Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere Review

Bruce Springsteen, AKA the Boss, is one of the most popular musicians America has ever produced, and he is the latest musician to be given the biopic treatment.

In 1981, Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) had completed a sold-out tour and returned to his hometown. He uses his time to write a new album and starts to date Faye Romano (Odessa Young), a waitress and single mother. Springsteen also reflects on his childhood and his experiences with his father’s (Stephen Graham) issues with drinking and mental health.

Biopics about musicians have been a go-to genre since there’s a belief that they can appeal to fans of the singer, but they often have formulaic stories and disappoint at the box office. This happened to films like Respect, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and Back to Black. They showed a broad picture where singers suffered from issues like drug addiction, abusive male figures, and showed them performing their most famous songs.  Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere aimed to be an elevated biopic in the vein of James Mangold’s films about Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere needed to be a weighty film since Springsteen is so revered and his music has so much personal and political substance. There was a bidding between 20^th Century Studios and A24 for the distribution rights, with the Disney subsidiary winning out. It was written and directed by Scott Cooper, a man known for making gritty, downbeat dramas. Even his horror film was a gritty, slow-paced experience. Whilst Cooper has made the Oscar-winning Crazy Heart, his ambitious, well-acted films have been met with mixed reactions, although I did enjoy Black Mass and Hostiles.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere admitted the pitfalls and formula that plague many musical biopics. Springsteen didn’t have issues with drink or drugs, and the film focused on a narrow window of time. It was about the production of Nebraska. It showed Springsteen’s creative progress, his influences, and his fight for his artistic vision. This was where the film was at its most interesting since it showed Springsteen’s process and influences, such as the film Badlands and the murderer Charles Starkweather. He used the making of the album as a way to process his turbulent relationship with his father. All of this led Springsteen to create a more personal album, despite the record label’s desire for something with radio hits and singles.

The film came across as a mix of A Complete Unknown and Better Man. A Complete Unknown showed Bob Dylan’s artistic evolution, whilst Better Man explored issues of mental health and parental abandonment. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere was a more sombre, introspective film that was grounded by excellent performance from its leading man. White was a quiet, pained character when he wasn’t on stage.

This quiet approach made the film feel realistic; it had a drawback: the drama was lacking. There was no real conflict.  Springsteen’s manager/producer, Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong), was portrayed as an understanding man who supported Springsteen’s artistic endeavours. Springsteen was so sure of his artistic vision that the only issues he faced were technical, so the sound recorders had to figure out solutions. There was little pushback because of Springsteen’s fame, success, and acclaim. To be fair, Nebraska was a fantastic album.

Whilst Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere had a more focused timeframe, it still had numerous storylines, some working better than others. As the film progressed, Springsteen’s depression deepened, but the story still seemed like it had a sharp turn during the third act. The film was telling the audience that the singer was struggling instead of showing it and having some important conversations. It wasn’t as rich an exploration about depression as Better Man, and that was the film where Robbie Williams was portrayed as a CGI chimpanzee.

Springsteen: Delivery Me From Nowhere was a more character-driven biopic, which made it a cut above most biopics. It was an introspective drama that happened to have some cracking tunes.