Vincent Miskell

The Norsemen series is pretty funny—at times hilarious. Everything looks authentic and was created by Norwegians with mainly Norwegian actors speaking English. It often portrays archetypical terrible viking behavior—except all the dialogue is ironically contemporary and full of management and pop psychology cliches. It’s like an extended Monty Python sketch, except a little more violent and at times vulgar. In fact, Monty Python fans should love the absurd contrasts. Those who don’t appreciate this kind of humor will probably find it too silly.

Fans of the Beatles will love this nostalgic trek through the Fab Four’s greatest hits, set in an alternative universe where the Beatles never existed (along with some other surprising omissions). Jack, a flailing and failing singer-songwriter, is about to quit music and return to teaching when the power grid of the world winks out, causing his bike to collide with a lights-out bus. He wakes up in a hospital with his devoted manager/life-long friend Ellie waiting. Soon after his release he performs “Yesterday,” and some of his listeners (and most of the movie audience) are moved to tears at the sheer beauty of “his new song.” Once he verifies he’s in a parallel world sans the Beatles, he begins to “write” and perform their hits. After a rough start, he’s soon rising toward stardom. At its core, YESTERDAY is a romantic comedy because Ellie has loved Jack for 20 years, but incredibly (and frankly unbelievably) he hasn’t noticed. As far as premises go, the parallel universe requires less suspension of disbelief than the unnoticed love idea, but in the moment of the movie, it works, so audiences won’t care, even if they stop to think about it—which they won’t. Instead, the sheer elation of the song performances carries everyone away up to the rolling credits of the original “Hey Jude,” belted out on a movie theater sound system. Five stars for Beatles fans; maybe 3 for everyone else—not sure because I’m a fan.