“In this office — in my office — we believe in Bruce Springsteen.”
“Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” is the latest film from Scott Cooper that chronicles the personal and professional strife during Bruce Springsteen’s endeavor to create his 1982 album “Nebraska.” It is based on Warren Zanes’s 2023 book of the same name.
Jeremey Allen White, most known for his work on “Shameless” and “The Bear,” embodies “The Boss” during a time of great dispiritedness, coming off of the wide success of the 1980 album “The River.”
The film also stars Jeremy Strong as Springsteen’s close friend and manager, Jon Landau, along with David Krumholtz, Stephen Graham and Odessa Young in supporting roles.
“Nebraska” was a sharp departure from Springsteen’s first five studio albums and there were concerns about how successful such a dark, almost haunting album would do commercially.
A Columbia Records executive (Krumholtz) voices these concerns to Landau (Strong), who quickly puts an end to any pressure that Springsteen prioritize commercial success over his artistic vision.
As Springsteen continues to write lyrics for this elusive record, there are flashbacks to his childhood. Douglas Springsteen (Graham) is a severe alcoholic who is verbally and, at times, physically abusive to Bruce and his mother, Adele.
These black-and-white scenes are light in dialogue but starkly illustrate the foundation of Bruce and his fathers complicated relationship. “[It] feels a little ghostly itself, a movie half-inhabited by a strain of melancholy you can’t quite find the word for,” said critic Stephanie Zackarek for Time.
A relationship as tempestuous as Bruce and his father’s is not readily fixable, and this film does not try to approach it in such a way.
There are only two interactions in the present between Bruce and his father, and much is left unsaid between them, but there’s also a quiet understanding of each other.
“In a movie filled with music that says so much to so many, some of the most memorable moments are the quieter ones, the lonely silences that at times separate Bruce from the world but also eventually help him return to it,” said critic Manohla Dargis of The New York Times.
White’s portrayal of Springsteen is a deeply nuanced performance of a man falling further into a quiet downward spiral.
“White disappears completely into the role without skirting parody, portraying the exhausted hitmaker as startled by his own numbness, blanked out and unsure of what to do next,” said critic Sadie Sartini Garner for Pitchfork.
But what may be more impressive is White’s performances of Springsteen’s music.
Though he is not a singer, White had a voice and harmonica teacher for the entire production, filming the performance scenes last to give him as much practice as possible.
The end result is shocking; White sounds exceptionally similar to Springsteen.
“It’s not just that White has figured out how to sing like Springsteen, or even that he’s somehow able to channel his youthful, sweaty charisma,” said Zackarek.
While this film does fall into some biopic cliches (mainly in the first third), it does an excellent job at laying bare the inner turmoil of a Springsteen adrift, unsuccessfully trying to find his footing.
A man on the edge of burgeoning stardom while also attempting to grapple with his trauma.
“Trying to find something real in all the noise.”
