I grew up listening to Bruce Springsteen’s music, so a biopic about the musician and the emotional struggles he had gone through while putting together one of his more famous albums, ‘Nebraska,’ was an intriguing prospect. Jeremy Allen White, whom I’m familiar with since his work on ‘Shameless,’ portrays the musician affectionately known as “The Boss,” adding another layer of interest as I know he’s grown as an actor with his critically acclaimed performance in the hit show ‘The Bear.’
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere centers on 1981, right after one of Bruce Springsteen’s sold-out tours. Portrayed as an artist wary of commercial success and stardom, he appears exhausted and in need of a break. His manager, Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong), rents him a house near his New Jersey hometown where he can lie low and write new songs. There, Bruce ends up confronting his troubled childhood, his difficult relationship with his father (Stephen Graham), and his nurturing mother (Gabby Hoffman).
There, he begins writing songs, cutting demos and recording demos on a low-tech four-track recorder with Mike Batlan (Paul Walter Hauser) and develops a romance with Faye Romano (Odessa Young), the sister of an old high school friend. The songs become a way through for him to reconcile his past and his fears of the future. He begins to get irritable and frustrated as he records the songs in the studio with his band, finding that the purity of the demos should be kept. His relationship with Faye gets serious, which prompts him to distance himself as he is afraid of hurting her. There’s pressure from the studio who wants to cash in on his recent hit tour and force him to go commercial. All the while, Jon is protecting Bruce through all of this as Bruce must face what’s really troubling him inside.
Director and screenwriter Scott Cooper takes an intimate approach in portraying the American rock legend. Far from the big concerts and the magazine covers, he situates Jeremy Allen White in mundane settings – as mundane as a rock star can afford – like a large house in Colts Neck, playing as a session guitarist in small-town bar with a home grown band, the diner where Faye works, a rural amusement park, and driving long stretches of highway sandwiched by New Jersey forests.
The film is introspective and quiet. Playing out most of the narrative in New Jersey, there’s a rustic, provincial feel to it that contrasts Bruce’s blossoming fame. The film works hard to try and paint Bruce Springsteen as a regular person even though we know he’s about to become an even bigger musical star after this album. The contrast between the settings in New Jersey to the ones in New York when he records and when the executives are previewing the material. At this point in his life, the film seems to say, he’s still an ordinary man on the precipice of rock stardom.
White is magnificent as Springsteen. He performs all his own songs (as noted in the credits) and appears to play his own instruments. He has the deep voice and the drawl I’ve come to remember from Springsteen’s interviews. But more than that, Jeremy Allen White embodies an everyman quality to the character, someone so unaware of his own aura.
Jeremy Strong is equally a standout here as Jon Landau, portraying a man who understands Springsteen completely. Without fanfare or loud moments, his presence is a quiet strength that is dead set on protecting his talent. There’s a concern that never becomes imposing, that hovers just below the surface that the camera picks up, which he is able to let out when he’s talking to his wife (Grace Gummer). Together, White and Strong amplify their scenes and present the ideal dynamic between manager/artist relationship.
The film talks about depression and the struggles of a famous artist as he is putting together a landmark album, and I found the film engrossing and insightful. I love seeing how songs and albums are put together – both as demos and studio cuts – but also in the business sense, when record executives start talking about marketing and sales. So, this was interesting to me, on a personal level. How interesting it would be to others, I’m not so sure. When the film enters the musical numbers, it’s great as this is music that I love listening to.
But when the film ended, I felt at a loss about what it really was trying to say. While it tells us that even big rock legends are suffering from depression, it feels somewhat distant from the everyday occurrences of people suffering from this mental condition. At this point in his life, Springsteen had Landau and his own success to fall back on. He made a great album, for sure, but what do I do with his? By working so hard trying to make Springsteen appear normal and human, it inadvertently reminds us of how great an artist he is and how privileged he was at the time of this story.
My Rating:
Experience the story behind the legend! Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is now showing in cinemas, don’t miss Jeremy Allen White’s stunning portrayal of Bruce Springsteen. Check showtimes and buy your tickets now
