Nobody will be more surprised than me that I quite liked Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, because I hate biopics as a rule. Also, the film’s previews seemed to indicate that the movie would mostly consist of a sweaty Jeremy Allen White of The Bear playing Bruce Springsteen by striking triumphal poses in front of huge sellout stadium crowds, as befits “the Boss.” Clearly the marketers are aware of the biopic most Springsteen fans would prefer to see. As for me, I’d run long and hard to avoid seeing a movie like that.
But this Springsteen movie is all about Bruce the depressive, headed for a breakdown while he creates the determinedly lo-fi, downbeat album Nebraska, which absolutely nobody wants from him. It seems like this is also a movie nobody wants, judging by the underwhelming box-office numbers.
But my eyes lit up at the very thought of that movie scenario. Praise Jebus, that’s nothing like the typical biopic!
Based on the Warren Zanes biographical account Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska and directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Black Mass, Antlers), Springsteen keeps a tight frame on the year 1981–82, when the singer-musician-songwriter was just cresting in national fame after his Born to Run tour but not yet ascending further to global superstardom with the Born in the U.S.A. album full of banger hits.
In this interlude, Springsteen is both loyal to and mentally trapped in his hometown area of New Jersey, where he’s flashing back to his rough childhood and drowning in guilt at everyone he’s leaving behind as his career rockets upward. He embeds himself in his house in Colts Neck, and other than regular trips to the Stone Pony in Asbury Park to play with the house band, he stays in his bedroom working on the songs that eventually make up the now-revered album Nebraska.
His inspirations are telling and very period-specific. While watching the horribly crappy TV of the era and switching channels to…
Auteur: Eileen Jones
