Yesterday (2019)

This Week: Yesterday (2019)

Saw Yesterday, Today.

This is an interesting movie. It revolves around the idea that the Beatles and their songs are wiped out of history and only one person, Jack, remembers them at all. Jack then starts releasing their songs as his own and attains worldwide fame as the greatest songwriter of all time.

This is an interesting movie for me to review. I have never really been a huge fan of the Beatles. Hell, for the longest time I thought they were the Beetles, because I didn’t know the pun.

However, I never realized how many freaking Beatles songs I knew until I saw Across the Universe. I kind of had to have it pointed out to me that all the songs in that movie were Beatles songs.

To me, The Beatles were a default band. If you said your favorite band is the Beatles, then you are just going with the safe answer. Like saying your favorite author is Stephen King. Then of course I actually started READING Stephen King and I owe him an apology letter.

This movie actually handles the whole situation realistically. The only reason Jack is able to capitalize on the success on the Beatles is because he already is a songwriter in his own right. Nobody comes to his shows and he is about to quit. When Jack is the only one who remembers the Beatles, he does know how to write and play songs, so he is able to bring them back. However, he does have difficulty remembering the songs and lyrics. Jack also doesn’t immediately take off. He still is playing several shows and almost gives up again due to seeming lack of interest.

Now the question the movie kind of glosses over is whether the Beatles songs, if released today, would be hits. The movie just kind of takes it as a given. Doesn’t matter who sings them. The movie makes a point of demonstrating that the marketing today and marketing music back during the Beatles original rise is very different.

Where the Beatles had full creative control most of the time and got to choose their albums and look, now the music industry has more say in how to market everything.

I’m not necessarily sold on the idea that the songs of the Beatles would be instantly popular today and seen as the “greatest of all time” from the gate. I like Beatles songs fine, but they are very much products of their time. The reason they were successful is because they were reinventing the medium at the time. Hell, the Beatles were edgy. So were the Simpsons. Now both are fairly tame in retrospect.

Do I think that they would be successful? Yes. Take over the world of music? No. I would see them on the same level as Ed Sheeran. Which is more a presence on the pop charts and not dominating the world of music. But then again, I am not a music reviewer, I leave that to Metalloud, ToddintheShadows, and theNeedledrop. That’s just my opinion on how the Beatles would fair today.

Now, there are some things I want to address, but this gets into Spoiler territory, so. . .

So this whole thing stems from all the power in the world going down for about 12 seconds. This is not just things tied to electrical grids, but the lights on vehicles and other battery operated devices also go dark. At the very moment this happens, Jack gets hit by a bus.

When Jack comes to, the Beatles are history- or no longer history, whatever I mean. But several other popular things such as cigarettes no longer exist. I could provide a list, but I figure it is more enjoyable to let them play out.

So main character is in an accident, and when he wakes up, the world is drastically altered. So this movie is all a dream, right?

Wrong. Trope subverted. Somebody snapped the Infinity Gauntlet, wished several things out of existence, and only one(or three) people know about it. As of yet, no one is undoing it, so this is reality.

The movie doesn’t end with Jack waking up and learning the lesson from his dream. Honestly, that was what I was expecting the WHOLE movie. So when the credits started rolling, it was interesting to see that they never went back to the Beatles world.

However, this in turn raises a few questions. For one, what caused all this? What caused the Blackout that wiped out The Beatles and a bunch of other stuff?

Why was Jack and the other two people able to remember everything? Were they ALSO in accidents when the power went out? How many people still know, but just don’t care about the Beatles, so didn’t confront Jack?

What are the rules of this world? Why are things gone now?

Anywho, I think this is pretty good movie. I don’t think it will blow up the box office or win any oscars, but it’s a good film, none the less.

Next Week: Spider-Man: Far From Home. This will be my first proper midnight movie in a LONG time. Gonna suck that I work that day, but oh well.