Blinded By The Light

What is this year? Two movies about Asian men being super into some older band?

We had Yesterday, about The Beatles, and now we have Blinded By The Light, about The Boss, Bruce Springsteen.

Sure, neither of these movies are at all related. One a mystical event wiping them from the world. Another a realistic tale about a dude who just liked Springsteen decades later to an obsessive degree. Yet, at the same time, I feel like they will forever be linked in the future despite everything.

And you know, because of people like me.

People like me, who don´t get to look good in plaid.

Javed (Viveik Kalra) has had a typical Pakistani upbringing. Well, he has been living in London for most of his life, that is different. But his father (Kulvinder Ghir) and mother (Meera Ganatra) are strict, and have his whole life planned out for him. Same for his sister (Kit Reeve).

Despite having a British best friend (Dean-Charles Chapman) across the street, who got to do everything, Javed had to watch and live vicariously a lot of the time. When it got to be time for graduation and college, Javed liked to write poetry, but that wouldn´t lead him to a good career. He couldn´t follow his passions in writing, he had to do something that would make him some money.

Dealing with racism, not fitting in, and a home life that doesn´t care, Javed found a home in one of his fellow South Asian friends, Roops (Aaron Phagura), and his love for a man named Bruce Springsteen. Javed immediately began to connect to his music, about the struggles of life and found a new passion in it all. His music encouraged him to try new things, to date, to follow his passions, and of course, to write.

But following your dreams doesn´t mean you will be on a path of least resistance.

Also featuring Nell Williams, Tara Divina, and Hayley Atwell.

The most appealing part of the room is just how clean it all feels.

I didn´t like Yesterday because the story was a mess and bad all over. I didn´t like Blinded by the Light because I failed to ever care.

This film almost received a 0 from me, but it had some nice scenes at the end. Mainly the protest scene and the arguments with his family scenes. They brought me in a little bit. But everything else felt so forced, and more importantly, slow.

It felt like an eternity to get through this movie, and took awhile to get to a real point. It doesn´t offer anything new on the basic side of things. Kid wants to do something, parents do not want him to do it, and he is able to do it anyways for success! Yay!

Is it better because its a true story? Because its about Springsteen? None of these inherently make a great story. And if it is a true story, it still fails to tell me why it matters. This kid, if he grew up to be a famous song writer or author, we don´t know. At the end we know he grew up to go see Bruce Springsteen in concert a whole lot of times.

Setting the bar quite low for reasons to make a movie here.