BLINDED BY THE LIGHT

Gurinder Chadha (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM) returns to our screens with what is being marketed as a feel-good movie - BLINDED BY THE LIGHT. It's based on the memoirs of Sarfraz Mahmood, a second gen British-Pakistani growing up in the racially violent and economically distressed Luton of the 1980s.  If there's not enough to deal with outside the safety of his home, inside he has to deal with issues many second gen immigrants face - how to live an assimilated life, fulfilling one's own dreams, while still honouring the values and dreams of the first gen who sacrificed so much for our success. I say "our" because this is a milieu - and indeed a specific time and place - that I know very well. And I can say that the authenticity that Chadha and Mansoor capture in how our families spoke to each other and hoped and dreamed and were thwarted is spot on - and so close to the bone it provoked a really violent reaction in me.  I think that's because it's so rare to see any kind of explicit racial violence on screen that so clearly depicts the British history that we lived through that the film drove a moment of raw catharsis. So it wasn't feel good for me, but that's okay, because it's deep political conscience is really admirable and much needed.

That said, before the raw emotion overcame me, I have to say this really was and is a lovely and feel good film.  Firstly because Chadha and her production designers so beautifully capture small-town English towns of the 80s - including long-gone but much-lived shops like Athena and Our Price - all those fantastic clothes and songs - the ever-present Walkman headphones - and that specific joy of handing over your favourite cassette or VHS tape to a friend.  Because that's what happens in this film. Our protagonist Javed (Viveik Khalra - sympathetic and charismatic) is feeling miserable under the pressures at home and outside until his new friend Roops gives him a tape of the then unfashionable Bruce Springsteen. He wonders what an American rocker can say that's relevant to him until he listens to the lyrics and realises that working class angst is global, and that seeing your father's dreams crushed by economic reality is deeply relatable.  So the music in this film is superb and energetic before Springsteen makes an entrance but reaches another level when he does. The way in which Chadha uses CGI to superimpose the lyrics on scenes, or pivots action around an inspiring lyric is just superb. There's a lot of love and respect and understanding of Springsteen's work in there.

The film is also just straightforwardly funny - helped by some lovely cameos from comedians such as Rob Brydon, Sally Phillips (Char-DON-nay), Marcus Brigstock and Olivia Poulet.  My only criticism is that it could've more fully embraced its genre - at least for a central music scene that's full of joy and energy but could've been truly superb with a little more careful choreography.  But these are all small concerns. Because BLINDED BY THE LIGHT is a truly lovely joyous film that masks a provocative and brutally honest heart about the immigrant experience.  It deserves to be seen as widely as possible. 

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT has a running time of 117 minutes and is rated PG-13. It played Sundance 2019 and will be released in the UK on August 9th and in the USA on August 14th. 

ANGUS, THONGS AND PERFECT SNOGGING - a qualified thumbs up from the target demographic

A sure sign of ageing: I offered The Kid a chance to see the WALL-E preview; she asked to see ANGUS, THONGS AND PERFECT SNOGGING instead. Since when did The Kid know about thongs? And have I taught her nothing about cinema? Ah well, youth must be indulged even if the mere title of the movie brought me out in hives.

ANGUS, SNOGS AND PERFECT SNOGGING is based on a series of exceptionally successful children's books by Louise Rennison. The books are narrated by a teenager called Georgia Nicolson who is willing to do anything to get a boyfriend. The film is a catalogue of her attempts - from changing her physical appearance to taking snogging lessons to using an innocent bystander to make her putative boyfriend jealous. The whole thing is pretty formulaic, including the fact that Georgia manages to piss off all her friends in the third act before a completely unearned happy ending in the fourth. (The evil baddie got pretty harsh treatment - I thought unnecessarily harsh.)

The message of the film is apparently that young girls should be happy looking the way they look, because Mr Right will like you just the way you are. Laudable enough. But why did I have to sit through ninety minutes of dialogue so puerile I got seriously worried about The Kid's sanity? To give you a flavour, here's the description of the one of the books from the website: "The third gorgey book about Georgia's adventures - guaranteed to have you laughing your knickers off. Find out how Georgia copes with her rapidly expanding nunga-nungas!" I mean, dear gods, did Ms Pankurst chain herself to the railings for this?! Clearly, I am not the demographic for this movie, and I strongly suggest that you drop your over 12s at the cinema and pick them up afterwards.

The only opinion that matters, I suppose, is that of The Kid. She had a great time, once she got over the shock of the changed title, lack of berets(?) and collapsed storyline. Apparently, the screenwriters have combined events from different novels, presumably saving us from sequels, and massively beefed up the parents marriage trouble storyline. She thought Robbie was cute (Aaron Johnson - the kid from THE ILLUSIONIST and THE THIEF LORD) and that Georgia was perfect. I also thought that Georgia Groome gave a charming performance. Moreover, she was playing a role a million miles away from her turn in LONDON TO BRIGHTON. She's evidently an actress to watch. Finally, though, even The Kid thought the denouement was just too ridiculously fairy-tale. And she has a pretty high hurdle-rate for schmaltz. So, all in all, I guess it's a qaulified thumbs up from the fan-base.

ANGUS, THONGS AND PERFECT SNOGGING goes on release in the UK on July 25th. It opens in Italy on August 1st; in Belgium on August 13th; in Germany on August 28th; in Australia and Russia on September 18th; in Norway on September 26th; in the Netherlands on October 2nd; in Spain on October 2nd; in Sweden on October 17th and in Denmark on January 2nd 2009.

MISTRESS OF SPICES - one for the feng shui idiots

MISTRESS OF SPICES is a truly execrable movie - one of those films that transends mediocrity and becomes physically painful to watch. The guilty party is writer and first-time director Paul Mayeda Berges - husband of cross-over queen Gurinder Chadha, which perhaps explains how he got this pile of sentimental goo financed. The movie stars Aishwarya Rai. Now here's the thing. Aish is beautiful and a talented classical Indian dancer. I even believe she is a good actress when well-directed in Indian art cinema - take RAINCOAT or CHOKHER BALI as evidence for the defence. But Aish is consistently shocking in English-language cinema, perhaps because up until this point we have only seen her in ill-written movies by Chadha (BRIDE & PREJUDICE) and now Berges.

Perhaps the problem is that Berges is trying to create something that is mystical and magical but which simply seems absurd. The idea is that Aishwarya Rai's character is one of many young women around the world who can basically do magic by giving people the right spices. So, if you want to make knew friends, Aish will pop a cinammon stick into your turban and, before you know it, you'll be the Homecoming Queen. Or rather, because MISTRESS OF SPICES has a Serious Message about Race Relations - a member of the Crips. Of course, with infinite power comes the itty-bitty-living-space* and celibacy. And you know what that means - Aish is going to meet a gorgeous hunk and fall in love with him in the first five minutes of the movie and then spend eighty-five minutes wondering whether or not the universe will explode if she has sex with him. Added to this, Berges has written a screenplay that turns its back on conventional dialogue and puts a bunch of ridiculous internal monologue in its place. What this means is you get a lot of stuff like: "Talk to me, chillies!" or "Chillies, don't send him away, he means me no harm." Puh-lease.

MISTRESS OF SPICES showed at Toronto 2005 and is released in the UK on April 21st. It opens in India on April 28th 2006 and in the US on May 5th. *Upon perusing the Disney website for the Aladdin link I was disturbed to find that the 2-disc edition features "A Whole New World" sung by Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey. And this was used as a marketing plus-point.