REVIEW: ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’ Is For The Jersey Kids

The moment that Bruce (Jeremy Allen White) dialed his car radio to 95.5, I knew that Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere was going to be for me. The Bruce Springsteen biopic about the making of his album Nebraska is the definition of a vibe movie. The plot is loose and less significant than the way the movie tries to make you feel during Bruce’s increasingly troubled days on the Jersey Shore.

Deliver Me From Nowhere is awash with the iconography of Bruce’s hometowns, be them Freehold, Asbury Park, or Colts Neck. The rundown shops, the boardwalk and arcade, and of course, The Stone Pony all build a sense of ’80s New Jersey that those who grew up with it will recognize instantly.

It’s the late-night diner trips, the long roads through autumn foliage, and the stark difference between a quiet Jersey town and the bustle and bright lights of New York City that make Deliver Me From Nowhere feel exactly like how you imagine New Jersey felt when you were young.

Jeremy Strong’s Jon Landau is the true hero of Deliver Me From Nowhere.

That is, if you identify with that feeling, of course. Because if you don’t, you may find Deliver Me From Nowhere to be somewhat of a drag. Much like the controversy at the heart of the film—over how a stripped-down, acoustic, echoey album from a rock star could ever be a commercial success—the movie itself begs the same question. The slice of The Boss’s life director Scott Cooper portrays from Warren Zanes’ screenplay (and book of the same name) is quiet, pensive, and tragic. It contains little thrill and much angst.

Yet, that very tension is portrayed perfectly. Bruce’s producer and dear friend, Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong), represents a number of things in Deliver Me From Nowhere. He is Bruce’s confidant and friend, first and foremost. Landau supports Springsteen no matter the cost, whether he understands what Bruce is going through or not, in both the personal and professional spheres. As such, Jon is the one who stands the most firmly behind Bruce’s vision for Nebraska.

Jon stands up to the CBS executives on Bruce’s behalf to ensure that his friend and partner is able to produce exactly the piece of art that he envisions, no matter the pushback or consequences. Likewise, his character represents the way that Deliver Me From Nowhere may be received exactly as confoundingly as Nebraska was. The movie refuses to be anything different than what it desires to be: a somber tome about a man struggling to find his place in the world.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is about exactly the right slice of Bruce’s life to make the movie special.

Plenty of musical biopics are about the deep personal struggles of the great musicians. In fact, most of them are. But Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere stands far apart from the rest because it isn’t hagiography. It’s not about how Bruce is the greatest artist of all-time, or about the path that led him to becoming the man with the 3rd-most #1 albums in U.S. history. If you didn’t know the story of Bruce Springsteen and how his life would change forever only two years after this movie ends, it would be easy to forgive you for thinking this was a man who never reached those great heights.

Jermey Allen White plays Bruce Springsteen as a sorrowful, confused man, terrified of his future and uncertain about how to deal with his past. Much of the movie is spent wandering the Asbury boardwalk, staring at the rundown house he grew up in, and manically writing music in the Colts Neck house he’s locked himself away in, far from everyone he knows and loves. One night, after tagging in on a show at the Pony, Bruce meets Faye (Odessa Young).

While Faye is, unfortunately, mostly reduced to a catalyst for Bruce’s growth as a character, her presence in his life gives Bruce a glimpse of what life could be like if he got out of his own head. The movie constantly flashes back to Bruce’s childhood, using unpleasant-looking digital black-and-white. The scenes of Bruce’s childhood mirror the moments he lives through as an adult. His family’s struggles as a youth have severely impacted Bruce’s outlook on the world today, and it’s the love of Jon and Faye that helps him reconcile his past and present together with his future.

Bruce’s legend and Jersey roots matter more than the story itself.

I cannot comment on whether the movie feels authentic to the real Bruce Springsteen and his music. For me, that doesn’t matter at all. What matters is that the legend that is Bruce and his abiding New Jersey roots is the very fabric of this movie’s emotional core. The struggle between understanding what has happened to your home — literally and metaphorically —and what your home will someday become is deeply rooted in the people and places Deliver Me From Nowhere depicts. It’s in this vague familiarity that the movie thrives and envelops you in a feeling of home, whether it’s real or imagined.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is a majorly successful musical biopic, not because it picks the most exciting moment in Bruce Springsteen’s life to portray, nor because it offers some glorious insight into the previously unknown heart of a struggling man. It’s successful because it makes you feel exactly what Bruce was going through and why his seemingly ridiculous attachment to a bizarre departure of an album was so essential. 

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is now in theaters everywhere.