Film Review | Tunnel of Bruce

Heading in to see Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, the latest big-screen rock iconography moment, we’re faced with the same pressing question encountered when Timothée Chalamet dared to embody Bob Dylan (to impressive effect). Is it possible for Jeremy Allen White to fit into the skin, persona, and vocal power of the mighty and distinctive Bruce Springsteen, and allay our suspension of disbelief?

From its early moments, with White as Springsteen commanding the stage in 1981 amid the hoopla of the Born to Run period, the answer is thankfully in the affirmative. White effectively impersonates his subject’s carriage and charisma, and does a convincing approximation of Springsteen’s singing style, with its trademarked friendly street-cred swagger and earnestness.  He even sweats and wields a Telecaster well.

In director-writer Scott (Crazy Heart) Cooper’s adaptation of Warren Zane’s book, unfortunately, we mostly don’t catch sight or sound of that Springsteen until the film’s end, when the Boss is launching into the era of Born in the USA, the genesis of his superstardom glory days. The main body of the film’s focus is what came between the hits, a “wilderness year” saga in which Springsteen was a man adrift, searching for an escape to the high-profile rock star train he was on. The result: The magical, ultra-low-fi and stripped down 1982 neo-folk album Nebraska (still a personal fave of mine in the hefty Bruce-ography).

One of the more fascinating aspects of Deliver Me from Nowhere, and what sets it apart from glitzier biopics, is its depiction of the surprising directions and life changes wrought by the artistic muse, sometimes at the expense of career or commercial considerations. The conceptual germ of Nebraska was Springsteen’s catching Terrence Malick’s masterpiece Badlands and following up on the fact-based lead character’s criminal tale. From there, in the solitude of an isolated house near his old hometown in New Jersey, Springsteen began building a body of raw, rugged songs recorded into a Tascam cassette four-track. On the sidelines of his self-imposed artistic retreat is an affair with a local waitress (Odessa Young), who introduces herself to him outside the Stone Pony club, saying “I know who you are.” He responds, “that makes one of us.”

On Nebraska, no frills or production were allowed, and no artist photo on the cover, interviews, or singles, by decree of Springsteen, to the consternation of Columbia Records and his manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong). It was all part of a therapeutic process, and what he calls an effort to “find something real in all this noise.” He managed to do that, with a unique creative brushstroke. 

As we get into the meat of the narrative matter — the rabbit hole fall and rise of a depressed and lost musician — another impression of White’s screen presence and even casting choice emerges: In effect, his slice of Springsteen’s life bears a strong resemblance to the role which made White famous in the first place, as the good, decent, and talented artist chef in TV’s The Bear, who is haunted by demons from his childhood and elsewhere along life’s path. 

Consider it a kind of typecasting, tapping into White’s special skill at conveying some deep and not always comprehensible psychic pain and depression. Sometimes, it can show up in a melancholic glance (with an oddly cocked head) while talking with his girlfriend in a small-town coffee shop in New Jersey, or having a mini-breakdown at a carnival as he channels memories of his sometimes abusive father (brilliantly played by Stephen Graham, from TV’s Adolescence) from his troubled upbringing. That father factor is a subplot in itself, a nagging ghost who eventually circles back around to a tender father-son rapprochement. 

The aptly-titled Deliver Me from Nowhere is the portrait of an uncompromising artist in a tailspin, who finds redemption and necessary release by following his haunted heart. Yes, it gets sentimental at times (Jeremiah Fraites’s musical score is strangely generic and overbearing). It can lose its focus and tonal bearings. But the film imparts a dark but ultimately warm feeling in the hearts of Springsteen fans, newbies, and off-and-on-ers like myself. In the end analysis, White rocks here, as both Jersey rocker and man in trouble.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is currently playing at multiple Metropolitan Theatres. View trailer here.