Review by Brad Balfour, Arts Editor
Film: “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”
Director: Scott Cooper
Cast: Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Gaby Hoffman, Stephen Graham, Odessa Young
Review by Brad Balfour
Kicking off with a rousing version of “Born To Run,” “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” sets itself up initially as some kind of celebration. But as the film proceeds, with actor Jeremy Allen White’s pout and brooding gaze, this feature about rock icon Bruce Springsteen comes off as something different than what’s expected.
With its New York debut at NYFF 63 — after premiering at Telluride to a positive reception — “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” joins the recent flurry of music-related films. Some have hit serious heights such as The Freddie Mercury-oriented “Bohemian Rhapsody” or Searchlight’s Bob Dylan-focused “A Complete Unknown,” with the ever-charming Timothee Chalamet as its enigmatic star.
Yet “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” is not quite a biopic but something else. Darker and far more introspective, it stars White as The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, and focuses on only one period in his life, the time when he created the album “Nebraska.”
After having the massive hit “Hungry Heart” — but before making his multi-platinum breakthrough album, “Born in the USA” — this film covers his emotional state as he transitions into enduring super-stardom. He has just completed his massive tour for “The River.” White’s version of Bruce starts reflecting on his childhood after returning to New Jersey to hunker down and ponder his next steps.
In somewhat murky black-and-white flashbacks, the young Bruce and mother (Gaby Hoffman) deal with his alcoholic and abusive father (Stephen Graham). To find some respite, he goes to the Stone Pony, his local Asbury Park hometown bar, jamming with a blues band performing covers of roots-rock classics. Bruce meets a pretty single mother, Faye (Odessa Young), and they transition into a sexually charged affair, as he tries to return to pre-fame normalcy.
Clearly, Springsteen loves the music-making process and the live performing but the other trappings of success and fame, of being a powerhouse star, is a lot for Bruce to contend with. It’s not an unfamiliar story — fame vs the creative process — but in Bruce’s case such a conflict of goals and passions acutely affected him at the time detailed here, leading him to creating the songs that make up the “Nebraska” album.
Obviously, director Scott Cooper never intended to make a film just about a rock star but rather about one in turmoil over it. In following the making of Springsteen’s 1982 album — which he recorded it in his New Jersey bedroom as a demo before deciding to release it as-is — he has to contend with his manager (Jeremy Strong) who tentatively supports him despite opposition from his label.
For the Boss, this raw, spare, on-cassette set of songs represented a kind of purity of creation he had to do in order to purge himself of his feelings of hesitation. That feeling also affected his ability to pursue a relationship or even to trust his engineers and producers.
In playing New Jersey’s favorite rocker (Jon Bonjovi notwithstanding), White offers a far more brooding presence and troubled ideation of the rocker — a characterization wholeheartedly supported by Springsteen and manager Jon Landau. After “Nebraska” got released, it still achieved a high-charting position; Bruce still had to cope with his reticence to form a relationship and his self-doubt. Ultimately, he’s advised to see a therapist — which he does.
Based on Warren Zanes’ 2023 book, the rock star’s older fanbase has been slow to turnout for this quieter, more introspective take on a music biopic. Nonetheless, despite the film’s sometimes obvious moments, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” is a look into stardom that feels less cartoonish than many of the other tales of rock n roll fame.