Back to trending
Blinded by the Light

Blinded by the Light

Drama · Comedy · 2019

In 1987, during the austere days of Thatcher’s Britain, a teenager learns to live life, understand his family, and find his own voice through the music of Bruce Springsteen.

Movie details

Blinded by the Light

“For anyone who has ever wanted to dream. You're not alone.”

2019 Drama · Comedy 1h 57m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.9 / 10

Community rating

In 1987, during the austere days of Thatcher’s Britain, a teenager learns to live life, understand his family, and find his own voice through the music of Bruce Springsteen.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Blinded by the Light?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Riding in Cars with Boys

Riding in Cars with Boys

Drama · 2001

In 1965, a young woman with dreams of becoming a writer has a son at the age of 15 and struggles to make things work with the drug-addicted father.

Moxie

Moxie

Comedy · 2021

Inspired by her mom's rebellious past and a confident new friend, a shy 16-year-old publishes an anonymous zine calling out sexism at her school.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

Drama · 2025

Bruce Springsteen, a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggles to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past.

Pride

Pride

Drama · 2014

In 1984, a group of LGBT activists decide to raise money to support the National Union of Mineworkers during their lengthy strike. There is only one problem: the Union seems embarrassed to receive their support.

Skin

Skin

Drama · 2009

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

I Believe in Unicorns

I Believe in Unicorns

Drama · 2015

Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.

Starving in Suburbia

Starving in Suburbia

Drama · 2014

When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?

One Chance

One Chance

Drama · 2013

This film follows the remarkable and inspirational true story of Paul Potts, a shy, bullied shop assistant by day and an amateur opera singer by night.

Strike!

Strike!

Comedy · 1998

In 1963 New England, a group of friends at an all-girls academy learn that they're going to be combined with a nearby all-boys institution. They concoct a plan to save their school while dealing with everyday problems along the way.

Call Me Crazy: A Five Film

Call Me Crazy: A Five Film

Drama · 2013

A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Gurinder Chadha

Written by

Sarfraz Manzoor · Gurinder Chadha · Paul Mayeda Berges

Viveik Kalra

Viveik Kalra

Javed

Nell Williams

Nell Williams

Eliza

Hayley Atwell

Hayley Atwell

Ms Clay

Kulvinder Ghir

Kulvinder Ghir

Malik

Aaron Phagura

Aaron Phagura

Roops

Dean-Charles Chapman

Dean-Charles Chapman

Matt

M

Meera Ganatra

Noor

Court is in session

Put Blinded by the Light on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.