Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere Review

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere Review

This weekend the latest musical biopic hits theaters. This time it’s about The Boss, Bruce Springsteen and it’s titled Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. This is one that I was very curious to check out because I like Bruce Springsteen and was just curious to see what his life would look like in the style of a biopic. What did I think about it? Let’s talk about it!

The Good

For me, when I leave a biopic I want to be thinking of one thing and that’s that I understood who this person was more than when I went in. In the case of this film, I absolutely left the film better understanding who Bruce Springsteen is as a person. I’ll talk about this more later on but the film really does explore the whole spectrum of his life. We see his relationship with his father, his childhood, his love life, his manager, and of course his music. It’s not focused on one aspect of his life, it's focused on all of it. I don’t feel like we get a lot of biographies that tell the full spectrum of emotions of somebody’s life. That means that by the time the credits roll you feel like you know on a deeper level. You feel like you’ve actually sat down with Springsteen and discussed his life for 2 hours straight. It means that when you’re watching the film you’re feeling all sorts of different emotions from victory to sadness to happiness and all of these emotions. I really liked the film and I found it refreshing to see the full spectrum of somebody’s life in a biopic. One of the problems I had with A Complete Unknown last year was that I didn’t feel like I understood who Bob Dylan was leaving the film, here I left understanding who Bruce Springsteen was. 

The other thing that you have to talk about with this film was the cast. Everybody in here does a great job and embodies their characters nicely. I hope around awards season the ensemble gets a lot of nominations because it’s a great ensemble without the obvious weak link. Of course the one you have to talk about is Jeremy Allen White as The Boss. This was really my introduction to Jeremy. I still haven’t seen The Bear (I know, I’m behind) but this film showed that he’s a world class talent that’s here to stay. I’m very excited to see where his career goes from here. The film is on his shoulders so if he doesn’t work, the film doesn’t work. Whether he has to be emotional or the musician that really wants to succeed he’s able to capture those emotions and make you believe them. There’s some moments towards the end that I think will seriously make people consider him for a bunch of awards this Oscar season. The other big stand out here was Stephen Graham as Bruce’s father. His father played a much larger role in the film then I thought he would. So many of the big emotions of the film come from their dynamic. Graham delivers some truly heartbreaking moments as you move into the back half of the film. He’s not at all in the conversation for best supporting and I think that’s a total shame because he delivers one of the best performances of the year. One I think does have a higher chance of getting awards recognition is Jeremy Strong as Jon Landau, Bruce’s manager. He’s been nominated and won several awards over the years, he’s a great actor that brings a lot to a role. Odessa Young plays the love interest in the film. I wasn’t sure what to make of her and her character when she was first introduced but as the film went along I was more invested in her. The cast was one of the aspects that surprised me most about the film. I expected Jeremy Allen White to give a great performance, I wasn’t expecting the entire cast to be great and captivating. 

Another aspect of the film that really surprised me was just how emotional and human the film was. Since the film is covering the full spectrum of Bruce’s life that means we’re getting to see and explore him from multiple different angles. When you move into the back half of the film and we see more of Bruce’s relationship with his father it provides some of the most gut wrenching moments of the year. I didn’t start to cry or anything like that, but I was definitely feeling the right emotions in those scenes. I’m very close with my dad, he’s somebody that’s taken me to several movies over the years. To be clear, my dad’s not abusive like Bruce’s father but I found their scenes so emotional. On a human level, I didn’t feel like the film had much cynicism going on. Bruce makes several choices in the film that are frustrating to both the audience and characters, but the other characters’ reaction is very genuine and human. The dynamic between Bruce and Jon in the film I thought was very interesting, because Jon never stops caring about Bruce. Jon is always there to help and support Bruce no matter what he says or does. They don’t paint Jon to be the villain or anything like that. He’s annoyed by Bruce at several points but he’s always there for him. Even when there’s some heartbreak between Bruce and the love interest of the film. There is heartbreak and frustration that comes from those scenes, but it ultimately feels like a very human reaction and you’re sad because you care about them. I just really liked that aspect of the film and thought it added layers and depth to these characters. 

Another thing you have to talk about with this film is you have a great soundtrack because Bruce Springsteen has written a lot of pretty fantastic songs that provide a great catalog to be played in a biopic like this. “Born in the USA” and “Nebraska” are the songs most used in the film and the songs that the film is focused on the most. But a good portion of the scenes in the film are Bruce writing songs and trying to perfect the songs. You’re constantly hearing all of these great songs that make the movie better because they’re songs that people have been listening to for decades now. It’s also music that after watching it you’re going to reevaluate because you see the backstory behind it and why he wrote it and the process it took to get it just right. 

Finally, the film does a good job of transporting you back to a time and a place. This film spans from Bruce’s childhood in the ‘50s to his life in the late ‘80s. No matter what time period we’re in you feel like you’re in this time period because of the costume designs, the haircuts, and the overall vibe and what’s being talked about around this time. When you’re doing a biopic that’s set in decades past, that one of the aspects they need to and should get right because it helps set the tone and atmosphere for the film. 

The Bad

While I appreciate the film does tackle the full spectrum of Bruce’s life, I think that also means that the film is trying to tackle too many ideas. As I mentioned earlier, the film is about his relationship with his father, his relationship with his love interest, his music career, and so much more that the film was trying to do way too much. In the first half of the film, it was a bit choppy with the way that it was done. Earlier on the film they introduce a love interest for Bruce that’s pretty prominent in the film. But the romance angle dominates the first act of the film. Jeremy Strong doesn’t really become a major character until half way through. In the first half there’s a lot of scenes with the father and then in the back half there’s half as much. The film is constantly having to switch around between what it’s focusing on. I liked all of the elements that they focused on, but I wish they found a way to make it flow better and have all of the ingredients get a proper amount of screen time and not have it feel super clunky with how it’s done. The film might have benefitted from begging 15-20 minutes longer. The film is only 2 hours long and very easily could’ve been longer without it feeling too long. I think this is going to be one of the big criticisms you’re going to see coming out of the film is it trying to balance way too much.

Tied to that, I think the film takes a little while to get going. I really liked the romance in the film and Odessa Young’s performance but I felt like the film really kicked into high gear and became more interesting once Bruce was more focused on his music. I think another issue with the film trying to balance too much is that whatever piece you were most invested in you could feel cheated by the end of it because it didn’t deliver enough of what you liked. Since the stuff I was more invested in didn’t start to become super important until the second half it meant that the film took a while for me to fully get connected with it. I appreciate that the film covers the full spectrum of Bruce’s life, but because of that it means that the ideas don’t match the runtime of the film. 

Final Thoughts: In general, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is a rock solid biopic about The Boss. The film has great performances from Jeremy Allen White and the entire ensemble. The film is also able to capture the full spectrum of Bruce’s life and we’re seeing so many different things. When you leave the theater you feel like you understand both him and his songs much better. The film isn’t perfect I think because it’s trying to tackle his entire life, which means the film can be overstuffed and lack focus. But overall, this is a really good biopic that I hope gets a lot of conversations come awards season. 

The Score: 8.7/10 (B+)