Recently released, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is one of the first Oscar-bait movies released during award season. About Bruce Springsteen and the making of his album Nebraska, Jeremy Allen White stars as Bruce, and Jeremy Strong and Stephen Graham star alongside him as his manager and father respectively. I will note that I know very little about Bruce Springsteen and his music, so I watched this as a movie lover, not as a fan of his music.
As much as this is about Bruce’s album, it is just as much about his struggles with his past and his growing fame. Most of the pain is from his alcoholic father, played by Graham, and I loved their scenes together. I actually wish we had gotten to see more of that because I loved the black-and-white flashback scenes visually. His father was clearly dealing with depression, and Bruce starts to become depressed as well. I do enjoy movies that explore mental health because I think it is important to bring awareness about these things.
Jeremy Allen White does a great job. Although I don’t think he will be nominated at the Oscars, I won’t be surprised to see him at precursor shows. His passion for the role shows, and he actually learned how to sing for the role. His ability to capture the superstar status as well as the dark side of fame was quite impressive. Jeremy Strong gives another solid performance as Springsteen’s manager. He had great chemistry with Jeremy Allen White, and he truly embodied the role of his manager.
The sound throughout this movie helps create an immersive atmosphere because I could hear every little sound. When he was at the house alone, every sound of the outside environment could be heard. Also, the diegetic sound from the instruments being played was clear.
With a lot of biopics that try to show multiple points in life, the story can never get into a lot of details, and this was no different. The story was shallow, and I thought there were elements that could have been more fleshed out. I wouldn’t have minded more flashbacks or scenes about recording the music in his bedroom. I would lean more toward more flashback scenes because they are more vital to the message of the movie. Also, I wanted to see more of Stephen Graham. Although we could tell that Bruce was dealing with things, we didn’t see the physical effects until toward the end of the movie.
I would also have liked a little more closure toward the end. It just seemed to end. Even now, I can barely remember the end of the movie. I would have liked to see more of the therapy instead of a 10-month jump in time. I loved the end conversation, but it could have used a more memorable ending. Also, I could never grasp the time jumps when they didn’t explicitly say how long. Sometimes it seemed like weeks or months, but it could have been a couple of days.
If the story had been a little deeper or more intriguing, I could see Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere being a bigger player at the award shows, but I think it will only have a couple of nominations at the most. With that being said, I still enjoyed the movie. I would recommend waiting to stream unless you are a big Bruce Springsteen fan. I did hear that Bruce Springsteen would like another one made, so I expect there to be a sequel at some point.
Final Verdict: 3/5 (Wait To Stream)
Junior Ranon Travers is a Staff Writer. His email is rtravers@fandm.edu.