Let's face it: the music biopic is perhaps the most formulaic genre that exists in cinema. Even if films like “Walk The Line” or “Bohemian Rhapsody” are euphoric, especially thanks to Oscar-worthy acting and rousing song performances, the content still covers the same stages over and over again: youth with dreams and strokes of fate, first fame, violent fall, phenomenal rebirth, a concert as the coronation – and something else somewhere in between Romance.
When “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” begins in 1957, where an eight-year-old Bruce (Matthew Pellicano Jr.) is afraid of his alcohol-intoxicated father (Stephen Graham), exactly this standard formula seems to be served up again. But this time, fortunately, they were mistaken. “Crazy Heart” director Scott Cooper obviously has no interest in retelling the entire life of Bruce Springsteen aka The Boss. Instead, he focuses exclusively on an important, very human chapter in the rock legend's life.
The haven of peace between two mega-sellers
Between his celebrated mega-sellers “The River” (with his first top ten single “Hungry Heart”) and “Born In The USA” (whose seven top ten songs finally made him a global superstar), Springsteen worked on the minimalist album “Nebraska”, recorded in his own bedroom. Cooper tells the story of its origins. His central challenge was less about explaining an album after the fact…
… because even if Springsteen himself refused any explanation at the time, the background is now largely known. However, they are so dark that it is not that easy to create a film for fans that is also captivating at the same time. And that's exactly what it achieves, especially with Oscar-worthy acting and driving song performances – almost as if “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” was somehow a classic musician biopic.
Bruce Springsteen and his close friend and manager Jon Landau are at the center of the film together.
1981: Although Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) has just returned from a grueling tour with his band, record company boss Al Teller (David Krumholtz) is already asking music manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) about when there will finally be new material from the boss. The musician begins to write in a secluded house in his old home of New Jersey. With “Born In The USA” the result is a song with stadium rock anthem potential, but overall Bruce is increasingly drawn to dark lyrics that literally burst out of him. The first are still influenced by the real story of the serial killer Charles Starkweather and its cinematic treatment in Terrence Malick's masterpiece “Badlands”.
But little by little the songs become more and more personal and deal with his own depths and the complex relationship with his father. While Springsteen begins a relationship with waitress Faye Romano (Odessa Young), Landau becomes increasingly worried about his friend, who is sinking into darkness. But there is also a problem on the technical side. The musician recorded the new songs with his veteran guitar technician Mike Batlan (Paul Walter Hauser) in his own bedroom and without his band. Now Landau has to find a way not only to put them on record in all their raw imperfection, but also to explain to Teller that there won't be any more rock anthems for now, but an album with nothing but dark solo songs…
The history of the creation of “Nebraska”
In his autobiography, published in 2016, Bruce Springsteen provides comprehensive insight into his life and the creation of his music. He only briefly covers the period of “Nebraska” – although the work has long been considered one of the most influential albums in history. But as with the release in 1982, when Springsteen didn't give a single interview and even rejected single releases for radio, he didn't want to explain himself any further more than 30 years later. That only changed with the music journalist Warren Zanes, who persistently investigated Springsteen and his companions and finally revealed the background in detail in the 2023 book “Deliver Me From Nowhere”.
Scott Cooper comes close to the truth, especially since Springsteen and Landau also worked closely with him and were even personally on the film set for large parts of the shoot. But that doesn't necessarily make things any easier: Springsteen was suffering from depression and acute burnout at the time. The subject matter of “Deliver Me From Nowhere” is automatically much darker than most music biopics. At the same time, Cooper – unlike Springsteen on “Nebraska” – cannot completely break away from commercial shackles and expectations. After all, he's filming a $50 million Hollywood film here about one of the world's most famous musicians.
Bruce always has to realize how lonely he feels.
For long stretches, Cooper manages the balancing act of, on the one hand, showing how Springsteen processes his depression into art, but on the other hand, also celebrating stirring music moments and the artist himself. In the best moments he also shows how music is created creatively – and how something really explodes in the songs. “The Bear” star Jeremy Allen White not only impresses because he meets the usual biopic requirements and also sings great, but because the pain that his character feels deep down can always be read on his face. Thanks to him, we don't experience the music legend Springsteen for long stretches, but rather the human being Bruce. A lot of “Deliver Me From Nowhere” depends on White's nuanced acting, because Cooper doesn't want to go all out when it comes to portraying depression.
When Springsteen simply doesn't get in touch after romantic dates with Faye and even building a relationship with her young daughter, it's not an asshole move like Bob Dylan's behavior towards his partner in James Mangold's drama “Like A Complete Unknown”, which has a few parallels. Instead, it is an expression of his mental illness and the resulting belief that he is not good enough for her. Because Cooper can't always spell this out, this narrative thread in particular sometimes gets left hanging in the air – even if it does come to a rounded conclusion in a convincing scene in a diner.
Despite everything, a few Hollywood clichés shouldn't be missing
In other places, “Deliver Me From Nowhere” seems a bit too striking. For example, when Springsteen realizes that the song he has just written about the murderer Charles Starkweather is actually about himself, we watch in close-up as he changes all the personal pronouns in the lyrics and “He” and “Him” quickly become “I” and “My”. A montage straight out of the music biopic cliché handbook seems a bit like it's in the film primarily to incorporate a mainstream hit that isn't from the “Nebraska” album. So the images that are cut together are accompanied by “I'm On Fire” and one more fan favorite is included. The black and white flashbacks to Springsteen's youth are sometimes used a little too obviously as an exclamation point to a statement that has just been made.
The fact that “Deliver Me From Nowhere” remains a film worth seeing despite these minor weaknesses is not only thanks to White, but also to his co-star Jeremy Strong. The “Succession” star is convincing as a manager who cares about his friend. A few of the dialogues with Jon Landau's wife (Grace Gummer) obviously only serve to express thoughts. Overall, the second perspective enriches the film immensely – precisely because it allows Cooper to incorporate lighter and more entertaining tones. When Landau and a group of technicians desperately try to record Springsteen's rough bedroom cassette recordings without “enhancing” them, it becomes a film-within-a-film that is as nerve-wracking as it is hilarious.
Conclusion: Bruce Springsteen has always resisted a classic biopic about his life. But fortunately that's exactly what Scott Cooper doesn't deliver. Instead, he concentrates on a short, dark chapter, which significantly shaped the boss and probably made it possible for him to still tour the world and delight his fans today. The acting performances of the main actors Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong as well as the strong music scenes also make “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” a film worth seeing about the person behind the rock legend.