Yesterday
Universal Pictures | Release Date: June 28, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
22
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Vanity FairK. Austin CollinsAug 6, 2019
Yesterday isn’t nearly as fantastical, sweet, or light on its feet as it could be—and maybe that’s because of that darn premise. It’s somehow both too basic and too rich. There’s too much one could do with it, but too little vision in what Boyle and Curtis ultimately put forward—even as real tensions, real sticks in music history’s craw, populate the margins. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredLuke ParkerJul 2, 2019
Yesterday’s lackluster, underwritten script both births its golden egg concept, and also restrains it from ever reaching the next level of sophistication or interest. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 26, 2019
Yesterday is more of a novelty earworm than a classic. It’s appealing and accessible in a way that the Beatles never really were. If it took itself — and them — a bit more seriously, it would be a lot more fun. But it wasn’t made to last. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJun 24, 2019
Yesterday, Boyle’s new Beatles-centric dramedy, comes closer than he’s ever dared before — which makes this likable, hummable movie particularly disappointing when it fails to ignite the pop fireworks of his best work. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 30, 2019
I can’t imagine a world without the Beatles, but I can well imagine a world without this movie. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonJun 27, 2019
It’s not as if the people never existed, only the band, and the logical conclusion of all this speculation is exactly where the movie takes itself. I don’t want to spoil the party, but it feels like exploitation. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 26, 2019
It’s content to keep things light and predictable, with the result that one of the richest song catalogs known to man is here to prop up an increasingly formulaic and far-fetched love story. Yesterday makes less sense the longer it lasts, albeit with some good bits along the way. Read full review
50
The AtlanticDavid SimsJun 26, 2019
This is a film that could have been triumphantly weird, or soaringly corny; it tries to split the difference and ends up merely forgettable. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 26, 2019
As Danny Boyle movies go, I’d still rather see him get his shot at James Bond. As Beatles tributes go, I have to say I prefer Julie Taymor’s “Across the Universe,” which re-set the songbook in thrilling and inventing ways. Yesterday just makes me long for that unjustly maligned flop. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 25, 2019
Curtis isn’t the director of Yesterday; Danny Boyle has been brought in to lend his shallow virtuosity. But fluid transitions don’t make the movie less clunky. Patel has an appealing presence and a lovely, McCartney-­like tenor, but the musical numbers leave an odd taste. Read full review
50
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganMay 4, 2019
Yesterday is a film we’re all familiar with, for better or worse. Read full review
45
The VergeAdi RobertsonMay 17, 2019
Yesterday is a breezy, moderately funny romantic comedy with an excellent soundtrack — but one that never commits to its characters, themes, or clever premise. Read full review
42
ConsequenceBlake GobleMay 20, 2019
Yesterday is too trusting, too confident in its silly dream, and not fun or passionate enough. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 4, 2019
This sweet but vacuous exercise in suspending disbelief is an overstuffed and underwritten misfire. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJun 29, 2019
There’s a zesty spark between Patel and James, and for a while the film chugs along happily on the goodwill bought by the soundtrack. Then one honkingly misjudged scene knocks the whole movie off key, heralding a toe-curling, tone-deaf terrace chant of an ending. Read full review
40
TimeStephanie ZacharekJun 26, 2019
Yesterday, a fantasy that works well enough as a Beatles love letter but falls short in the love-story department. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisJun 26, 2019
As the whimsical setup in Yesterday deteriorates until its unimaginative conclusion, the familiar Lennon/McCartney collaborations (along with a couple written by Harrison) provide the only solace, timeless songs that make it better. Viva Los Beatles! Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJun 26, 2019
It is hard to blame the audience for a movie that keeps daring us to envision a richer, funnier, more intelligent and imaginative version of it at every turn. Read full review
40
UproxxMike RyanMay 4, 2019
It has a killer premise, yet the movie seems to actively resent its own fantastic idea and just, instead, decided to become a fairly average romantic comedy — only with a lot more Beatles songs than the average rom com. Read full review
40
TheWrapDan CallahanMay 4, 2019
Curtis’s twee, nudging, corny comedic voice is very much the main sensibility here, far more so than anything offered by director Danny Boyle or anyone else involved. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMay 4, 2019
Neither a no-nonsense delight like "She Loves You" nor the White Album-style head trip its premise might suggest, it's more of a "Yellow Submarine" sort of film: crowd-pleasing and sometimes enjoyable, but pretty damned dumb when you stop to think about it. Read full review
40
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 4, 2019
In Yesterday, [Boyle and Curtis] reduce the Beatles to the ultimate product by declaring, at every turn, “These songs are transcendent!” And it’s the fact that they keep telling us, rather than showing us (i.e., with musical sequences that earned their transcendence), that makes Yesterday, for all the timeless songs in it, a cut-and-dried, rotely whimsical, prefab experience. Read full review
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