Blinded by the Light
New Line Cinema | Release Date: August 16, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The PlaylistJordan RuimyJan 30, 2019
This 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. Read full review
90
UproxxMike RyanAug 12, 2019
Blinded by the Light features scenes of the most pure, unadulterated joy I’ve seen on screen in quite a while. Read full review
90
TheWrapSteve PondJan 31, 2019
Blinded by the Light is corny, silly, as overblown as one of Springsteen’s grandest anthems and damn near irresistible. Read full review
90
VarietyOwen GleibermanJan 30, 2019
It’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. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyAug 16, 2019
Blinded 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. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 13, 2019
Warm, 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. Read full review
88
USA TodayBrian TruittAug 13, 2019
In 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. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattAug 12, 2019
Love, faith, Springsteen; that and a Sony Walkman are all it takes to surrender to the pure, ingenuous joy of Blinded by the Light, a Technicolor ode to the power of music so deeply tender and heartfelt that it disarms even the most misanthropic critic’s instincts. Read full review
83
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonMay 24, 2019
As a crowd-pleasing, emotionally gripping joyride about the ways in which music can change our lives, it’s one to see, and more than once. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 30, 2019
If you have even the slightest emotional connection to Springsteen’s music — if you’ve ever found salvation in a rock song, or desperately wished that you could change your clothes, your hair, your face — this giddy steamroller of a movie is going to flatten you whether you like it or not. Read full review
80
CNNBrian LowryAug 16, 2019
Whether it's on a large screen now or a small one later, Blinded by the Light represents such a sweet, easy-to-relate-to story that it deserves to be seen, at the least, by anyone who has shown a little faith that there's magic in the arts -- either in music, or a darkened theater. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 15, 2019
As you watch Blinded by the Light, don’t let its earnest trappings blind you to the beauty of its core. Gurinder Chadha ’s coming-of-age drama transmutes the raw feeling of Bruce Springsteen ’s music into another kind of feeling, no less raw but leavened by giddy excitement that culminates in joy. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicEd MasleyAug 14, 2019
You 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. Read full review
80
SlateInkoo KangAug 13, 2019
The heart of the film is the father-son bond, but Chadha, a filmmaker long preoccupied with the inner lives of Desi-British girls and women, also gives Javed’s sister (Nikita Mehta) a lovely reveal. If a couple of segments droop in their strict adherence to Manzoor’s biography, it’s certainly forgivable. This movie won’t blind anyone with its innovation, but it’s got plenty to dazzle and delight. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 13, 2019
Sure it’s cornball, but Chadha revels in it. You will, too, as the movie becomes an irresistible blast of pure feeling. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenAug 9, 2019
It’s defiantly cheesy and very hard to resist. Read full review
80
EmpireIan FreerAug 5, 2019
Combining both the universality and specificity of Springsteen’s music, Blinded By The Light is an exuberant anthem to the importance of music, the need to be seen and the hope of new possibilities. Read full review
80
Film ThreatAnthony Ray BenchJan 30, 2019
This is a feel-good movie that tackles a bunch of tough topics, from politics, race, family traditions, social frustrations, and romance. It never feels preachy or overly cheesy. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAug 14, 2019
This is the rare movie to acknowledge the impact popular music can have on our lives, particularly during the period of your life when you’re struggling to figure out who you are and – more importantly – who you want be. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerGary ThompsonAug 16, 2019
Part of its appeal lies in the truth and specificity behind the clunky presentation. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 15, 2019
Blinded by the Light is almost unspeakably corny at times as it shifts tones from realistic drama-comedy to flat-out musical — but it’s easy to forgive the bumpy moments in favor of sitting back and enjoying the simple pleasures of an old-fashioned, inspirational, coming-of-age tale … Especially if you’re a big Boss fan like yours truly. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesRick BentleyAug 15, 2019
Other than a few blips, Blinded by the Light is a production that is as strong as any Springsteen anthem and as inspiring as any lyrics by the Boss. Read full review
75
The AtlanticDavid SimsAug 15, 2019
Chadha 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. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleAug 15, 2019
Blinded 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. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 14, 2019
Blinded by the Light is a one-third Bruce Springsteen hagiography, one-third kitschy ‘80s recreation, and one-third feel-good father/son coming together. Surprisingly, however, it works. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 14, 2019
The movie’s sentimental, predictable, fairly sloppy. It’s also a thoroughgoing joy — a cherry popsicle for the end of summer. If certain elements seem familiar from the recent “Yesterday” — classic rock and a South Asian lead character, primarily — “Blinded” is the better bargain: less slick, more cliched, but also more genuinely felt. Read full review
75
ObserverOliver JonesAug 14, 2019
It’s far from subtle, more than a little sudsy, but also pleasingly direct and full of heart. Most significantly though, its timing is perfect. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubCaroline SiedeAug 13, 2019
A cheerful, cheesy coming-of-age story that evokes the earnest films of the era in which it’s set, Blinded By The Light is not one for the schmaltz-averse. Yet as with Chadha’s "Bend It Like Beckham" and "Bride & Prejudice," there’s some appreciably meaty stuff beneath its toe-tapping, crowd-pleasing surface. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekAug 15, 2019
Joyous and funny even as it strikes the occasional melancholy chord, Blinded by the Light is a testament to the small miracle of how the right music manages to find us at just the right time, even when it has to travel from New Jersey all the way to that four-letter word, Luton. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 14, 2019
The reality of intergenerational conflict is a given for Blinded by the Light, but nothing can stand up to the transformative power of the Boss. You can take that to the bank. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 30, 2019
While this flimsy coming-of-age drama over-relies on the Boss’s greatest hits for its emotional high points, this remains a likeable and touching story about finding your own voice. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 30, 2019
Light is just as faithful to formula as Bend It Like Beckham and just as reliant on its lead's likability; here, newcomer Viveik Kalra radiates enough guileless enthusiasm to carry viewers past the film's rough patches. Read full review
67
Original-CinLiam LaceyAug 15, 2019
While Chadha includes a few gritty nuggets about the psychological cost of immigration, the problems are mostly smothered in a warm jelly of sentimentality, a surfeit of stock characters and an exhausting succession of feel-good breakthroughs. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzAug 14, 2019
Part "Billy Elliot" and part Chadha’s own underdog hit "Bend It Like Beckham," Blinded by the Light is a feel-good coming-of-age movie that often feels way too good about itself. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineSteven ScaifeAug 14, 2019
The film bottles a palpable emotion of unabashed joy, even when the rest of it seems to barely hold together. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 8, 2019
Because as much as one might have loved The Boss, the films of Gurinder Chadha or the expectation of an empowering message about racism and the liberation identifying with a great songwriter/spokesman for the down-and-out can be, as much as you might think that Chadha (“Bend it Like Beckham”) has been marching towards that day when she’d make a musical set among the Subcontinent Diaspora relocated to the U.K., those expectations are a tad too much. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Simran HansAug 11, 2019
It is gleefully dorky, hopelessly earnest, sincere, quite possibly to a fault. It unfolds as a series of Springsteen-soundtracked set pieces, each shamelessly engineered to maximise catharsis, cheering and possibly weeping from the audience. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 8, 2019
It takes a love of Springsteen’s widescreen balladry, perhaps – all hail the mighty Thunder Road – to get on the film’s wavelength, but it’s an invitation right there for the taking. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 8, 2019
It’s an entertaining and watchable film, with horribly convincing reconstructions of what shopping centres and jobcentres looked like in 1987. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyAug 15, 2019
The new comedic drama Blinded by the Light feels designed to be heartwarming, and does a depressingly good job of defining by example that innocuous quality Read full review
50
The Film StageDan MeccaJan 31, 2019
The pace picks up quite a bit in the film’s third act, working hard to wrap everything up. It’s extremely rushed and convenient, but by then Blinded By The Light will have either won or lost its viewers. Read full review
40
The New York TimesGlenn KennyAug 15, 2019
These songs have the power to move, inspire, make you dance. For the first time in my experience of Springsteen, they made me want to hide under my seat. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJan 29, 2019
There’s something so constructed and suffocating about watching a tried and tested formula not working, the over-sentimental string-pulling on show for all to see. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 15, 2019
You can watch 100 movies and never see such joyless joy as in Blinded by the Light. Read full review
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