Springsteen finally joins his iconic peers in getting the biopic treatment and, to its credit, Deliver Me from Nowhere decides to take a less common approach to the genre. It is an admirable effort but doesn’t dive deep enough to justify itself.
The film chronicles the making of Springsteen’s (Jeremy Allen White) album Nebraska, a decidedly unusual left turn for a rock star of his stature, the album consists mainly of dark, acoustic ballads, initially recorded by Springsteen on lo-fi equipment in his bedroom. We meet Springsteen at the end of his The River tour, where is has shot to fame and suddenly is weighed down by its pressures (both business and personal) and the burnout from his tour. His mental health begins to slide into depression. Whilst focused on this one specific time in The Boss’s life, this is interspersed with black and white flashbacks to Bruce’s childhood and the life lived with his mother (Gabby Hoffman) and his alcoholic and abusive father (Stephen Graham).
This is no vanity project meant to cater to fans’ nostalgia or further mythologise The Boss, the icon; it is interested in showing us the human being behind it. The focus on one particular period of Springsteen’s life, and one more focused on introspection and creativity than recreating iconic public moments, makes this a more interesting film than it might otherwise have been. It isn’t often we see the down moments of a rockstar, particularly being allowed a peek into Springsteen’s life in a vulnerable period as he sinks into a depression. The concept allows the film to evade the paint by numbers birth-to-death approach that has been so overdone, whilst still colouring in some of Springsteen’s background through the flashbacks depicting his relationship with his father. Whilst this is admirable, the filmmaking does not eschew many of the biopic trappings we’ve become so used to seeing; it features some extremely on-the-nose dialogue and some overly clichéd biopic moments that even border on parody. This breaks the realism the film had been pitched as aiming for and completely pulls you out of the film.
White is great in the role and certainly captures the recognisable physicality of Springsteen on stage. Off-stage, he portrays him as a man rather than an icon – strip away the music and this could be about any artist struggling with their fame and mental health – which allows us to really feel as though we are stepping behind the curtain. He is supported well by Jeremy Strong as his manager, Jon Landau, the man in his corner who holds the line against the record company’s outrage at Springsteen’s new vision. Odessa Young, as the composite love interest characters, delivers a strong performance but is given little to do outside of being a plot device there to illustrate Springsteen’s attachment issues and further slide into solitude.
The film (and Springsteen himself in his endorsement of the film) can be commended for putting mental health at the fore and explicitly showing a man who became a symbol of rough and tumble masculinity in culture (despite the sensitivity of a lot of his work) struggling. The film maintains a delicately melancholic atmosphere and a decidedly introspective feel and holds the audience’s attention as we are brought along this inward journey with Springsteen. The film predominantly depicts his quiet solitude, contrasted with a few concert and performance moments, and hints at the worsening of his internal battles. This is where the film’s ultimate messaging lies, and it is likely to help people. That said, it doesn’t dive deeply enough into these subjects or Springsteen’s psyche during this time period, perhaps as portraying such an inward struggle doesn’t lend itself easily to the cinematic. Despite the film’s run time and small scope, it feels slight.
Overall, it is an interestingly different look at a superstar but it doesn’t five deep enough into its subject and is held back by the biopic cliches it purports to rail against. It’ll still intrigue those who watch it (fans or otherwise) and offers a more insular view of an icon.
