Yesterday I saw Yesterday.

It is perfectly charming and avoids a lot of pitfalls that stories based on metaphysical “magic” usually fall into, narrative traps that distance me from the narrative.

The actors are engaging, the filmmaking accomplished, and the message inspires and rings true in a way our fame- and privilege-obsessed culture needs to embrace if we hope to thrive or, possibly, to survive.

Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) has given up his teaching job to focus on his music with the encouragement of his friend/manager Ellie Appleton (Lily James). It is clear to viewers that she loves him, but he has never moved her from the friend column into the love column, probably because he does not feel “together” enough or worthy enough to be loved.

It is only after Jack is on the cusp of worldwide fame and unbelievable that he discovers what it is he really wants: a simple life filled with love and music with friends and family and built around an alignment with purpose on an intimate scale that appears enormously appealing in this movie.

Yesterday is an unconventional teacher movie that almost oozes sweetness and hope, two things I hold in high regard. And, yet…

Yesterday is extremely enjoyable but not quite magical for me in the cinematic sense.

I will probably go see any film Danny Boyle directs because of how much I admire his sense of storytelling and visual craft, but I don’t have anything revelatory to say about this movie — as I might about Trainspotting or Millions or Slumdog Millionaire — which is less a criticism than it is an explanation of how I decide which films I want to write about here.

In the past, when I was a media commentator for WFDD and this blog was associated with the station, I tried to be more diligent about writing posts about most things I saw at the movies and, later, on television.

Now, not only is there too much to watch (and I do watch a lot), but I’m less inclined to write about something just because I’ve seen it instead of because I have something specific I want to say.

Case in point: Men in Black: International.

What a “meh” of a movie for me. It’s not bad but just so mediocre and forgettable, despite the fact that I enjoy seeing Tessa Thompson (on my radar since Dear White People) and Chris Hemsworth (I mean, you know…) and Emma Thompson (her “natural” hair rocks instead of shocks) on the big screen.

The only thing I really have to say about that movie is related to the venue where I saw it.

I was in London a couple of weeks ago and watched Men in Black: International at the cineplex Odeon Luxe Leicester Square. During the fall semester of 2005, I taught in London, accompanied by my then-13-year-old son, and every weekend he wanted us to go to Leicester Square to see a movie. Most weekends we did just that.

So, for me, there is nothing I care to say about this film except that the sound system in the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square is one of the best I’ve experienced and being there was sweetly nostalgic, not exactly the stuff of insightful critique.

I also considered some time back writing about Book Smart, which I anticipated intensely and enjoyed, and goodness knows I want to support women filmmakers like Olivia Wilde (director) and the four women credited with writing the screenplay.

I enjoyed the film and celebrate the fact that there are more female coming-of-age stories but found my appreciation of Book Smart more intellectual than emotional (unlike Eighth Grade or, earlier, Easy A).

Unless there is a clear thesis that emerges for me about a particular film or some insight I think is original or a connection to my scholarly projects or a need to analyze a media text to explain to myself how I feel about it, I’ve slipped into pattern of giving myself some measure of grace in recent years and not trying to document most of what I see.

The topic nagging at me to writing about lately is Rocketman, but I feel that I need to see it once more to write persuasively about what I see there that makes this film exceptional where other recent biopics fall short (I have five other films in mind as comparison points).

Until I’m able to see this magnificently conceptualized and realized film again, let me just share what I said to my favorite viewing partner, who (happily for me) was sitting in the next seat as the credits rolled, “Now people who thought Bohemian Rhapsody was a great movie can see all of the reasons why they were wrong.”

I once quipped in this blog space before the Elton John biopic was released that there is more context in the preview trailer for Rocketman than in the entirety of the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

Well, that is only a part of what makes the former such a magnificent movie and the latter disappointing to me…