It’s midsummer already, almost August and with many more movies on the horizon to finish out the year, I have already accumulated some of my top favorite movies of 2019. Two of which are musicals. “Yesterday” is one and another is a Gurinder Chadha film “Blinded by the Light”. You might remember her for gifting us with “Bend it Like Beckham” in 2002. The movie tells the story of a British teen, Javed, (Viveik Kaira) with Pakistani roots of which the family has heads turned on them thanks to the racial turmoil of those times. Javed wants to escape that hate and his inflexible father (Kulvinder Ghir) by writing poetry.
When a classmate introduces him to Bruce Springsteen music his whole world changes with the Boss’s cassette tape of the songs most of us grew up with like “Born in the U.S.A.” “Darkness on the Edge of Town”, “Dancing in the Dark” among several others. His altimate goal is to see Springsteen in the United States even against his fathers’s wishes. Through all this Javed finds a vibrant way to express himself through his own voice. The story may seem over the top but when this soundtrack hits you the right way and there is only that one way, your hungry heart will feel energized. See this film when it opens everywhere August 14. This is a most enjoyable film and it will have you dancing in the dark. 4 1/2 Stars
