“Where’d you go Bernadette” is one of those strange, trying too hard to be different movies where you wonder how lead actors like Cate Blanchette and Laurence Fishburne could read the screenplay and agree to appear in this film. There is no real story here, just a series of scenes where an architect, Bernadette Fox, played by Blanchette is slowly having a nervous breakdown mostly caused by her manic depressive personality. I found most of this not interesting enough to hold my attention for 2 hours, even though the acting, mostly by Blanchette was good.

It is hard to understand why this movie was made or why actors like Fishburne, Blanchette and the very talented Kristine Wiig agreed to agreed to appear in this film. I agree with the low 44% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and do not recommend this movie.

“Blinded by the Light” is an obscure true story from 1987, about a Pakistani teenager from a small town near London England who becomes obsessed with the songs and lyrics of Bruce Springsteen. Amazingly, through the music of Springsteen, Javed, played by newcomer Viveik Kalra is able to escape from his depressing life in a poor family who live in a depressing and typical apartment complex, constantly harassed by racists in his high school and neighborhood.

Despite his unemployed father’s wishes, Javed wants to be a writer and as I seen in so many movies, “Fences” being the best example, Javed’s father stands in the way of son’s dreams and ambitions because of jealousy and anger over his own life failures. Through the brilliance of Springsteen’s music and the lyrics of his great songs, Javed is able to escape from his life that seems to have nowhere to go but down. What this film shows, better than most I have seen like it, is the importance of great artists in the world, who can inspire others to never give up on the dreams, and to just for a little while, escape from their depressing reality and live one more day.

I agree with the high Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Blinded by the Light of 91%. This movie was very well written and well acted. While slow in some parts, the overall message was a good one, and I do recommend this movie. 

Every once in a while as a movie blogger, I read a review or see a high score on Rotten Tomatoes and then see a movie that has no business having a high score, in the case of “Scary Movies t Tell in the Dark” at 80%. There is nothing special about this film. Nothing that scary, nothing we have all not seen many times before. Parts of this film were very slow and boring in too many places. There was also nothing special about the ending that did not rescue this run of the mill horror movie or the special effects that were at best, average.

The correct rating for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is about 45%. This one should definitely be skipped.