One to One: John & Yoko

Kevin Macdonald’s essential record of the former Beatle’s final full-length performance is a fascinating portrait of two artists in a state of flux.

John Lennon’s last full-length concert performance is the centrepiece of a Kevin Macdonald’s fascinating portrait of the ex-Beatle and Yoko Ono’s 18-month residence in New York’s West Village. Also the year leading up to Lennon’s pair of gigs with the Plastic Ono Elephant’s Memory Band, at Madison Square Garden in 1972, it proves a rich ground for highlighting where the iconic couple’s headspace might have been as they started their life anew on a different continent.

Faithfully recreating their duplex apartment, Macdonald explores the outsized role television played at this period of Lennon’s life, along with an account of pivotal friendships from the local scene, to paint a fascinating portrait of two artists in a state of flux. Alongside this is the concert itself, which sees Lennon balance late Beatles and solo tracks to electrifying effect.