Bruce Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere: Movie Review

Cast: Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Odessa Young, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham

Director: Scott Cooper

Fixing on one period of Bruce Springsteen's life works well for the somewhat maudlin and melancholy picture-that's-not-quite-a-biopic about an artist battling his demons.

Fresh off the success of album The River in 1981 and subsequent tour the boss (a brooding Jeremy Allen White, all hunches and hands stuffed into leather jackets) relocates home to New Jersey to recuperate. With the pressure growing for another hit, and desperate to do something else, he hits upon inspiration during a TV viewing of Badlands, the Martin Sheen-led crime movie.

Troubled by visions of his drunken dad's (Adolescence's Stephen Graham) abusive behaviour, Bruce forms a relationship with a school friend's younger sister Faye (Young, one of the few brighter elements of the dour film) while he delves into his dark recesses for writing and mining his troubled childhood, espoused on screen in black and white flashbacks.

Bruce Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is a peek inside the creative process for the 1982 folk album Nebraska,one that focuses more on the downbeat side of proceedings, rather than a jubilant movie that's raucous and rocking out as many would expect from the Boss' back catalogue.

While there are some electric live performances (such as the studio version of Born To Run),the film's more interested in his creative process and the struggle to conceive an album as well as to cast away the demons that haunt the troubled souls.

Succession star Jeremy strong brings an intensity to Bruce's staccato-speaking agent Jon Landau, whose support never wavers and whose commitment to his friend is implied via actions and years of bedded-in backing. Their camaraderie is one of reverence rather than over-played bros and emotions, and it makes for a refreshing change. 

And The Bear's Jeremy Allen White has a kind of aloof edge to the Boss, shaping a character who's more intent on trying to be the best he can be musically, while being aware how he's sabotaging his own lovelife but doesn't know how to stop it.

Ultimately, while there's a very sedate pace to the character study in this film and it's in no rush to beat the drum of its dealing with depression message, the film scores a quiet and unfussy victory that gives a unique insight into how art is made, even if it does nothing extraordinary with its protagonist.