One to One: John & Yoko 2024

Escaping the backlash from the dramatic breakup of The Beatles, John Lennon and Yoko Ono relocated to New York in 1971. They moved into a tiny Greenwich Village apartment with a massive TV propped at the end of their bed. Lennon exclaims that TV was his “window to the world” and filmmaker Kevin Macdonald picks up the cue, channel surfing through a dazzling array of early 70s archival material, home movies and audio recordings. From the Vietnam war to The Price Is Right, from Coca-Cola to the Attica prison riot, the result is an absorbing portrait of an era of radical change and counter-culture.  

But Macdonald also focuses on more domestic matters such as Yoko’s custody battle over her first child Kyoko, and in a running joke we hear her exasperated assistants trying to find flies for one of her performance pieces.  

Interspersed throughout the film is beautifully restored footage from the couple's 1972 One to One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden. It was the only full length concert John Lennon ever performed after leaving The Beatles and it’s a joy to experience barnstorming renditions of such flower power classics as ‘Come Together’ and ‘Instant Karma’. At a time when the world feels like it’s going erupt at any moment Lennon’s plea to give peace a chance is more urgent than ever. — Michael McDonnell