Pun Salad

The Great TV Drought of 2019-2020 is bringing in lots of Netflix DVDs. This one is a perfectly average, but utterly predictable, little movie from last year.

Javid is a Pakistani-descended teenage Brit living in Luton, England in the mid-to-late-1980s. Maggie Thatcher is the Prime Minister. Apparently Luton is an economically depressed hotbed of bigotry, because there's a lot of anti-"Paki" sentiment, and the fascist National Front, a nasty bunch of bigots, is depicted as having a strong presence.

Also, Javid's dad is kind of traditional (despite having emigrated his family out of Pakistan years ago). He looks forward to arranging Javid's marriage someday, and setting him on a nice safe career of office professionalism.

Between bigotry and family oppression, Javid's kind of put upon. But he finds meaning when a Sikh friend gives him a couple of Springsteen cassettes. He gets inspirational life advice (and also fashion tips) from the Boss. (His peers are mostly into newer artists.)

Dude, I was a Springsteen fanboy back then too. But I never thought that "Blinded By The Light" was anything more than Bruce's effort to string together a lot of nonsensical rhyming. ("With a very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing, the calliope crashed to the ground." Fun, but … please.)

Anyway: does Javid manage to navigate his Bruce-inspired way to a better life? Well, of course he does.

Agent Carter, Hayley Atwell, plays an encouraging English teacher. There are a lot of cheap shots at Thatcher, and even a few at Ronald Reagan. Tedious.