Category: Comedy

Deerskin

Rated: MA15+Deerskin

Directed and Written by: Quentin Dupieux

Photography, Editing: Quentin Dupieux

Art and Set Direction: Joan Le Boru

Sound: Guillaume Le Braz, Alexis Place, Gadou Naudin, Cyril Holtz

Starring: Jean Dujardin, Adele Haenel

French with English subtitles

‘I swear never to wear a jacket as long as I live.’

Deerskin first introduces Georges (Jean Dujardin) wearing a green jacket with three plastic buttons.  He parks on the wrong side of the petrol bowser.  And looking at his reflection in the car window he frowns at what he sees.  Then he flushes the jacket in the public toilet.

Yep, Georges is losing it.

The music flares.

And I think to myself, I already like this movie.

The film is character driven and continues to follow Georges.  But there’s another character in this movie.  A jacket.  We meet the beast.  The new jacket: 100% Deerskin.

The way the film flashes to a live deer in the wilderness seals it somehow.  Just how cool the jacket is.  But It’s not. It’s made from the skin of this beautiful innocent animal (see previous flash to said deer in the wilderness).  And, it’s got… fringes.  But Georges LOVES it: ‘Style de tueur (Killer style),’ he says, looking in the mirror.

It just makes me grin.

After that Georges keeps driving.

‘You’re no-where Georges.  You no longer exist.’  That’s what his ex-wife tells him, over the phone.

Georges ends up in the bar of a small village, where he meets the barmaid, Denise (Adele Haenel).  She’s been burnt by love too.  But Georges is a brand-new man in his deerskin jacket.  He tells Denise he’s a film maker.

It makes sense to say he’s a film maker.  He’s been recording film all day, so it’s kinda the same.  ‘No it’s not,’ says the jacket.

Instead of getting to know an available woman, Georges gets to know the jacket as his relationship with this 100% deerskin jacket becomes the subject of Georges’ movie to be.

Killer style indeed.

Director and writer Quentin Dupieux says, ‘I wanted to film insanity.’

And Georges has lost it.  But wow, he’s really enthusiastic about it.

The way Georges insanity is shown is somehow shocking and hilarious.

It’s the same dark humour used in, The Lobster, but less confronting even though there’s more killing…  And this whole jacket business is just so ticklish.

Jean Dujardin (who plays Georges in the film) explains it’s Quentin’s use of space that creates the comedy, ‘It’s in those moments of hesitation that the comedy and drama blend. You’re right on the borderline. All those scenes, for example, in which Georges demands money, or can’t pay. Quentin takes the time to stretch out the sense of malaise, to allow for some lingering doubt. Is Georges going to turn violent? Weep? Laugh? You never know what will happen. Time stands still for a moment, and those little agonies make me want to die laughing.’

Then there’s Georges dream in life – for him, it’s all about wearing this deerskin jacket.  To be the only person wearing… a jacket.  It doesn’t make sense.  But from the perspective of Georges, as he makes a film about his dream, it kinda does.

The character Denise gets it.  She reckons the jacket is like a shell to protect the wearer from the outside world.

I think it’s because Georges hates who he used to be, wearing that green blazer with the three plastic buttons.

Or perhaps Deerskin is just a weirdo movie that’s put together in a way that somehow makes sense.

Whether you analyse the layers or not, I was thoroughly absorbed and entertained from start to finish.

Like Denise says, ‘I’m into it.’

Come to Daddy

Rated: MA15+Come to Daddy

Directed by: Ant Timpson

Based on an Idea by: Ant Timpson

Story by: Toby Harvard

Starring: Elijah Wood, Stephen McHattie, Garfield Wilson, Madeleine Sami, Martin Donovan, Michael Smiley, Simon Chin, Ona Grauer, Ryan Beil.

Based on the idea from William Shakespeare, ‘The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children,’ Come to Daddy has city boy, Norval (Elijah Wood) dragging a silver suitcase through the woods to visit a father who abandoned him when he was five years old.

Dragging his suitcase, he loses his hat.

It’s the beginning of his exposure as being, ‘Full of shit.’

He knocks on the door, ‘Dad, it’s me.  Norval.’

And I wondered how many layers there would be to Norval, to the story, as the mystery of this, Dad becomes more obscure.

What we get is a violent kooky comedy that skirts the line between mystery and weird, the screenplay like a story written by a uni student with father issues.  Which is fine, but it translated like a bad dream rather than a story for a movie because of the many red herrings.

Elija Wood as Norval does a lot of the heavy lifting, being the only ‘normal’ character in the film.

Including a cop describing liars as having ‘raisin eyes’, and a coroner who has ‘no filter’ and no real role in the film.  But I guess that’s true to life, the random strangers that make an appearance, then exit.

I don’t want to give too much away as there are unexpected turns making the film feel original.

But there are more strange moments as the mystery of this unpredictable and alcoholic father are revealed, that don’t quite add up, taking away the already tenuous grasp on that suspension of reality.

To add to that strangeness of gore and obscure, the scenery and setting is beautiful; the beach house, a stilted house overlooking the sea, my favourite part of the film, and aptly described by Norval as, ‘A UFO from the 1960s’.  Cool, right?

And some moments are kinda cool and funny – I say skirting, because the film doesn’t completely cross the line into the bizarre, but there just isn’t enough to stack-up making, Come to Daddy more puzzling than surprising.

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears

Rated: MMiss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears

Directed by: Tony Tilse

Produced by: Fiona Eagger

Written by: Deb Cox

Based on the Phryne Fisher Mystery Series of Books by: Kerry Greenwood

Starring: Essie Davis, Nathan Page, Rupert Penry-Jones, Miriam Margolyes, Daniel Lapaine, Jacqueline McKenzie, Izabella Yena, Khaled Naga, Nicole Chamoun, John Waters.

‘Let’s kick off our shoes and watch a movie,’ says Essie Davis at the Melbourne premiere, the setting fitting with the character Phryne Fisher being a Melbourne girl.

And hot on the heels (kicked off) of the highly successful TV, lady detective, crime series, Miss Fisher – one of the most successful television brands in Australia and overseas with episodes from the three series capturing audiences of more than a million each week in Australia with the series debut in France gaining an audience of 3.28 million – here, Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears finds Phryne (Essie Davis) in the streets of 1929 Pakistan after 9pm.  With undesirables.

Still up to her saving-the-world-while-dressed-in-the-latest: bright red dresses and the glittering gold sequined fashion of the 1920s, we find Phryne still has no regard for the rules, ‘That’s because they happen to be written by men.’

Rebellion aside, Miss Fisher is on a new case – imagine a Bedouin tribe flourishing for hundreds to thousands of years that is suddenly buried by an apocalyptic sandstorm that covers up the murder of the entire tribe.

Except one lone girl, Shirin Abbas (Izabella Yena).

‘Don’t worry,’ says Phryne.  ‘I’ll find out who murdered your family.’

Based on the books written by Kerry Greenwood, the film has the same style as the TV series that will keep fans happy (although, some may miss side-kick Dot (Ashleigh Cummings) and hubby, Constable Hugh Collin (Hugo Johnstone-Burt)  making only a brief appearance), yet there’s more room for story and intrigue in the movie-length mystery taking Phryne to Jerusalem back to Australia all the way to the sandy deserts of Pakistan.

And it’s funny: ‘Jack, are you there?’ Miss Fisher asks.

‘No,’ he replies.

Yes, the romance continues between the two crime fighters, adding to the charm of the Miss Fisher franchise that translates to the movie here – along with the old worldly humour, clues circled in red lipstick, the belief curses are real and exchanges like:

‘You’re only trying to butter me up.’

‘Like a crumpet.’

So, ‘Forget the tea, crack open the champagne’: Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears is more of the same, but what’s wrong with that? It’s sweet and fun and deserves to be celebrated.

Emma

Rated: PGEmma

Directed by: Autumn de Wilde

Written by: Eleanor Catton

Based on the Book Written by: Jane Austen

Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czemin

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy, Mia Goth, Miranda Hart, Josh O’Connor, Callum Turner, Rupert Graves, Gemma Whelan, Amber Anderson, Tanya Reynolds, Connor Swindells.

Love knows best.

Or, Emma (Anya Taylor-Joy) knows best.

Living in Highbury Park with her widowed father, Mr. Woodhouse (Bill Nighy), Emma spends her days indulged as she plots to match and make those around her, careful never to fall in unnecessary matrimony herself.

That’s what she tells herself and others, including the insufferable and righteous Mr. Knightly (Johnny Flynn), the brother to her new brother-in-law.  Mr. Knightly’s always on hand to point out her vanity.

Yes, Emma tells herself she doesn’t want marriage as she uses her influence to partner her new project and friend, Miss Harriet Smith (Mia Goth) with someone she thinks Harriet’s equal, the local vicar Mr. Elton (Josh O’Connor) (and not the besotted farmer Robert Martin (Connor Swindells), whom Harriet really cares for).

But underneath a cool demeanour Emma can’t stop the flutter of her heart when she hears of the return of the very handsome, Frank Churchill (Callum Turner).

Can you sense the period drama?

Based on the novel penned by Jane Austen (published in late December 1815), there’s plenty of lace and bonnets and piano forte playing and performance.

I admit, I could not have been in less of a mood to watch pomp and ceremony.

But despite my sigh of boredom at the beginning of the film, I found there was a sweetness and intrigue that I was slowly drawn into, helped along with the dry wit of Bill Nighy as Emma’s cantankerous but really warm-hearted father who considers a day at a wedding a truly awful day.

He’s always searching for that cold draft determined to flow through the house from some crack or cranny.

It’s really the comedy that saves this film, subtle, shown in a glance, a tsk, or a flummoxed, energetic jump from stair to floor.

So yes, sweet and funny with, Anya Taylor-Joy well-cast as the handsome, clever and rich Emma.

But this is a long movie (117 minutes), dragging with a yawn and watch-check in the first half hour, and then again when approaching the two-hour mark.

You’ve got to be in the mood for the period romance that is Emma – hence the release in time for a tolerable viewing on Valentine’s Day.

Like A Boss

Rated: MLike A Boss

Directed by: Miguel Arteta

Story by: Danielle Sanchez-Witzel

Screenplay by: Adam Cole-Kelly, Sam Pitman

Starring: Rose Byrne, Salma Hayek, Tiffany Haddish.

“I love my friends, but I don’t think I can handle the judgement today.”

I’m trying to think of a moment I didn’t like in this film.  Maybe because I’ve been watching nothing but serious movies, crime series or the school holiday kid flicks…  Do I like a chick movie now, that gets it?!  Maybe I do…

Best buddies Mel (Rose Byrne) and Mia (Tiffany Haddish) are living the dream, running their own makeup store.

Boutique and clever with ideas like the, One Night Stand pack, they work when they want, give cute nerdy-girl discounts to young prom beauties so they can shine from the inside out…  But living the dream comes at a cost that leaves the entrepreneurs in crushing debt.  Debt that will close their business without a huge investment from an external source.  Like Claire Luna (Salma Hayek).

A gift, a rescue, Mel thinks, because she knows the finances.  It’s Mia who’s the genius when it comes to product.  Mia doesn’t want to give up control, but without financial backing Mel knows the company will sink.

Savvy businesswoman Luna proposes a compromise, forty-nine percent if the girls can continue to work together, fifty-one percent if the partnership doesn’t last.

Confident in their friendship, the two besties agree to the terms not realising the lengths this ‘angry carrot – that’s not her hair,’ will go to in order to drive them apart.

There are some genuine chick moments that strikes a chord here, the setting of friend against friend unveiling some of that passive aggressive behaviour we’ve all been guilty of, when confronting a friend is just too hard.

I mean, I could go on about directors and actors and how the film was shot, but this movie’s all about the comedy and friendship of these two girls being themselves.  Exactly what I was in the mood for.

I loved seeing Jennifer Coolidge as shop assistant, Sydney – gorgeous woman!  And seeing chicks deal with the stress of it all without being dickheads about it is a lot of fun.

I know I’m being a bit lazy with this review, but right now?  Like everyone else these days, I feel busy.  So with this screening, I enjoyed taking a break and just having a laugh.

The Gentlemen

Rated: MA15+The Gentlemen

Directed by: Guy Ritchie

Screenplay by: Guy Ritchie

Story by: Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson & Marn Davies

Produced by: Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson, Bill Block

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marson, with Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant.

Opening with a pint, a pickled egg and a song on the juke box, the tone is set as kingpin of the marijuana trade (AKA bush) Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) begins the story of his journey to get out of the business.

Time has gentrified the once bloody beginnings of this man coming up the hard way.

Mickey wants to take long walks, plant roses and spend time with his lovely wife.  Well, maybe lovely isn’t the right word, more, super-sharp, won’t-take-anything-from-anyone-but-loves-her-man, Rosalind (Michelle Dockery).

But no good deed goes unpunished, so eloquently stated by Mickey’s right-hand man, Raymond (Charlie Hunnam); the tale of the story narrated in Raymond’s kitchen by dirt-gathering journo/PI, Fletcher (Hugh Grant), as Fletcher attempts to blackmail the kingdom of Mickey, the information he holds given in the dramatic fashion of cinema in 35mm film, anamorphic (so to speak) and in true Guy Ritchie style.

The comedy of this gangster film really hits the mark.  This has a lot to do with the brilliant casting of Hugh Grant as the dastardly Fletcher.

This reinvention of Hugh Grant has a unique flare that makes him an incredibly entertaining villain.  Think Paddington II with an adult rating.

The intricate tale of dirty deeds and moves ahead of moves also keeps up the entertainment while throwing in segues from one scene to the next like a stage production, as each ‘liquorice assortment of tasty mates,’ are introduced:

Michelle Dockery as Rosalind, the luxury car and repair entrepreneur tough and sexy in her super stiletto heels and Cockney accent is fantastic.

As is Colin Farrell as the Irish boxer, Coach.  Who else could pull-off so much check in an outfit?!

Coming to accents, I still can’t believe Hunnam speaking anything else but American.  It seemed his accent went from Brit to Irish to something that was a hybrid of all the above.  He still has a good death stare though, and his distaste of the heroin, junkie digs is shown with a delightful twitch across his handsome, bearded face.

Which brings me to Matthew McConaughey – yep, it’s an all-star cast, as we’ve come to expect from a Guy Ritchie film.  Best role I’ve seen him in since True Detective.  McConoughey wears that kingpin suite very well while throwing out lines like, ‘Doubt creates chaos in one’s own demise.’

There’s a, taking-from-the-poor-giving-to-the-rich, element to the story.  But hey, at least bush doesn’t destroy (like heroin), it just makes some people go insane.

But I get the distinction.

Overall, The Gentlemen is fiercely entertaining – think ‘fight-porn’ – on many levels, most importantly, the film has a clever story that’s good fun to watch.

A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

Rated: GA Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

Directed by: Will Becher, Richard Phelan

Written by: Mark Burton, Jon Brown

Produced by: Paul Kewley

Co-Produced by: Richard Beek

Based on the Idea by: Richard Starzak

Shaun the Sheep, mark 2 (ha, ha, like marking a sheep, although, I don’t know wether (ha, ha) everyone will appreciate the farming humour) finds the familiar mob of Shaun and mates: baby sheep, Timmy, Nuts the cock-eyed eccentric and of course, double the size, super-round tub of fun, Shirley, up to mischief on Mossy Bottom Farm and still under the watchful eye of ever vigilant farm dog, Bitzer.

The clay, stop-motion characters (on average, two seconds of animation produced, per animator, per day) never gets old; the woolly tails and gappy-toothed characters always able to make their feelings known without uttering a single intelligible word.

Here in, Farmageddon, a new character is introduced to the world of Shaun, Lu-La.

Lu-La may look like a purple and pink dog, but those ears glow and have special powers.  Alien powers.

With UFO sightings comes Believers.  And with Believers flocking (I just can’t seem to help myself) to Mossingham, comes the opportunity to make money.

Full of the usual antics that we’ve come to expect from the franchise, Shaun the Sheep 2 has that same humour with the added dimension of space.  In other words, G-rated humour that had my nephews in hysterics – think, nasty bull accidently getting beamed up into a spaceship, looking aggressively unhappy.

And I admit, I was tickled about Farmer walking around in a jumper, woolly socks and bright red y-fronts.

After 150 episodes of the TV show, one TV special and, now, two feature- length movies, Shaun is still a lot of fun, here his world expanded with 70 sets making Faramageddon the biggest undertaking to date.

Due for release during the school holidays, this is a film you can take young kids without being a painful experience for the adults.

The Boonies

The BooniesDirected by: Brad T Gottfred

Written by: Brad T Gottfred

Produced by: Corey Moss, Brad T Gottfred

Starring: Calum Worthy, Cody Ho, Andi Matichak, Kyle Jones, AmyMarie Gaertner, Lauren Elizabeth.

Promoted as a mystery-comedy, The Boonies follows five seniors at Boone High School somewhere in America, unwillingly reunited seven years after they were once on the same soccer team. The reason? A dead classmate’s video promises a treasure hunt with a million dollars as the prize, taking place inside the college where they will be graduating the next day.

The limited expertise of the film’s technical crew is obvious, as though someone with little film experience thought it would be fun to gather together some friends with only passable technical skills and see how things go. The result is a repetitive, awkward and unentertaining mess, probably aimed at an 18-25 year old demographic but not likely to appeal to anyone over 14.

The group is called “The Boonies” by their dead classmate Doug (Calum Worthy) because he thought the gang was similar to the Goonies (but without their humour, charm or sleuthing skills). Doug, sporting a daggy fringe and an irritating smirk, was a techno whiz kid and inventor before being killed in a car explosion in the college car park, witnessed by all his former friends. He also had access to various sections of the college that were mysteriously closed down, which he repurposed with lots of secret doors and a room devoted to electronic surveillance equipment, ideal for hosting a treasure hunt.

The others in the gang are Teddy (Cody Ko), seemingly the most normal of the group but hiding a Guilty Secret; Chuck (Kyle Jones), a drunken, moronic cowboy with sex on the brain; Holly (Andi Matichak), with a photographic memory, rampant hysteria/tantrums, and a bosom so noticeable that practically everyone calls her derogatory names based on her breasts; Stephanie (Lauren Elizabeth), the bitchy, sexually promiscuous, spoilt girl who constantly yells at and abuses everyone else (so much so it is a mystery why anyone tolerates her); and Elektra (AmyMarie Gaertner), who is now a soulful Goth trying to evade her psycho ex-boyfriend who keeps threatening to kill her (which is apparently meant to be funny).

The dead Doug communicates with his five former friends by text, challenging them to complete the treasure hunt because, as he tells us in one of his many straight-to-camera monologues, he wants them to atone for how they treated him after their group fell apart. He has three conditions they must follow: 1. Keep together; 2. Stay alive; and 3. Confess one horrible thing they each did to someone else in their group, all before the night ends.

This premise, such as it is, had the potential to show the remaining five former friends gradually working together, overcoming their problems and reigniting their friendship in adulthood – in a believable way.

The problem is that each of them, aside from Teddy and Elektra, are thoroughly unlikeable stereotypes, and their success or otherwise isn’t something I could get invested in.

Chuck talks a lot about vaginas, sex and being easily aroused, while the object of his lust, the screaming and abusive Stephanie, is so vile it made her character totally unsympathetic. Her bullying treatment of the gormless Holly, she of the noticeable breasts (since we as the audience are never allowed to forget these exist) is horrible, and I wondered why no one was prepared to call her out on her appalling treatment.

Much of their abusive dialogue was, I assume, supposed to sound snappily sarcastic or humorous, but instead it fell thoroughly flat, was often cringe-worthy and just inappropriate in this age of the #MeToo movement and online bullying.

The Boonies face external threats as well, from three groups also intent on finding the million dollars. This is meant to add to the tension, but the jerky editing and woeful soundtrack detract from this.

One group is the Ex-Cheerleaders, who like wearing their cheerleader outfits and arming themselves with golf clubs; their motivation for being so keen to inflict harm on the Boonies is never properly explained.

Another group, the Outcasts, is led by Elektra’s homicidal ex-boyfriend, and has the uncanny knack of being able to find the Boonies no matter how often they manage to escape.

The third group is the Silver Skulls, bikers with their own reason for wanting the million dollars.

Whenever one of these groups confronts the Boonies, threatening bodily harm, the disjointed editing, intrusive soundtrack and shouted dialogue all work against any potential to build tension or suspense.

I scare easily but there wasn’t one genuine moment of danger that increased my pulse rate. The plot was often confusing, the direction awkwardly paced and most of the action or motivation was illogically played out.

I enjoy witty, well written and acted mysteries and/or comedies, and when I read this was a mystery-comedy, I was intrigued. But there are so many things that don’t work in this film, including the unlikeable characters, the abusive, lame dialogue, the lack of strong or believable motives for most of the cast, the amateur acting (except for Elektra) and the absence of any real sense of danger, mystery or suspense, that I was totally disappointed.

Apparently this film was made in 2017, and I wonder not why it took two years to release it, but why it ever saw daylight at all.

Ready Or Not

Rated: MA15+Ready Or Not

Directed by: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

Written by: Guy Busick & R. Christopher Murphy

Produced by: Tripp Vinson, James Vanderbilt, William Sherak and Bradley J. Fischer

Executive Producers: Chad Villella, Tara Farney, Tracey Nyberg and Daniel Bekerman

Starring: Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, with Henry Czerny and Andie MacDowell.

The family known as Le Domas has been playing Le Bail’s Gambit since Great Grandfather Le Domas made a pact with Le Bail himself.

Marrying Alex (Mark O’Brien) and into the ‘dominion’ that is the Le Domas family (that fittingly made their fortune out of board games), the pact demands that initiate Grace (Samara Weaving) (and any new addition to the family) must play a game at midnight on the night of her wedding.

She loves Alex despite his weirdo, super-rich family.

So playing along with strange traditions to get along?  Pft!  Sure, why not?!

But when she draws that, ‘Hide and Seek’, card; and that playful, ‘Hide and Seek’ record starts spinning, the weirdo family hunting the new bride through the gothic rooms and corridors of the house, to capture her as a sacrifice, takes issues with the in-laws to a whole new level with each armed and at the, well, ready:

Mother to Alex and kinda sweet, Becky (Andie MacDowell): Bow & Arrow

Rich and crazy dad, Tony (Henry Czerny): Winchester Rifle

Tormented and alcoholic brother, Daniel (Adam Brody): Rifle

Ops, I did it again, sister-in-law, Emilie (Melanie Scrofano): Pistol

How does this work again? Fitch (Kristian Bruun): Crossbow

I was born evil, Charity – there’s the irony (Elyse Levesque): Spear Gun

The adage that people look like their pets but here I look like my weapon, Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni): Battle Axe.

If you’ve read this blog before you’ll know I like a good bloody horror with a dry sense of humour.

I can say there’s certainly some bloody moments here, tending to the visceral.

And the humour, although slightly over-done, had me smirking with a few snorts (not unlike Grace herself who isn’t against a snorting laugh when called for): brother in-law, Fitch Googling, ‘getting to know your crossbow’ before his attempt to murder his new sister in-law.  And then there’s death-stare Aunt Helene giving the salutation to niece, Emilie (Melanie Scrofano), ‘You continue to exist’.

Perhaps not a laugh-out-loud tickle (more WTF is going on but I guess I’ll just have to roll with it), there’s a lot of fun here, played with wide-eyed and cool appreciation from Samara Weaving as the fighting-for-her-life and screaming-when-necessary, Grace.

And there’s a decent storyline that edges towards some twists but really more about the beautiful and self-deprecating, Grace.  You want her to get out alive, which is the kinda the point of the movie.

Blinded By The Light

Rated: PGBlinded By The Light

Directed by: Gurinder Chadha O. B. E, Paul Mayeda Berges

Written by: Gurinder Chadha O.B.E, Paul Mayeda Berges,

Based on the book, ‘Greetings from Bury Park (2007)’ written by: Sarfraz Manzoor

Produced by: Gurinder Chadha O.B.E, Jane Barclay, Jamal Daniel

Executive Producer: Paul Mayeda Berges

Starring: Viveik Kalra, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Ganatra, Hayley Atwell, Aaron Phagura, Nell Williams, David Hayman, Dean Charles Chapman, Tara Divina, Rob Brydon MBE and Jeff Mirza.

‘Tell the world something it needs to hear.’  That’s what Javed’s (Viveik Kalra) English teacher (Hayley Atwell) tells him.

And Javed has plenty to say being a Pakistani growing up in Luten in the 80s.

He writes poems in his diary.  He just doesn’t think anyone’s ever going to understand him.  Until Roops (Aaron Phagura) lends him two cassette tapes of The Boss himself: Bruce Springsteen.

I walked into, Blinded By The Light thinking there was going to be more comedy; and there’s some funny moments with the 80s style used well like the revelation of a hideous t-shirt described part Princess Diana and part Tina Turner…

But this is 80s England, with Thatcher in the midst of her third term, millions out of jobs and racism rampant.

It’s hard enough being a teenager without seeing some racist bastard pissing through the mail slot of the front door or spitting in your face.

The film’s also about family; the authoritative father, the trying to break away from all the expectations of parents and living in a home that has very different rules and expectations than the other kids in school.

I got reflective.  And a little teary, I admit.

I was never exposed to The Boss growing up and never chose to seek out his music.  Now, I seem to be coming across him a lot (see, Thunder Road).

The more I come across this guy, the more I realise the effect he’s had on people’s lives.

I grew up in the country.  I know what it feels like to be trapped, to feel so weak you want ‘to burn down the town’

And like this expression, Blinded By The Light uses the music and especially the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen to give voice to Javed.

It’s like the music is speaking, just to him.  Saying, singing everything he’s feeling so Javed sings the words to the girl he has a crush on (Nell Williams), to the people in his way as he runs with his mate and fellow fan, Roops from the school after they’ve set Springsteen playing over the school sound system, because yes, this is a musical, but it’s a hybrid of a musical because instead of using Springsteen just as a soundtrack, Javed sings Springsteen’s lyrics like a dialogue to say how he’s feeling instead of just, saying how he’s feeling.

So I guess, yeah it’s a musical.

It sounds like it would look stupid (the storm scene and discovery of Dancing in the Dark more like theatre than film), yet Viveik Kalra as Javed is such a sweetie, he gets away with it.  And I appreciated the text on screen to show the lyrics to make sure the message was understood by the audience.  I admit I didn’t realise Springsteen was so deep:

Blow away the dreams that tear you apart Blow away the dreams that break your heart

Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted

The dogs on Main Street howl

‘Cause they understand

If I could take one moment into my hands Mister I ain’t a boy, no I’m a man

And I believe in a promised land.

I feel like there are a lot of these musical hybrid films around lately and I wasn’t completely convinced about The Boss obsession would make such a difference to a person’s life.  That’s my cynicism speaking.  Because the film is based on the true story and novel, ‘Greetings from Bury Park’ written by Sarfraz Manzoor.

Springsteen has read the book.  After meeting Manzoor he said he loved the book and was happy for the film to be made.  Seriously, what a legend.

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