One to One: John & Yoko dives into the iconic duo’s Madison Square Garden concert in a TikTok-style exploration of music, activism, and love.
Alright, let’s kick off this year’s Sundance with some tunes, starting with One to One: John & Yoko, directed by Kevin Macdonald, with co-direction and editing by Sam Rice-Edwards. This documentary isn’t your typical stroll down Beatlemania Lane. Instead, it plunges you into the wayward whirlpool of 1971-1972, a period when John Lennon and Yoko Ono swapped the fog of London for the gritty, bohemian streets of New York City.
The two lovers nestled themselves into a modest Greenwich Village apartment, where they watched TV all day, immersed in the counterculture and anti-war movements of peak Nixon-era America. The film doesn’t just recount this period, it catapults you into it, employing a frenetic, TikTok-esque archival style that mirrors the disarray and fervor of the times. Imagine flipping through early ’70s TV channels, each vignette a fragment of a Lennon-Ono algorithm, oscillating between their Madison Square Garden concert, political protests, and candid moments that reveal their unvarnished humanity. It’s disorienting, sure, but that’s the point. The film’s structure reflects the fragmented reality they inhabited, making you feel the turbulence rather than just witness it.
Now, about that concert—the One to One benefit at Madison Square Garden in August ’72, Lennon’s only full-length post-Beatles performance. The film showcases eight remastered performances, with the audio meticulously overseen by their son, Sean Ono Lennon. The raw energy is truly palpable. “Come Together” isn’t simply performed, it’s unleashed, with Lennon chewing gum between lines, exuding a nonchalant defiance.
“Imagine” sheds its overplayed anthem skin, revealing a subversive core that hits differently amidst the era’s political upheaval, almost like a revelatory hidden gem edit. Yoko’s “Looking Over From My Hotel Window” adds a layer of guttural introspection, though the absence of onstage footage for this track leaves you yearning for more.
The concert serves as the film’s backbone, but it’s the surrounding chaos—the snippets of newsreels, the candid phone calls, the behind-the-scenes tensions—that flesh out the narrative. You witness their entanglement with activists like Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, their ambitious yet ill-fated ‘Free the People’ tour, and the eventual disillusionment that led them to channel their activism through music instead. It’s messy, it’s passionate, it’s a testament to their relentless pursuit of peace amid personal and political turmoil.
Technically, the film is a marvel of noise, nostalgia, and New Yawk City. The integration of restored 16mm concert footage with archival news clips and previously unheard tapes of private conversations creates a well-paced, constantly moving experience of a documentary. Again, the editing mimics the erratic nature of channel surfing, a nod to Lennon’s own habit of incessant TV watching upon arriving in America. This stylistic choice isn’t just for flair. It underscores the media-saturated environment that influenced their artistry and activism.
The production design, particularly the recreation of their West Village apartment complete with period-accurate details, adds a tangible authenticity, as well. It’s as if you’re sitting on the unmade bed with them, absorbing the zeitgeist (and flies) through their eyes. The film doesn’t sanitize their narrative, far from it. Instead, it presents their flaws, their contradictions, their humanity, all wrapped up in their deeply personal, public personas. And in doing so, it offers a reflection on today’s sociopolitical climate, drawing eerie parallels (particularly Nixon’s reelection) that suggest the more things change, the more they stay the same. Maybe even get worse.
One to One: John & Yoko is a thrilling document capturing a slice of music history. It encapsulates a moment when art and activism collided with unfiltered intensity. It’s indeed a full-throated ride—chaotic, enlightening, and profoundly human. Whether you’re a die-hard Lennon/Ono fan or a newcomer curious about this iconic duo, the film offers a visceral glimpse into a world where music was a weapon, love was a battlefield, and the quest for peace was anything but peaceful.
One to One: John & Yoko had its world premiere at the Telluride 2024 Film Festival and has now been acquired by Magnolia Pictures ahead of its showing at the Sundance 2025 Film Festival. Find more of our Sundance 2025 coverage here.
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One to One: John & Yoko - 7.5/10
7.5/10
Jon is one of the co-founders of InBetweenDrafts. He hosts the podcasts Thank God for Movies, Mad Men Men, Rookie Pirate Radio, and Fantasy Writing for Barbarians. He doesn’t sleep, essentially.
