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Blinded by the Light (2019)

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Edgy MD Jan 26 2020 08:43 AM

In the second of your series of British films about young men of South Asian descent being transformed by rock icons, comes this entry from the director of Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha and fringey screenwriter Sarfraz Manzoor. In a nowhere British town where auto factory jobs are disappearing, Javed is torn between his controlling Pakistani father and wanting to find his own voice as a young Brit. When a fellow Pakistani-English youth passes him a few cassettes, he decides his true story is but an echo coming out of New Jersey. [FIMG=450]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81iXHSllFYL._SY679_.jpg[/FIMG]

Johnny Lunchbucket Jan 26 2020 06:46 PM Re: Blinded by the Light (2019)

On the list. I read the book over the summer

Frayed Knot Jan 28 2020 02:57 PM Re: Blinded by the Light (2019)

I hope the book was better than the movie.

Johnny Lunchbucket Jan 28 2020 03:14 PM Re: Blinded by the Light (2019)

The book didn't come off as though it would make a movie, much less a comedy as the trailer seems to suggest. It's mostly a personal and sober examination of growing up as a minority in London and, um, being a fan of Springsteen.

Edgy MD Jan 28 2020 09:53 PM Re: Blinded by the Light (2019)

Frayed Knot wrote: I hope the book was better than the movie. Yeah, I like to hold off on critiquing, but man, this was a stinker. Like, you appreciate it's earnestness, but that only convinces you to sustain the charity to make it into the next scene, and the next scene does not reward you. There are musical sequences where you're not sure if we've broken into a surreal, musical bit, or the kid just did something awkward, acting out in public. Either way, it's embarrassing, but you're not sure if you're embarrassed for the character or the film-maker. And that in-between-ness is all over the context of movie too. Springsteen himself is in-between. As this movie is set in 1987, he's in between his world-conquering Born in the USA tour and the paradigm shift to Tunnel of Love, where he pared down the band, mixed the record track-by-track for the first time, retreating from the pressure of trying to sustain his superstar sound into returning to niche artistry, abeit a different (but still very popular) niche. He was also transitioning from his American working hero bod to his crazy-big mezomorph bod. Transitioning from his starter marriage to his longer-term followup. Transitioning from Jersey Muscle Car Bruce to California SUV Bruce too. Springsteen's arc up until that point is taken as one canon, but nobody would hand somebody cassettes of Darkness and Born in the USA to a newbie without carefully explaining that these are two very different Springies. I sure wouldn't, anyhow. Certainly not in 1987. My point being that it's odd that in 1987, with BS&tESB having toured the world a few times over in the previous few years, filling soccer stadia, and generally being a ubiquitous presence, riding the wave of Reagan/Thatcher nationalism, while maintaining the open secret that he's a subversive champion of the underdog ... how do you just discover him like he's some sort of underground taste? His frenemy is all "synths are the future," and even that seems to be a dated perspective by 1987. This small town really sucks. And it does. His father is apparently working in an auto factory, but the town lacks assembly line grit. Dad's whole demeanor is more that of an ambitious small business owner. And you don't find the grit of Springsteen's music either, which is the real tragedy. The music connects the kid with his own life, and only ends up making both feel false and sophomoric. (High-school sophomoric.) It's there in the kid's writing, too, which is supposed to demonstrating him as a budding voice, but like many films about good writing, fails to convince because the screenwriter can't really do good writing. He uses Springsteen's lyrics instead as a talisman, shouting them out in public in an attempt to ward off skin-headed bullies or sway the heart of the local big-hearted politically active cutie pie, but again, you're feeling embarrassed for him when you're supposed to be rooting. And they're often the wrong lyrics — lyrics that barely have any content that relates to the context of the scene. You appreciate the eagerness, but for the two or three scenes you surrender to, you have to summon the patience to get through a lot of tone-deafness. Actually, that sounds like the way a non-fan might describe more than a few Springsteen records. And that's the real tragedy. This won't win the Boss any new fans and might cost him one or two. Myself, I lifted the needle at the 45-minute mark.

Johnny Lunchbucket Jan 29 2020 05:15 AM Re: Blinded by the Light (2019)

Hmmm... Maybe we'll watch WESTERN STARS instead. The book was called Greetings from Bury Park and wasn't entirely great itself. I got the most out of description of his family and sort of rode with his Bruce admiration, but by the end he's like Bruce's best buddy, which made that bit of it harder to relate to. It's like, I had a hard childhood but it's ok now that I grew up to be cool.

Frayed Knot Jan 29 2020 07:34 AM Re: Blinded by the Light (2019)

I watching this movie thinking that it's a nice story just not well executed ... and then I remember that it's a nice "story" because it's a true story (or 'based on' at least) at which it becomes just not a good movie. Less 'Yesterday', it's more like a poorly done 'Bend it Like Beckham' rip-off. Other than that, pretty much what Edgy said; just too many things that didn't ring true. - In the street scene where folks spontaneously break into Bruce song it's unclear whether this was merely stuff happening inside the kid's head or if the movie was about to become musical theatre - the kid's schoolmates, who think he must only be listening to 'Asian' music while they're all deep into their 1987 new wave sounds & clothes, seem to have either barely heard of Springsteen and/or dismiss him as some relic from their parents' generation - the only real plot 'twist' is where the stern-looking neighbor, whose constant expression seems to epitomize the town's disapproval of having to live amongst a growing number of "Packys", turns out instead to be the local anti-xenophobe who then for good measure encourages the kid to continue working on his art after stumbling upon some of his writing (when some blew out of the garbage and onto the neighbor's lawn of course) oe: the fact that the kid grew up in the 'Bury Park' section of his town makes the book title of GREETING FROM BURY PARK very clever. So of course the movie decides that that need to be changed to ... something with essentially no meaning. Don't think that particular song was even used in the soundtrack.