Javed is a British teen of Pakistani descent growing up in 1987 England. Amidst the racial and economic turmoil of the times, he writes poetry as a means to escape the intolerance of his hometown and the inflexibility of his traditional father. But when a classmate introduces him to the music of Bruce Springsteen, Javed sees parallels to his working-class life in the powerful lyrics. As Javed discovers an outlet for his own pent-up dreams, he also begins to express himself in his own voice.
Once again, the perks of having an Unlimited card prove it to be one of the best subscriptions around (they haven't paid me to say that, honest!) - I managed to catch this film a month early with a secret unlimited screening! This film is really unique, it follows the story of a young Pakistani boy - Javed and his journey through sixth form. The film is actually really surprising because the ways in which it tells the story of Javed are really unique and feel special. The main question is though, is the film a representation of a rundown dead-end life or is it more of a film which is born to run? Here are my thoughts.
I'll start off with what I liked about the film, I thought that the film started off very nicely. Usually, with films like this where it follows and focuses on one specific character, it can become confusing and difficult to follow the other characters, but introducing us to Matt and Javed as young children really help to add a sense of development through the film. It is good and entertaining to see the start of the film introducing us to not only them but also seeing Javed’s whole family and meeting them straight away with descriptions of them and his life; through the use of narrative is very helpful and really allows us to become immersed in the films events and characters right from the very beginning. The narrative continues throughout the film though and is key to help us to understand how Javed feels, his emotions and to allow us to understand what is going on around him - not only does it help us as an audience but it also allows him to express feelings to us in a simple way which isn't confusing. One of the best parts of the film though is the immersive nature of it, I wasn't born during the 60s/70s/80s and I wasn't even alive then, but the ways in which characters interact with each other, how sceneries are laid out and just the general vibe of the film, creates an incredibly real and immersive atmosphere for the film, which really helps to make the film seem real and therefore much more exciting for us. The characters and their relationships are very important to this too, I really like how there was a really genuine and engaging feeling towards the friendships and relationships in the film, things like time specific jokes, inside banter and general friendships are made very clear through dialogue. Seeing scenes like Javed running to Matt’s house when being chased by a racist really help to cement the relationships in this film and allow us to enjoy the film. The relationships between characters were made clear early on so we understood them, but they changed and adapted which kept them fresh and exciting because it meant that when they did change, the reasons behind the changes were generally made clear and therefore we could emotively get involved with their relationship and understand their feelings. The acting was superb, you could really feel the characters come to life making you feel each triumph and setback and get a true sense of the emotions each scene and character portrays, this also helped to make the film immersive because we saw the sad and depressing life that Javed lived, and the film allowed us to really get emotionally attached to him so that we felt happy when he won, and angry when he didn't. The relationships also transition in a smooth way (for the majority of the time), and they don't really feel like they jump around like in a soap, they feel realistic and enjoyable which is very well done here due to effects like the emotions shown by characters, dialogue and seeing how friendships change and develop. The general characters were very interesting and exciting though, seeing representations of racists and Pakistanis clashing was really powerful and definitely added a lot into the film, seeing racists marching, swastikas painted around, racist abuse and children urinating through their letterboxes whilst racially abusing them was very powerful. It also added in a lot of empathy to the characters and made them feel much more engaging because it gave them a lot more emotion and realism because we were actively able to witness the shocks and fear that they lived through - which helped to emphasise the character's friendships and groups together. I thought these were some of the most powerful scenes in the film, not just because they helped to make us feel sympathetic towards the characters but it added so much more, it helped us to immerse ourselves in the timeline and to get a real understanding of how the characters lived and the meanings of their relationships. The differences in character cultures also added a lot to the film too, seeing the father constantly pressuring his son, immersing himself in Asian culture and food was really different from what Javed wanted, and this allowed us to really see the differences and the unique nature of the characters, because the cultural differences really helped to personify not only who they were but also how they chose to live their lives. I also especially thought that the ending speech by Javed was really exciting because not only did it essentially sum up the whole film but it allowed us to see his progression as a character, by telling his story of how Springsteen had changed his life, which I thought wrapped up the film very well. Characters such as his girlfriend and teacher weren't massively important in the film but played a vital role in helping us to have sympathy and believe in Javed as a character, they were background characters but definitely helped to ensure that we could understand Javed’s emotions and how he was feeling.
As well as the good character set, the plot also felt really unique and exciting throughout. I thought that the way in which the film flowed was really different and fresh, because it chopped and cut around but it still allowed us to follow fairly easily what was happening, the musical background was also beneficial and positive because it helped us to become immersed in the current state of the plot and what was going on. The films strong point is definitely how immersive it is, seeing the racism in the restaurant, the streets and vandalism was really powerful and definitely provided some intense viewing, but the dialogue and how the film was put together also felt like it was really immersive. I just genuinely thought that from the school to the town, to the housing estates, the film's plot moved us all around these various locations to really help immerse us with what was happening and what was going on - this was helpful to ensure that we understood the situations and emotions that the characters had during the film. Truth be told, I thought that the plot was really unique and fresh, seeing a lot of shocking scenes really helped to make the film surprising and therefore pack a punch to us. There’s something undeniably exciting about the familiarity of the set-up, the feel-good British comedy with emotional beats signposted a mile away. The backdrop also allows for some powerful commentary, a time of great division and hardship in a town that wasn’t entirely welcoming to a Pakistani British family, all of which helps to ignite the story and keep it interesting and exciting for us.
This film was not perfect though, far from it - there are definitely a few issues that I’d like to discuss. My main issue is that it doesn't feel like the film knows what type of film it is, it jumps around from a drama to a story of a young boy, to a musical with characters dancing around to Bruce Springsteen’s music to a comedy. It really isn't clear what type of film this is because it moves around and changes so much, which makes it confusing and unclear for us to really get to grips with how it should be watched and enjoyed. It was afraid to have any silence, and instead would just fade in an 80's track that had no connection or relevance to the story or to Springsteen at all, the film feels very messy and not very well planned or put together at all. There's also a lot to be improved regarding the storyline too, sure it was immersive but it wasn't very clear as to what the storyline was, what was happening and the overall plan for the plot of the film. There were so many confusing scenes which just felt like they were added in to simply help immerse us in the Pakistani families, instead of getting on and progressing with the film. In this sense, the film feels far too choppy for my liking, because of this it feels like events and scenes in the film are made with no real reason or meaning, we saw Javed angry one scene, and then the next he is breaking up with his girlfriend with no real explanation, the film jumps around from scene to scene with little amount of time dedicated to really explaining and allowing us to understand why things happened and their repercussions. There are also plenty of issues regarding the characters, they started off really great and helped to really immerse us with their culture, but because of the jumpy nature and the indecisive nature of the film, it really felt like these meant that the characters feel more and vaguer throughout the film, Matt is supposed to be an integral part of the film but suddenly after Javed telling him about Springsteen he is really upset and angry, there is no in between here because the film jumps around so much which is a real shame because it undoes a lot of the positive and hard work that the film puts in to establishing the characters early on. It's not very funny and feels lost. It mixes a coming of age, love story, in a racially challenged time, blurring into Mamma Mia style scenes, with bad singing etc. It felt amateurish, with a couple of laughs and it just couldn't quite pull it off. Many scenes didn't make any sense, why was there so many singing scenes? Why were they dancing all the time? What was the point in these scenes? There was none, and I think that it was that which caused so many people to walk out, after about 30 minutes I counted 15 people who had left early, mainly due to the singing and dancing scenes. That says it all really. It was a film that I really wanted to like but I just couldn't, it didn't feel well made and there were so many things that felt unnecessary in the film which made it confusing.
Overall, I would give this film a 6.5. I thought that the best part of this film was definitely how well it immersed us into the cultures of the characters, who they were, their relationships and also the state of society at that time. It was full of powerful scenes of racism but this isn't supposed to be ’This is England 2’ - and shocking the audience isn't supposed to be the main point of the film. It also doesn't know what it wants to be, because it keeps changing and including unnecessary dancing and singing scenes which distract from the story and this just drives the film downhill. Would I recommend this film? If you have an unlimited card with not much on and not much to see then sure, feel free to but if you're paying then I probably wouldn't bother unless of course, you're a big Springsteen fan.
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