SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE REVIEW

“A hugely emotional must-see film, regardless of where you fall on the Springsteen fandom spectrum.”

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

There’s been a surplus – some might say an “excess” – of music-related biopics in recent years. Some of them, like the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line and the Freddie Mercury story told in Bohemian Rhapsody have found enormous success, both at the box office and in winning awards. Others, like Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, have barely made a mark, despite the popularity of its subject matter. Last year’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (also by Walk the Line filmmaker James Mangold) found a happy medium between the two, and director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Black Mass) has adapted Warren Zanes’ book, Deliver Me from Nowhere, into this new biopic about iconic New Jersey songwriting rocker Bruce Springsteen, as played by Jeremy Allen White, Emmy-winning star of The Bear.

Whenever one reviews a movie based on a musical artist, it feels almost mandatory to share one’s entire history with said artist being profiled. Similar to Bob Dylan, I never had much passion for Bruce Springsteen, either during his ‘70s rocker period or when he embraced MTV in the ‘80s. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere very specifically covers his transition phase after having the massive hit “Hungry Heart” and before making his multi-platinum breakthrough album, “Born in the USA.” We meet White’s Bruce, as he has just completed his massive tour for “The River.” On returning to New Jersey, he starts reflecting on his childhood, some of which we see in a black-and-white flashback of the young Bruce and his mother (Gaby Hoffman) dealing with an alcoholic and abusive father, played by Stephen Graham. After jamming with a blues band at his local Asbury Park hometown bar, the Stone Pony, Bruce meets a pretty blonde fan, a single mother named Faye (Odessa Young), and they begin dating, as he tries to return to some sort of normalcy in his life.

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Finding Zanes’ book and telling this particular story in Springsteen’s career is quite a brilliant move by Cooper, whose films have been somewhat erratic in recent years. This is such a personal moment in the musician’s life, where he is trying to find himself, while also dealing with debilitating depression, as he writes the acoustic ballads that would later become “Nebraska,” recording on a 4-track cassette PortaStudio, which had become all the rage in those days. We see some of the inspirations that led to writing these songs, such as Bruce watching Terrence Malick’s Badlands, but that’s also contrasted with his own domestic abuse during childhood.

A major component of Bruce’s support team is his manager, Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong from Succession), who is constantly having to run interference for a record label that wants Bruce to immediately write his follow-up hit to “Hungry Heart.” Even Jon doesn’t fully understand why Bruce is holed up in his home with his ersatz engineer Mike (played by Paul Walter Hauser) recording these low-fi demos, later insisting to release them as is, he realizes this is important for his top artist. As a former and current music engineer, I never felt any more seen than in some of these scenes with Hauser, and later, when Bruce moves to New Yor City’s top studio, the Power Station, to record with his band. (Marc Maron jumps in as the engineer there.)

Photo courtesy 20th Century Studios

It’s important to know that Deliver Me From Nowhere isn’t meant to be solely about the music, since it’s more about what Springsteen was going through at that time, even having difficulty making his new romantic relationship work. Cooper finds a great way to balance the making of “Nebraska” with these truly personal moments when Springsteen is contending with his past. Honestly, I never knew much about this period in Springsteen’s life, nor any of the turmoil from his childhood, but oddly, this was the first time I have ever felt any connection to the rocker.

What’s important to know about White’s performance is that it’s never just about doing a Bruce Springsteen impression, since we’re also seeing him off-stage and in moments so private and personal, no one could even imagine what he was going through. This includes sitting parked outside his childhood home, reflecting on his difficult past, a Springsteen not even his most diehard fans will ever have seen, making me curious how his real fans will feel about this depiction.

Strong has many hugely pivotal moments with White, but more people really need to be talking about the performances by Graham and Young, since both of them bring so much to their scenes with Allen and more importantly, Bruce’s journey. We see Graham as Bruce’s flashbacks as being this menacing and violent figure, but also more tender moments like the young Bruce and his father watching Night of the Hunter. (I was pleasantly surprised by the film references that led to this period in his songwriting.) We then see his father later in life, having recently lost a job and things having gone downhill, as Graham (now aged with makeup) shows us a different side of this man who played such a major part in Bruce’s development.

Photo courtesy 20th Century Studios

One would imagine a film like this would be all Springsteen needle drops, though that’s not even remotely the case, since Cooper wisely leaves plenty of room for the glorious score by Jeremiah Fraites (of the rock band The Lumineers) to keep the emotions flowing. Oddly, Fraites also did the amazing score for Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk, which I just rewatched a few days before seeing this. In my mind, these are two of the best film scores I’ve heard this year, both adding so much to their films.

Cooper also wisely reunited with his regular cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi (their fifth collaboration), who managed to capture even the most unglamorous locales (like a Jersey diner) in a beautiful way, along with the film’s production designer and set decorator, who clearly worked hard to recreate these spaces while placing them into the proper early ‘80s period. Editor Pamela Martin is also a crucial collaborator in keeping what might feel to some like a slower movie, since there are so many different stories that need to work together.

Photo courtesy 20th Century Studios

In other words, Deliver Me from Nowhere is a nearly perfect movie. In fact, there were only two minor things that kept me from giving Cooper’s movie a flat-out 10 out of 10. I’ve spent many years of my life in the recording studio, including the Power Station, where Springsteen recorded “Born to Run” with the E-Street Band. I admired the attention to detail, like the vintage Studer 24-track machine, but couldn’t forgive having all 24 tracks enabled to record in a scene where they’re transferring the four tracks from Bruce’s PortaStudio. It’s a minor quibble from a nerdy recording engineer, sure, but a bigger one is the way the movie just assumes people watching will know who everyone is. Towards the latter part of the movie, Springsteen takes a cross-country trip to Los Angeles, where he’s bought a new house. His travel companion is some guy who is never properly introduced, and considering the major revelation that happens on this trip, it’s a major faux pas impossible to ignore. Maybe this is someone in Springsteen’s life whom fans might know, but the rest of us will probably be lost.

Either way, the Academy should go ahead and etch Jeremy Allen White’s name on that Lead Actor Oscar, though I also hope the industry’s top awards beneficiaries pay close attention to the film’s many other assets, both above and below the line. Deliver Me from Nowhere is a hugely emotional must-see film, regardless of where you fall on the Springsteen fandom spectrum. Not only Cooper’s strongest effort to date, but also one of the very best films you’ll see this year.

Rating: 9.5/10

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere opens nationwide on Friday, October 24.