Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

After a little trepidation based on its middling reviews, we went to the cinema to see Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Perhaps due to my lowered expectations, or maybe because I'm just a pushover who goes to the movies WANTING to like what I've paid to see, or possibly because it actually IS a good movie, I ended up enjoying Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. (I will henceforth simply refer to it as Springsteen).

From what I gather, the main complaints about Springsteen is that it doesn't have enough music and that it falls prey to rock biopic cliches. First, about the music: I don't agree with those criticisms. It has just enough music. The movie is, among other things, about Bruce's creation of the Nebraska album. He has finished the 1981 River tour and is renting a house in Colts Neck, NJ, getting inspiration from Flannery O'Connor, the Terence Malick movie Badlands, reading microfilm newspaper accounts of the real-life murders that inspired that movie, and obsessing over the debut album by Suicide and the dark-as-fuck song "Frankie Teardrop." So what music we do get is Bruce recording the stripped-down bedroom performances of the songs that would constitute Nebraska, and a few of the songs that would end up on Born In the U.S.A.

As for the "biopic cliche" accusations? Yeah, it's hard to dispute that. There are scenes with inspirational touchstones suddenly appearing, like a copy of Flannery O'Connor's complete short stories on a coffee table or Badlands sort of magically appearing on the TV when Bruce is flipping stations. There are also shots of Bruce maniacally scribbling song lyrics or album ideas. However, I'm not sure how else a filmmaker can visually represent musical inspiration, which is so interior and difficult to translate visually, without dipping into those familiar biopic cliches.

At its core the movie is, more than anything else, about depression and childhood trauma and coming to terms with it. The Bruce we meet is a guy who, after years of hard work, has finally gained a measure of fame and commercial success with his 1980 album The River. But he has psychological pain that he has likely spent many years sweeping under the rug. He is also resistant in taking that one final big step to superstardom, instead wanting to take a turn down a musical cul de sac by recording deeply personal stripped-down songs with no promotion and no singles. 

Without giving away the ending, I found the last few scenes of the movie to be extremely emotional and powerful, as Bruce finally tackles his depression and family trauma head-on.

Jeremy Allen White is convincing as Bruce and I give him tremendous credit for his superb singing, which sounds a hell of a lot like the real Springsteen. Also of note is Jeremy Strong as Bruce's manager and close friend Jon Landau.

If you have any interest in Bruce Springsteen, or the creation of art when faced with numerous obstacles (depression, commercial pressure, what have you), then go and see this movie.