Ah, the music biopic. This has become what the period piece historical drama was; this is the prime Oscar bait now. A chance for an actor to transform into a legendary musician, with hopefully little gold men in their future. But making great versions of these movies is near impossible: I mean, how do you encapsulate a larger than life figure into a 2 hour movie? Jeremy Allen White and Scott Cooper take their shot at The Boss, though this movie is a little less Springsteen Deliver Me From Nowhere and a little more Springsteen: Going Nowhere.
Deliver Me From Nowhere finds Bruce (Jeremy Allen White) at the end of his Born to Run tour. At this point he’s a major star, with a bunch of big hit singles. While studio execs like Al Teller (David Krumholtz) eagerly await the next Boss hitmaker, Bruce feels adrift, and goes back to New Jersey to write songs quietly with help from friend Mike Batlan (Paul Walter Hauser). While on and off dating Faye Romano (Odessa Young) and checking in with his manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong), Bruce retreats inward and starts constructing Nebraska, which, for Boss fans, is the strange one between Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A.
Scott Cooper is the writer/director of Deliver Me From Nowhere. I see the artistic merit in his films, but as a storyteller, I find him usually taking a great idea but never quite reaching that idea’s potential. The premise for the Bruce biopic has a lot of potential: making a movie about the lesser album of a great artist is something we haven’t seen before. Unfortunately that new idea is fed into the music biopic cliche sausage. Bruce has a composite love interest (Odessa Young, you deserve better), long drives late at night, complicated relationships with parents, artistic fights with managers. The only thing missing is a drinking or drug problem on the music biopic bingo card. These wrote storytelling choices would have been okay if the movie had any narrative momentum, but like The Boss, Deliver Me From Nowhere is lost and adrift, unsure what story(s) to really focus on to tell this part of Bruce Springsteen’s life.
The saving grace is the music and the star. If you need someone to play a sullen, emotionally volatile character, Jeremy Allen White is ready to take your call. Carmy from The Bear transfers that longing to Bruce Springsteen, making every moment feel like the weight of the world is on his shoulders at all times. Except when he’s singing, where White showcases another talent none of us knew he had. In the big shows or the quieter Nebraska pieces, White really nails the Boss’s tone, and makes the audience understand what makes Bruce Springsteen so special to so many people.
So this music biopic was a swing and a miss. But don’t fret for the Boss. Blinded By the Light still exists, turning around a tiny immigrant’s life across the pond in Luton Town. Oh, and Bruce’s millions might be a good reminder too.