What "Yesterday" — and Everyone Else — Forgets About the Beatles

Posted August 1, 2019

External Article: Salon

Jay Bolter, professor and director of computational media at the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Literature, Media, and Communication, recently wrote an article entitled “What "Yesterday" — and Everyone Else — Forgets About the Beatles” for Salon, July 29.

Here's an excerpt:

Fans of Richard Curtis’ rom-coms (and based on his box office numbers there must be tens of millions) will find in "Yesterday" many of the pleasures that drew them to "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill,"  "Love, Actually" and "Bridget Jones’s Diary." This film, however, has a fantasy dimension that the others did not. An unsuccessful singer-composer, Jack Malik, awakens from a bicycle accident into a world in which the Beatles never existed. Their catalog of songs is gone, and after a moment of moral hesitation, Jack resolves to present them as his own. In "Yesterday"’s universe, these quintessential 1960s songs are as popular as they were in our universe, and make Jack an overnight star.  Some critics have liked "Yesterday," but many were disappointed that the film does not treat its clever premise more seriously — or that the film squanders the opportunity to explore the meaning of the Beatles' music today.

Read the full story here.

The School of Literature, Media, and Communication is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.