Yesterday (2019)

Elevator Pitch: Imagine a world where no-one has heard of the Beatles, or Coke, but you are a failed musician and songwriter, and you remember the Beatles music. This is the situation in which Jack Malik finds himself after a world wide 12 second energy outage, possibly propelling everybody into a slightly different reality. What can Jack do? Obviously he has to adopt the Beatles song book as his own, and as a result he is picked up as support by Ed Sheeran, and gains an LA agent, which requires his to dump the young woman who has supported him throughout his almost career.

Content: Let’s start with the parental essentials; there is no nudity, just a bit of implied sex and some drinking. Other than that numerous presentations of Beatles songs while Jack is recording, on TV and later in larger and larger venues, ending up in Wembley Stadium. He has a personal life, but still lives with his mum and dad and is driven about by his friend, Ellie, in her Mini Countryman. In Los Angels he is overcome by the relentless pressure of the star buildup.

A View: We saw this in the cinema yesterday on its opening day in Spain. It was easy to accept the alternative reality but we were less convinced by other aspects of the story. However, most importantly, the songs are terrific, the singing is well done and the presentations and set pieces absolutely wonderful. I thought that the high point of the film was Jack singing “Back in the USSR” in Moscow which is about half way through and it was slightly downhill from there. What can I say – just more essential viewing for the over 50s.  Don’t miss it.

Additional Info: I loved the idea that Gorleston was important. Great Yarmouth, and Lowestoft are former holiday resorts on the East coast of UK. And Gorleston is the suburb on the south side of the River Yar, from which you can look across at the redundant oil supply bases of Gt Yarmouth on the north side of the river.