Monday Movie Review: Blinded by the Light
It should probably not come as a surprise to you that I am not and have never been a big fan of Bruce Springsteen. Nothing against the man, he’s just not my jam. Give me boy bands and Broadway any day of the week. But I couldn’t help but be intrigued by Blinded by the Light because it looked like your typical coming of age story. And it was, but it was also so much more.
Javed (Viveik Kalra) is a high schooler in England in the late eighties who just wants to be a writer (swoon). He pens poems and dreams of one day making a living with his words (same, bro). The child of Pakistani immigrants, Javed is expected to become a doctor or a lawyer, and even while he’s in school, he’s expected to contribute financially to his family. He feels like no one understands him, until a guy at school gives him two Bruce Springsteen albums on cassettes (remember those?). Javed doesn’t think a grown man living in America can relate to him at all, but once he starts listening, he starts to hear his own frustrations in Bruce’s words. To say he becomes obsessed would be an understatement. But he also becomes more confident in his pursuit of his dream. With the help of his lit teacher (Hayley Atwell, yes girl!), he gets an internship and wins a writing contest that sends him to New Jersey (home of Bruce Springsteen). But the more into music and writing he becomes, the more he struggles in his relationships with his family, in particular his father.
I just fell in love with this movie. Equally joyful and heart-wrenching, thought-provoking and inspiring. As someone who also fancies herself a writer one day when she grows up, there was so much about Javed’s struggle to find his voice that I could relate to. And just like The Farewell, this film illustrates the power and tension and love of a family absolutely perfectly. Kalra is an absolute dream, you can’t help but root for him. I was also surprised to discover during my IMDB research for this post that his best friend in the movie is played by Dean-Charles Chapman, aka Tommen Baratheon and I totally didn’t pick up on that during the movie, so props to you kiddo because you transformed yourself!
The other layer of this film that is interesting in an absolutely terrifying way is the racism. In the eighties in a small town in England, Pakistani immigrants are treated pretty terribly. There are some disturbing instances shown in the movie, culminating in Javed’s family getting stuck in the middle of a white supremacy march that ends violently. It’s heart-breaking, for obvious reasons, but the main reason I found it so hard to stomach was that even though this movie takes place in England thirty years ago, if you didn’t know the time period, it could be set in America right now. And how fucking scary is it to think we’ve made no progress in over thirty years (some might said there’s been some back sliding happening).
Whether you are a fan of The Boss or not, Blinded by the Light is so worth seeing in theaters. Even with all the heartache, I left the theater feeling happy and hopeful. This one gets an A, for sure.
