Film Review: Springsteen - Deliver Me From Nowhere

 

Sexuality/Nudity Mature

Violence Acceptable

Vulgarity Acceptable

Anti-Catholic Philosophy Acceptable

I have to say in advance that I am not a fan of Bruce Springsteen.  I do not dislike the man or his music.  But I have never had the emotional connection to him that he seems to inspire in his fans.  This fact may be one of the reasons that I did not enjoy Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.

It may also be the fact that the movie is not very good.

The story takes place in 1981.  Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) has just come off an incredibly successful tour.  But he feels like he is losing something with all of the fame.  He wants to "find something real in all the noise."  So he temporarily moves back to New Jersey.  He begins a seemingly doomed relationship with a single-mother/waitress Faye (Odessa Young), while being haunted by bad memories of his abusive, alcoholic father (Stephen Graham).  Here in this emotional state, he works on what would be his "Nebraska" album: something more akin to a folk album than a pop/rock staple.  His manager Jon (Jeremy Strong) constantly fights the executives to help Bruce execute his vision, no matter how odd.  And Bruce is uncompromising to the point of sounding a little crazy.  The movie focuses on the artist trying to fight for his art in its purest sense.

The best thing I can say about this movie is that the performances are very good.  White is excellent as Bruce.  He makes him mostly affable and sympathetic, even as he keeps you at a distance.  And even as his behavior starts to wear on you. White's performance is still incredibly intense and interesting.  Strong has a good understated performance that balances out the artistic fire of Springsteen.  Paul Walter Hauser elevates any movie that he's in.  Here, he has a supporting part of one of Bruce's friends who has to become a makeshift sound engineer.  His everyman voice brings some much needed levity to the story.

But as good as the performances are, the film is slow and plodding.  While it was wise to focus only a small sliver of the singer's life, the story felt like it lacked focus and structure.  There were several times where I found the story more fatiguing that engaging, hoping that it would move the plot forward.

Sometimes you can dwell in a scene if it draws you in.  Here the music should have been the hook.  But this is a musical where the music is more of an idea than an experience.  Bohemian Rhapsody did a good job of encorporating Freddie Mercury's music throughout in thematically strong ways (e.g. "Who Wants to Live Forever" as he realizes his HIV diagnosis).  A Complete Unknown made me appreciate Bob Dylan's music even though I was mostly unfamiliar.  But I never really connected to Springsteen's songs in this film.  

And I do have to say that I am quite tired of the "tortured artist" trope, where we are supposed to excuse to boorish behavior of main character because of his artistic genius.  I have never liked this idea and it always wore thin with me.  I remember in movies like Amadeus or Immortal Beloved, the musician treated others horribly.  We see the same thing here, though not to the same extreme.  Bruce leads Faye on and says something to the effect of, "I can't love you more than I do now."  And yes, there is some brokenness from his childhood that causes this, but it feels more like self-indulgent crap.  He's not like most people, you see?  He's special.  And because he is special, he can't go around committing himself to people like us normies do.

The movie wants to be about big things like trauma, art, forgiveness, and depression.  But it never really gets beyond the surface.  I think the filmmakers wanted the music to do a lot of the heavy lifting, but they miscalculated how much depth it would provide.

When the movie ended, I didn't feel like I really came to understand Bruce Springsteen any better than when I walked into the theater.  The movie treats him with such kid gloves that it never really tries to take to deep a look.  I am so glad that they cut a line from the movie that was in the trailer where Jon says that Bruce's music "is going to repair the world."  It's this near-hagiographic reverence for the man and his music that is much more of a barrier than and opening into his life.

In the end, this movie ends up in the place it wants to deliver you from: 

Nowhere.