This reverent, but dramatically static biopic follows Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) towards a creative and emotional crossroads during the early eighties. Retreating from the bombastic success of The River, The Boss pauses in New Jersey for late-night jams with a local bar band, the contemplation of repressed childhood issues and the lo-fi bedroom recording of the daringly pared-back folk album Nebraska.
Based on Warren Zanes’s book, Deliver Me From Nowhere chronicles Bruce’s inner turmoil as he wrestles with memories of his alcoholic father (Stephen Graham) while forging ahead with a passion project inspired by Night of the Hunter, Flannery O’Connor and Badlands.
Columbia Records would prefer he swerve towards his toe-tapping demo for Born in the USA, but devoted manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) has Springsteen’s back and plenty of conviction. Paul Walter Hauser provides comic relief as a loyal sound boffin while Odessa Young’s Faye — an underwritten “composite” waitress and muse - exists only as B-side filler.
Authenticity is a lofty, ill-defined and elusive quality in art. And yet it’s an attribute frequently attributed to both the soft-spoken Springsteen and to White, the actor channelling him. The star of The Bear is wholly convincing in voice, mannerisms and musical performance, even when the film is emotionally inert.
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His brooding Springsteen hunches and ranges through the many stages of denim-clad angst. But White’s sincerity is often checked by a project that is too overawed by its subject to attempt anything too rock ‘n’ roll. Despite the best efforts of Graham, menacing in monochrome flashbacks, the sanitised script never truly pins whatever unprocessed trauma is eating at the rising star.
That preservation of mystique is no accident - Springsteen was an on-set adviser – and will surely play well with the fans. Scott Cooper, who previously directed Crazy Heart and Black Mass, has fun disentangling Springsteen’s influences; White sprawled across the carpet listening to Suicide’s debut album or visiting the library to check out microfiche accounts of Charles Starkweather.
The film-maker lovingly recreates the Reagan-era Americana of wood-panelled luxury living, deathtrap bars, and fast, lonely highways. Kasia Walicka Maimone’s costumes ensure everyone is ready to get pulled onto a stage to bop to Dancing in the Dark.
