Blinded by the Light

Written by Sarfraz Manzoor, Gurinder Chadha Paul, and Mayeda Berges

Directed by Gurinder Chadha

rating: 👌🏼 ok

A teen Pakistani immigrant struggles with his identity, both cultural and personal, and finds his voice through the music of Bruce Springsteen.

I’m just going to come out and say it, but there was too much Bruce Springsteen in this movie. I get that his music was an integral part of the plot but I felt like you couldn’t go five minutes in this movie without someone saying how great he is, or having to sit through another inspirational musical montage with a lot of running. (Why so much running?). What this movie did well it did very well. This film was able to highlight SO MANY deep and incredibly relevant themes in a way that was both thought-provoking yet still lighthearted. That is a difficult balance to strike and for this I commend the filmmakers. I also have to commend them for their representation of British people of color in a film that made it to mainstream US theaters. Again, this is difficult to do and its importance can not be overstated. But beyond these accomplishments the dialogue felt forced and predictable. *insert Bruce Springsteen reference here*

Review written by Zianna Weston