Some people say that if they could time travel, they’d go back to buy stock in Amazon or Google. For a musician, the equivalent might be playing songs before they were ever written and in Yesterday a struggling singer gets that chance. Jack (Himesh Patel; EastEnders) is a singer-songwriter who has never been able to get a record deal or write a hit song. After a particularly bad show, he decides to quit forever and bikes home only to be hit by a bus home during a freak global blackout. When he comes to, he realizes that no one has heard of The Beatles and takes the opportunity to pass off their music as his own.
While Yesterday presents an alternate timeline, that isn’t its focus. The film touches on a few trickle down effects of a world without The Beatles, like certain other bands never existing, and gets several laughs out of Jack frantically googling things only to realize they don’t exist, but it makes best use of the premise with the world’s casual indifference towards music that we now consider legendary. As Jack tries to play “Let it Be” for his family, his father keeps disrupting him, the neighbor stops by, and his mom can’t quite remember the name. There are also several jokes about the stranger titles of Beatles songs and albums and how no modern market research would ever allow such poor branding. Despite all these touches, at its heart, Yesterday is a romantic comedy.
Ellie (Lily James; Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) is Jack’s manager, roadie, biggest supporter, and clearly has unrequited feelings for him. Other characters point out their unusual relationship, but its importance never reaches Jack until he starts traveling. The arc of their relationship is nothing new, but it’s nevertheless enjoyable.
The film was written by Richard Curtis (Notting Hill) and it shows in every detail. The characters have the same likable, goofy, slightly off-beat charm he is known for and there is plenty of humor. Jack’s roadie, Rocky (Joel Fry; 10,000 BC), might as well be the roommate from Notting Hill with all his social faux pas and well-meaning failures. The film’s biggest surprise is singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. Sheeran who, playing himself, acts as Jack’s mentor and is hilarious in the self-satire as he gives Jack bad advice on how to succeed in the music industry. Curtis’s humor and charm are the film’s main draws.
While Curtis may have the greatest creative imprint, Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) is still the director. This is notably lighter fare than his usual work, but Boyle does an admirable job with the material. There are several oblique angles and a more kinetic energy to the camera movements. The story does however seem noticeably rushed. The major character changes from the second and third acts happen at a pace too quick to be believable and characters make decisions that are implausible in order for the story to reach its desired conclusion. It isn’t revolutionary and has some plot issues, but Yesterday has a unique premise and plenty of endearing characters and good-natured humor to make up for it.
3/5 stars.
The Witch is one of the most interesting horror movies of the past few years, with meticulous period detail and escalating paranoia that few films can achieve. Robert Eggers’s follow up is sure to be in the same vein with Willem Dafoe playing an elderly lighthouse keeper in this dark horror-fantasy.
Very little is known about the newest film from the Daniels, but their involvement is enough to warrant a place on this list. The film is described as an “inter-dimensional action film” with Michelle Yeoh and Awkwafina of Crazy Rich Asians starring. I’m personally not a huge fan of Awkwafina’s style of humor, but the Daniels’ history of creating 
WWII Germany is not where most people would think to set a comedy, but most people aren’t Taika Waititi. Hunt for the Wilderpeople was one of my favorite movies of 2016 and coming off Thor: Ragnarok, a studio film that neutered many of his best quirks, it’s nice to see him return to a smaller scale. The script is hilarious and features another precocious boy in a coming of age story with Waititi playing the child’s imaginary friend: Hitler. The film is filled with the well-meaning buffoons and dialogue misunderstandings that make his work so consistently entertaining.
It’s been more than a decade since Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) released a live action feature. His movies can sometimes be too reflexive for their own good, but are always thought-provoking. With some added freedom and budget from Netflix, he can hopefully put together one of his signature introspective stories.
This is the most mainstream film on my list and I can’t deny my appreciation for Richard Curtis’s work (Notting Hill, About Time). Some may call him cheesy, but he creates sympathetic, endearingly awkward characters and stories with unabashed heart. The pairing of his writing with strong direction from Danny Boyle seems like a great fit. The film’s story follows a struggling musician who, for currently unknown reasons, is the only person able to remember the Beatles and uses their music to launch his own career. This silly, but promising setup with a talented cast starring Himesh Patel and Lily James could be one of the most crowd-pleasing movies of the year.
After opening to incredible reviews at Cannes this year, Bi Gan’s sophomore feature has hit unexpected pre-sale records in China and is poised to be an arthouse breakout there. The film has received huge praise for its dreamy visuals, startling use of 3D, and a supposedly 50+ minute long take. Building off his stellar debut Kaili Blues and tackling new artistic challenges, Bi Gan is shaping up to be an original filmmaker to watch.
Babak Anvari’s feature debut Under the Shadow was 
This sci-fi thriller, co-written and directed by James Gray, may be the movie that delivers on what Interstellar could not. The film stars Brad Pitt as an engineer who travels through space searching for his father, played by none other than Tommy Lee Jones, who has been missing since he left for a mission to Neptune 20 years earlier. Ad Astra has Gray’s largest budget to date and with his focus on character and proven ability to tell decade spanning epics (The Lost City of Z), it could be the smart sci-fi we’ve been waiting for.
Gaspar Noé is one of my favorite filmmakers. He may be a provocateur and indulge himself in some unnecessary scenes, but he also creates visceral experiences like no other. Climax premiered at Cannes this year to the most positive reviews of Noé’s career, so much so that 
“What if I could put him in front you, the man that ruined your life?” Ethan Hawke plays a temporal agent traveling through time with his recruit Sarah Snook to prevent the bombings of a terrorist known as “The Fizzle Bomber”. The plot doesn’t take itself too seriously and instead makes use of the strong performances from its leads to explore the nature of cause and effect. Predestination is fun, twisty sci-fi at its best.
