Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

A Complete Unknown (2024), Elvis (2022), Judy (2019), Rocketman (2019), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), I Saw the Light (2015), The Runaways (2010), and I Walk the Line (2005). These are 21st century movies that feature actors doing their own singing as they portray iconic music artists. It seems that audiences will not tolerate anything less from these Oscar-baiting performances. Well, now we can add another. Gaining much critical acclaim for his work in The Bear, Jeremy Allen White sings his way onto the screen in Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.

What is missing from this film that quite often dominates other such films (excessively so in Bohemian Rhapsody), is an overwhelming amount of concert footage. In fact, the film opens with the end of a concert, and the end of a tour which sets up the "what next" aspect of the plot. The movie is set in the early 80s prior to the release of the album Nebraska. It follows Springsteen as he withdraws from public attention, holding up in a secluded rental house near a lake where he writes the songs that would not only populate Nebraska, but also the material that would then make up the very successful Born in the U. S. A. Album, blowing his career wide open.

The movie zeroes in on Bruce's relationship with his parents Adele (Gaby Hoffmann), and Douglas (Stephen Graham). The relationship with his father was particularly stormy, and pivotal to the internal struggles that surround this period for Bruce. Caught up in the storm is also Faye Romano (a fine performance from Odessa Young). On the business side, Bruce's manager John Landau (Jeremy Strong) must find a balance between attending to Bruce's creative process and pressures from record executive Al Teller (David Krumholtz).

This is a quiet, very intimate film that is narrow in scope. White's performance, much like all of his time spent on screen, is introspective and intense, never bombastic or over-the-top. In both his speech and his vocals, he captures The Boss very effectively. Grant it, I am not a huge Springsteen uber-fan, so it was convincing for me. There is plenty of love given to Springsteen's Jersey locations, the area where he grew up, Asbury Park, and The Stone Pony Club.

That Club marked a few of my favorite scenes in the film. A bearded man sings "Lucille," "Boom Boom," and "I Put a Spell on You." That man is the lead singer for one of my favorite blues/rock bands, Rival Sons. His name is Jay Buchanan, and if you appreciate his performance in the film, you will love that band. Check them out. There are also a few intersecting points with other films. So, if you want to make it a double or triple feature, you could pair it with Sean Penn's The Indian Runner (1991), which is inspired by a song from Nebraska (Highway Patrolman). An inspiration for the title song "Nebraska" is Badlands (1973), and clips are featured in this film.

Beautiful performances especially between Stephen Graham and Jeremy Allan White.

A really sensitive look at mental health struggles in a rich rock star vs a working class dad who doesn't have access to the same resources. I had been expecting a 'boy breaking out of an abusive childhood' story so to have his dad portrayed so empathetically made this much more interesting than your usual music biopic.

Compared to something like A Complete Unknown which didn't seem to have anything interesting to say about its protagonist, this was a really interesting insight into life after being thrust into stardom.

'Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere' is a slow, melancholic look at a dark chapter in the life of a legend. It peels back the layers on Bruce Springsteen's creative crisis around creating his 'Nebraska' album - a quiet, haunting period where the music came from pain more than fame. Jeremy Allen White, one of the most talented actors of our generation, absolutely does him justice. His stillness, his tension, his quiet ache - all spot on.

I really appreciated the film's focus on mental health too; it's such an important conversation, and seeing it explored through someone as iconic as Springsteen gives it even more weight. The way it honours Springsteen's struggle with what it means to succeed, what it means to escape, what it means to carry your past even when you're on the cusp of everything - that's vital. It's important we keep talking about it. That introspection is the real soul of the piece.

That said, the film does feel a bit too cautious. I wanted it to go deeper, to get a bit messier and more impactful, rather than staying so safe. Still, if you don't mind a slow burn where most of the action happens under the surface, it's a beautifully introspective watch.

From the outside it can look pretty straightforward to be a rock star, but this movie shows that it is nothing like it.

We tend to forget that stars are also normal people that have personal issues, relationship issues, personal struggles and backgrounds.

Allen White portrays Bruce perfectly. Casting was spot on. Jeremy Strong as Jon Landau was an excellent choice.

Bruce may be different than other rock stars in a way, but the creative process was always at the core for him. Nebraska was that moment HE needed.

Great movie!

Where you come from is gone. Where you thought you were going was never there." Flannery O'Connor

Writer/director Scott Coopeer's Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere has Flannery's dark but open celebration of life, where Bruce (Jeremy Allen White) has been-from an unsettling place with his erratic father and loving mother to Bruce's own struggles with depression. Therefore, this is an introspective take, not the bombastic but splashy Bohemian Rhapsody.

Although this bio is small by most standards of musical stories and covers only a few of his years, it gets to places in the artist's psyche only a few have ever gone. It obviates my concern that the big bios are about melodies and groupies, not the inspiring creative process of the musician. In a sense, Bob Dylan's story in A Complete Unknown (2024) came close to the interior look that Springsteen's story does.

While we witness the conflicts of birthing Nebraska and its inherent darkness, Cooper and co-writer Warren Zanes (the story is adapted from his Springsteen bio) gently and slowly hint at the life-changing song Born in the USA. They well document the Boss's struggle between promoting albums and benefiting from the hit single return, violating his prime directive to present the whole story in an album.

This biopic chooses to accompany Bruce while he emerges as a rock 'n roll legend devoted to the common man's celebration of life's smaller moments that eventually lead to where he is going.

As much as I like this minimalist approach, I still yearn for more stage singing at which White is so adept-he should be nominated-- as Chalamet was last year. I could do less of Bruce's romance with Faye (Odessa Young)-if it's even real-and more of the sterling interaction with his friend/counsel Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong).

In this fine bio, Bruce best expresses the interiority of the film's perspective:

"I just want it to feel like I'm in the room by myself." Bruce.