Also went to see the new music-infused film Blinded by The Light. This is a movie positively dripping with the music of Bruce Springsteen but isn’t actually either a jukebox musical or a biopic. I’m sure it was made with some go-ahead by Springsteen (at the very least, the budget went to licensing a ton of songs), but it isn’t in the same vein as either Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocketman.
Instead, this movie is about a teenager in a worn-out town in England who stumbles upon Springsteen’s music and is amazed at how The Boss totally understands his life. The kid is a first generation Pakistani immigrant… his father is very traditional and doesn’t treat his son like a man, the industrial town is on the skids with the local plant closing, and England, in general, is in the midst of a recession. This, the boy feels, is exactly what Springsteen is singing about in albums like Darkness at the Edge of Town and Born in the USA. He might be singing about a runaway American dream… but that just as well applies to the kid’s dreams too.
Most of the film is setup as a slice of life, coming of age film about this teen boy, his friends, his radical English girlfriend, and his desire to break away from his father’s expectations and become a writer. You could largely take Springsteen out of the movie and have the same flick… but this is based on the real life story of a kid who idolized the Boss so you can’t take his music out of his story. It means too much to him and the movie makes convincing arguments at how meaningful those lyrics really are.
And the movie certainly plays a lot of Springsteen’s music. It presents it in inventive ways. At first in a dramatic storm with the lyrics popping up around the kid as he listens in awe. But later just the sheer joy of being young and free and listening to great music with your friends as you run through town. These sequences are joyful and rebellious and honest and fun… they bring so much life to the film and could have been the heart and soul themselves.
This is a very charming and fun movie that’s as much about the music as it is a coming-of-age story. Its England in the 80s is also not a perfect place for a Pakistani family and I loved that part of the plot. The film could just be about youthful rebellion and music but is smart enough to reflect unhappy realities. I enjoyed this movie a lot… you probably will too… and the more you like The Boss, the more you’ll appreciate it!
Score: 84