Set during the period after Springsteen's 1980 hit album The River and before the release of Born in the USA, the movie focuses on Springsteen's retreat into feelings and memories that consumed his creative life while also building toward an immobilizing breakdown.
The result was the album Nebraska (1982), which became a commercial and critical success, but initially felt like a bad bet. Prior to the album's release, many of those around Springsteen viewed the work as a major mistake, a downbeat acoustic album that strayed from hard-driving rock. Nebraska, some feared, would push Springsteen into a career-shattering detour.
As Springsteen, Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) had a difficult job. He doesn't look like Springsteen, and much of the movie shows Springsteen thinking or recollecting about his upbringing. His Springsteen is often seen responding to the world around him, digesting images that he may not fully understand.
Black-and-white flashbacks focus on young Springsteen (Matthew Anthony Pellicano Jr.) and his relationship with his drunken, rage-prone father (Stephen Graham). Gaby Hoffman has a small turn as young Springsteen's mom, a softer counterpoint to her husband's fury.
Jeremy Strong portrays Jon Landau, Springsteen's manager. Sympathetic to Springsteen's interior life, Landau finds a secluded home in Colts Neck, NJ, where Springsteen is supposed to rest after a grueling tour.
Instead, Springsteen does drop-in appearances at Asbury Park's fabled The Stone Pony. Eventually, he begins composing songs that reflect a dark, disoriented mood that resulted, at least in part, from worries that stardom would separate him from the Jersey roots that nourished his creativity.
During his semi-seclusion, Springsteen establishes a relationship with Faye (Odessa Young), a waitress and single mother. Too caught up in himself and too isolated by depression, he's unable to commit to Faye. But his rejection of her doesn't seem cruel; it's more a reflection of what Springsteen has come to accept as limitations he might not overcome.
Paul Walter Hauser portrays Mike Batlan, a Springsteen crew member, who helps The Boss record the songs that will become Nebraska on rudimentary equipment set up in the rented home.
Springsteen resisted performing the songs he was writing with his band. He eschewed slick production values. He wanted to keep the music raw. The flaws of bargain-basement recording appealed to him; perhaps he wanted to present his pain without polish.
Director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart), who based the movie's screenplay on a book by Warren Zanes, overdoes the flashbacks, which function like the echoes Springsteen incorporated in the Nebraska tunes. Some of Springsteen's influences (a fascination with Terrence Malick's Badlands and a trip to the movies with his dad to see Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter) overemphasize the dreariness that purportedly infiltrated Springsteen's soul.
At times, Deliver Me From Nowhere feels like an idea in search of a movie; it's possible that the making of a single album by someone suffering from severe depression isn't enough to keep a picture buzzing. Imagine a movie about Van Gogh that only dealt with his making of Starry Night. On second thought, that might make for an intriguing movie; Van Gogh was living in the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum when Starry Night was painted.
But you get my point: Deliver Me From Nowhere looks at Springsteen through a narrow lens.
Still, Deliver Me From Nowhere strikes some resonant emotional chords. I'd put it this way: If Deliver Me From Nowhere were an album, you might say that not every song is a hit, but many are strong enough to carry the day in a story about a man teetering on the cusp of losing himself.
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