In the era of the musician biopic, it can be difficult for films like “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” to find a niche and stand out. While other recent releases, such as the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” choose to focus on the artists’ rise to stardom, “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” takes a more personal and emotional approach. It takes an incredibly raw look at Bruce Springsteen’s childhood trauma and struggles with depression, as opposed to painting him as an effortlessly cool rockstar.
This film is directed by Scott Cooper and is based on the book “Deliver Me from Nowhere” by Warren Zanes while also pulling from Springsteen’s autobiography “Born to Run.” It stars Jeremy Allen White, best known for his roles in “The Bear” and “Shameless,”as Bruce Springsteen. It follows the life of the famous rockstar through his ups and downs.
The movie sets this tone at the very beginning of the movie with black and white scenes of Springsteen’s broken childhood home. It continues to juxtapose sad childhood memories with moments of his early career life to show the inspiration and meaning behind many of his songs, creating a storyline of family and love. Instead of showing Springsteen at his best, this film shows him at his lowest, humanizing him and bringing his story to life. It illustrates him as a lover and family man, and the painful consequences that come along with that down the line.
As such, there are a lot of shots spent gazing into the brown contacts of White. White sounds absolutely amazing singing the songs featured in the movie, such as hits “Born in the U.S.A” and “I’m on Fire.” However, while his voice could easily pass for Springsteen himself, it can be hard to see White as anyone other than who he is. While watching, it’s obvious the entire time that you are watching White play Springsteen in a movie. Apart from that, he gives a moving performance and looks cool doing so.
This film acknowledges that part of the reason that people love rockstars is because they are cool, so it makes sure to lean into that through the cinematography. There are a generous amount of concert clips (which all look the same) and shots of White walking down dark streets wearing the iconic Springsteen outfit. The costume designer hit the mark on the leather jacket with the collar popped, hands in pockets and blue jeans. Every setting in this film gets shown beautifully, from the long stretches of woods in Freehold, New Jersey to the neon-sign lit streets of New York City. It felt like the film spent a lot of time trying to curate its vibe, which was moderately successful.
It hits on the perfect amount of vintage novelty for people that weren’t alive when this took place, such as Springsteen’s character making the comment to the car salesman, “I’d like it more if it had a record player” instead of the brand new cassette players. It shows how pivotal the invention of at-home recording was for Springsteen as an artist, which can be hard to grasp in the age of GarageBand and voice memos.
That being said, the audience of this film is clear: old dads who loved Springsteen in his prime. The film assumes that the viewer already possesses a well-formed idea of who Springsteen is and a general outline of his life, as this film does not explain much. It jumps around a lot through his life, and only focuses on how he feels about events, and not the actual events themselves. Someone completely unfamiliar with him would leave this movie with more questions than answers.
There’s no grand finale to this film; instead of a flashy concert shot, it simply ends with Springsteen walking away from the camera. This ending is a perfect example of how grounded this film is and how it doesn’t try to make Springsteen’s life unnecessarily flashy. It doesn’t try to glamorize being a popular artist and instead highlights the pain that motivates creativity.
Although this is a solid biopic, it doesn’t re-invent the wheel; it’s nothing particularly special, just a pretty good biopic film. Fans of Springsteen or people that grew up with his music may find this movie entertaining or satisfying, but people who have no interest in him or don’t like biopics in general should pass.
Rating: 3.5/5
