One to One: John & Yoko (CTC)

On August 30, 1972, in New York City, John Lennon played his only full-length show after leaving The Beatles, the One to One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden, a rollicking, dazzling performance from him and Yoko Ono. Macdonald’s riveting documentary takes that legendary musical event and uses it as the starting point to explore eighteen defining months in the lives of John and Yoko.

By 1971 the couple was newly arrived in the United States —  living in a tiny apartment in Greenwich Village and watching a huge amount of American television. The film uses a riotous mélange of American TV to conjure the era through what the two would have been seeing on the screen: the Vietnam War, The Price is Right, Nixon, Coca-Cola ads, Cronkite, The Waltons. As they experience a year of love and transformation in the US, John and Yoko begin to change their approach to protest  — ultimately leading to the One to One concert, which was inspired by a Geraldo Rivera exposé they watched on TV.

Filmed in a meticulously faithful reproduction of the NYC apartment the duo shared, One to One: John & Yoko offers a bold new take on a seminal time in the lives of two of history’s most influential artists. 

Cast: John Lennon, Yoko Ono

Directors: Kevin Macdonald, Sam Rice-Edwards

★★★★★ "Despite the grimness of that political moment, the film maps a brief idyllic parenthesis of idealism and revitalised possibility after The Beatles split." FINANCIAL TIMES

★★★★ "One to One goes further than fan service for Beatlemaniacs. It’s a document of a febrile time and a wake-up call for a fizzled revolution." TIME OUT

★★★★ "Macdonald and Rice-Edwards have managed to find and mine a rich source of material, tightly tucked away amid all the other wildcat wells." GUARDIAN

★★★★ "A fascinating scrapbook of a period, One To One: John & Yoko may not be the definitive story of the musicians’ lives, but it is a compelling portrait of people trying to build a new chapter for society and themselves." CITY AM 

★★★★ "a revelatory, deeply human, and utterly compelling tribute" REEL REVIEWS

★★★★ "a fascinating insight into how one of the most famous men on the planet sought to use his influence for good in the couple of years after he ceased to be a Beatle." RADIO TIMES

★★★★ "One to One might not reveal a huge amount that’s new about Lennon, but it makes him feel bracingly alive in a way few other documentaries have managed" OBSERVER UK

★★★★ "a thrilling time capsule" SHOULD I SEE IT

★★★★ "leaves you with plenty to think about. As well as a newfound respect for the woman who allegedly broke up The Beatles" SUN UK

★★★★ "This is an effortlessly absorbing portrait of a megastar dancing to a charged political era." SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

"One to One is a reminder of the future we kids imagined in 1972. It’s also an act of encouragement. Lennon put it well when he told a concert audience, “OK, so flower power didn’t work. So what? We start again." HOLLYWOOD REPORTER