Like many others out there, The Beatles have been my favorite band for most of my life. I discovered them as a teenager and have been in love with their music ever since. So, I was really interested when I first saw the trailer for Yesterday. We seem to be on a musical biopic trend lately with Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, and so it would have been really easy to just make a straight-up biopic of The Beatles (which I would be down for, for the record). However, Yesterday instead decides to tell a fictional story, with a concept that, if we’re being completely honest, is kind of far-fetched and out there. But that’s what makes it so interesting.

We follow the story of Jack Malik, a musician who’s struggling to find an audience for his music. Jack is on the brink of giving up on his dreams, until he gets into an accident one day. After waking up, he finds himself in an alternate timeline where The Beatles never existed. As such, he’s the only one that remembers their music. He ends up using this advantage to come out with the songs of The Beatles as if they were his own. Inevitably, the songs take the world by storm, and he becomes famous. However, the growing pressure of knowing that the songs aren’t really his begins to weigh on Jack, and so he’s confronted with how to handle this new life of his.

Yesterday is one of those movies where I wish I had more to say about it, since I genuinely really enjoyed it. However, I found that there wasn’t a whole lot to talk about for me when all was said and done. This is a shame, because it really is a lovely movie, yet it doesn’t really make for a great review. The most interesting thing about Yesterday is its concept, and unfortunately I can only talk about that so much without spoiling the directions that it takes. I suppose I can at least say that I had a few predictions on where the movie might go, and the movie actually surprised me by taking it in ways I wasn’t expecting.

So, in the end, the best way for me to recommend Yesterday for you is to ask you if the concept sounds intriguing to you. Do you like the Beatles’ music, and if so do you want to see it portrayed in a fun and different way? Does the weird concept of a world without The Beatles sound interesting to you? If so, then you should watch Yesterday. It delivers on its premise, and so it ends up being a great movie.

4/5