out of five

SEE IT IF: You like The Beatles and a good premise (and rom-coms)

UPCOMING REVIEWS: Spiderman: Far from Home