* Another one that is a true story here.

Growing up my Dad always would talk about The Boss. And I always said the same thing, “Who the hell is The Boss?” So he educated me and I learned of the power of the music of Bruce Springsteen.

That power is the basis of the new movie Blinded by the Light directed by Gurinder Chadha. This is a true story based on the life of writer Sarfraz Manzoor (his name is Javed in the movie) about how he used the music of Springsteen to work his way out of Luton, to follow his dreams. Chadha is most famous for directing Bend it Like Beckham (Juice Rating 74/100), and you can see many similarities in this movie. An immigrant family to England is stuck in the past and one of the children wants to chase a dream that does not align with the family’s interests.

The thing that makes this movie so much different and in my opinion better than “Bend it” is the music and the quality of the film making here. Obviously having Springsteen’s music is huge, but the way they utilized it is what makes this great. Chadha would scroll the lyrics across the screen to convey Javed’s thoughts and it helped the viewer care about the character even more.

In terms of the overall movie, I thought it was paced extremely well, and made every character distinct and memorable. There was also some overtones of the rampant racism in Luton at that time, I thought that just brought another dynamic into this movie. Sometimes i find C story lines like that to be tiresome, but this really added to the arc of the family and it worked.

Stock Watch

Stock Up – Viveik Kalra made his movie debut with this role and absolutely knocked it out of the park as Javed. Every second he was on screen you felt like you just wanted to give the guy a hug and tell him everything was gonna be OK. He showed off the whole range of emotions and even had some pretty good singing and dancing skills. This was a star turning role for him.

Stock Up – Gurinder Chadha has a very distinct style and she seems to be a master of that craft. I love what she does with everything in this movie and at times the script she adapted sounds like poetry. I would greatly enjoy continuing to watch her movies.

Stock Up – I obviously fell in love with Hayley Atwell when she was was playing Peggy Carter in the MCU. But here she gets to play a mentor and teacher to young Javed. She pushes him along the way, and I thought Atwell handled everything with grace and poise and continues to impress me as an actress.

*A couple other tidbits

• Kulvinder Ghir and Meera Ganatra as Javed’s parents were incredible and helped carry the emotional weight of the movie.
• All the side characters were just so much fun, Matt, Matts Dad, Eliza, and Roops all brought different dynamics and more energy to this story.
• The Neighbor story line was a little weird to be completely honest.

What an absolute blast of a movie. This story is just overflowing with heart and laughter and you cannot help but smile while you walk out of the theater. This is one of the best movies of the year so far.

Juice Rating:

*You can find all of my Movie Ratings here.

*Below is my updated list of top movies this year.