One to One: John & Yoko (2025)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Beatles fans and John Lennon fans have a fascinating cinematic experience … on IMAX no less!
Takes a unique approach at framing the Lennon and Ono concert as a part of the ongoing history of the moment.
Hard not to get swept up in the viewing experience. The music remastering alone is remarkable.
NO
Can cause viewers to wonder if this is a movie about John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their status of celebrity influence in 1972, or a look at a chaotic year and John & Yoko swirling around within it.
This will likely not appeal much to anyone who does not have at least a nominal interest in The Beatles.
The editing technique, where the movie resembles a television changing channels in frequent succession, may prove distracting and off-putting for some viewers.
OUR REVIEW
As much a spotlight on the chaos of 1972 as it is a documentary and concert film, One to One: John & Yoko takes us back to a time when the world felt like it was tearing at the seams.
Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September), and co-director Sam Rice-Edwards, bring an enthusiastic approach in piecing together anecdotes and stories from a tumultuous time in our nation’s history. In framing it around a significant pop culture moment - in this case, a New York City benefit concert in August 1972 by John Lennon and Yoko Ono - we not only witness Lennon’s last public concert performance, but we recognize Lennon’s larger-than-life persona and the influence the power couple had with the news media.
The early 1970s were marked by political and social unrest. The Vietnam War sowed anger and discontent at home, while President Richard Nixon was re-elected by a landslide as a looming Watergate scandal was ready to explode. Mounting protests were commonplace, civil rights activism gained momentum, and an increasingly inquisitive media demanded answers to touch questions. Television viewing became more pervasive in people’s homes. Everyone seemed agitated, and were consuming more information than ever before.
With One to One: John & Yoko, the filmmakers compile hundreds of soundbites, video clips, advertisements, interviews, and news stories for us to process. In many ways, the film becomes a pop culture scrapbook, with two of the most enigmatic celebrities of the era positioned in the center of seemingly everything.
The concert, previously released in 1986, is remastered and remixed here by Sean Ono Lennon and the sound quality is exceptional. In addition, the IMAX format makes the footage, at 53 years old, look incredible - fresh faces, clear reactions, and a way of placing us not only in the famed Madison Square Garden where the concert took place, but also up close and on stage. The power of the moment really comes through the screen and we feel the emotion around several of the performances which are included.
Lennon, Ono, and the Plastic Ono Elephant’s Memory’s Band performed two shows on the day of the concert, raising approximately $1.5 million for the Willowbrook State School, a facility for children with cognitive and physical disabilities. After a harrowing investigative report from journalist Geraldo Rivera brought to light deplorable conditions and stories of physical and sexual abuse at the school, the story drew national attention. Rivera would win a Peabody Award for his reporting and Lennon and Ono held the concerts at his request.
During the film, MacDonald and Rice-Edwards use a channel-changing editing motif to underscore the whiplash of events that took place in 1972. One nice surprise is the inclusion of audio from a variety of phone calls involving Lennon and his manager discussing a variety of topics. A running gag throughout the film comes with some humorous conversations involving Ono attempting to secure live flies from multiple vendors for an art project she is working on.
I wish we could have spent more time inside the reconstructed model of Lennon and Ono’s Greenwich Village apartment. Painstakingly recreated, we can imagine the types of conversations and interactions that occurred there. Far from the celebrity lifestyle many of their peers were living, when Lennon describes he and Ono watching TV basically 24 hours a day, we can imagine them in that room, laying in bed, likely stoned, just letting the images and stories flash before them and inspiring, aggravating, and captivating them in equal measure.
The frequent cutaways don’t always work. At times, the film feels overly busy and slowing down and letting some moments breathe would produce greater impact. We also drift a bit with the narrative - is this a film about John & Yoko attempting to make good in the world or is it a movie chronicling the time period and they were just caught up in everything?
Activists like Allen Ginsburg and Jerry Rubin are in their orbit. We learn more about why President Nixon tried to deport Lennon on marijuana charges. We learn about Lennon’s failed efforts to “Free the People,” a proposed benefit tour with Bob Dylan which would pay for the release of prisoners in all the cities they were to visit. All of it is interesting, even if the context is somewhat lacking for viewers unfamiliar with the issues of the era and the complex emotions present in society at the time.
I was struck by how the influence of celebrity in 1972 is not all that different from today - the tools to influence may have changed, but society still often turns to (and expects) the rich and famous to take a stand and guide us on how to feel about certain issues. Is it fair to call John & Yoko influencers of their era? Would they go viral today? Become TikTok famous?
One to One: John & Yoko is a thrilling time capsule, sweeping you up in its clever presentation. In an IMAX theater, surrounded by crystal clear sound and restored images, you cannot help but be transported into an era still being researched and evaluated more than five decades later.
CAST & CREW
Featuring: John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Allen Ginsburg, Jerry Rubin
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Co-Director: Sam Rice-Edwards
Release Date: April 11, 2025
Magnolia Pictures