In 1987 Britain, Javed Khan is a British-Pakistani college arts student in Luton in a family with a domineering father. Depressed by his oppressive family life and feeling he has no future in a hostile community, a newfound friend introduces Javed to the music of Bruce Springsteen. Touched by the rock star's powerfully eloquent affinity of his own feelings, Javed is inspired to reach out for his own dreams with his own talents. However, although Javed finds friends he never e... (Full plot summary below)
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In 1987 Britain, Javed Khan is a British-Pakistani college arts student in Luton in a family with a domineering father. Depressed by his oppressive family life and feeling he has no future in a hostile community, a newfound friend introduces Javed to the music of Bruce Springsteen. Touched by the rock star's powerfully eloquent affinity of his own feelings, Javed is inspired to reach out for his own dreams with his own talents. However, although Javed finds friends he never expected in this personal quest, he also finds himself butting heads with his newly unemployed father who stubbornly refuses to understand his son's new aspirations. In this conflict of values in a troubled time, Javed must decide what is truly important to him while his family struggles to understand what has changed and what remains with a new generation feeling born to run.
Leave your thoughts about Blinded by the Light.
| USA TodayBrian TruittIn one of the movie's most memorable scenes, Javed and his activist love interest Eliza (Nell Williams) embark on a glorious, mischievous romp out of school and through Luton, singing “Born to Run” and dancing with literally everyone who’ll join them. |
| The PlaylistJordan RuimyThis is one of the most joyous and exhilarating movies you will see this year and because there is so much passion flowing out from the music, screenplay, and acting, you totally forgive the film when it strays into the predictable and even a little bit of corniness. |
| TheWrapSteve PondBlinded by the Light is corny, silly, as overblown as one of Springsteen’s grandest anthems and damn near irresistible. |
| VarietyOwen GleibermanIt’s the sort of unguarded drama they used to make in the ‘80s — a coming-of-age tale of unabashed earnestness — but it’s also a delirious and romantic rock ‘n’ roll parable. |
| UproxxMike RyanBlinded by the Light features scenes of the most pure, unadulterated joy I’ve seen on screen in quite a while. |
| RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyBlinded by the Light, at its very best, captures the experience of being a fan, the pure exhilaration of it, and the sense of your vision opening out to vistas beyond your horizon. |
| Washington PostAnn HornadayWarm, funny, humane and deeply sincere, this ode to Bruce Springsteen, breaking free and belonging isn’t content merely to revel in Springsteen’s greatest hits — although it does, with vibrant, vicarious exhilaration. It delves into the singular power of music, and by extension art itself, to make its audience feel comprehended. |
| Arizona RepublicEd MasleyYou don't have to love Bruce Springsteen with the all-consuming passion of Sarfraz Manzoor, the U.K. journalist whose memoir was adapted for the screenplay of Blinded By the Light, to find the film both deeply moving and utterly charming. |
| The Associated PressJake CoyleBlinded by the Light isn’t a new tune, but it’s sung with an infectious passion and it captures something sincere about the globe-spanning, life-changing influence of great pop music. |
| The AtlanticDavid SimsChadha is showing how art, be it familiar or far from one’s comfort zone, can inspire a sense of freedom. Blinded by the Light does that wonderfully, in a jubilant story that’s told with grounded honesty. |
