55
Metascore
45 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90EmpireHelen O'HaraEmpireHelen O'HaraA glowing tribute to The Beatles and their music, this is both a toe-tapping pleasure to watch and a smart, occasionally scathing look at how we get things wrong.
- 80The TelegraphRobbie CollinThe TelegraphRobbie CollinThe film has lots of fun with its premise – until America beckons, then suddenly it seems to lose its head of steam. ... Yet it rallies in style for a beautifully judged and surprisingly moving finale.
- 80The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawAlthough this film can be a bit hokey and uncertain on narrative development, the puppyish zest and fun summoned up by Curtis and Boyle carry it along.
- 80IGNMatthew DoughertyIGNMatthew DoughertyYesterday doesn’t take too many chances, but it does boast a well-told story with a cast that’s game for both its comedic and more dramatic moments.
- 50Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganScreen DailyFionnuala HalliganYesterday is a film we’re all familiar with, for better or worse.
- 42IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichThis sweet but vacuous exercise in suspending disbelief is an overstuffed and underwritten misfire.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeNeither 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.
- 40VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanIn 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.
- 40TheWrapDan CallahanTheWrapDan CallahanCurtis’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.