Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere <\/p>\n
\ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 \ue9d7 <\/p>\n
Director: Scott Cooper <\/p>\n
Cert: 12A<\/p>\n
Genre: Biopic<\/p>\n
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham, Odessa Young <\/p>\n
Running Time: 2 hrs mins<\/p>\n
This reverent, but dramatically static biopic follows Bruce Springsteen<\/a> (Jeremy Allen White<\/a>) towards a creative and emotional crossroads during the early eighties. Retreating from the bombastic success of The River, The Boss pauses in New Jersey for late-night jams with a local bar band, the contemplation of repressed childhood issues and the lo-fi bedroom recording of the daringly pared-back folk album Nebraska.<\/p>\n Based on Warren Zanes\u2019s book, Deliver Me From Nowhere chronicles Bruce\u2019s inner turmoil as he wrestles with memories of his alcoholic father (Stephen Graham<\/a>) while forging ahead with a passion project inspired by Night of the Hunter, Flannery O\u2019Connor and Badlands. <\/p>\n Columbia Records would prefer he swerve towards his toe-tapping demo for Born in the USA, but devoted manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) has Springsteen\u2019s back and plenty of conviction. Paul Walter Hauser provides comic relief as a loyal sound boffin while Odessa Young\u2019s Faye \u2014 an underwritten \u201ccomposite\u201d waitress and muse – exists only as B-side filler. <\/p>\n Authenticity is a lofty, ill-defined and elusive quality in art. And yet it\u2019s an attribute frequently attributed to both the soft-spoken Springsteen and to White, the actor channelling him. The star of The Bear is wholly convincing in voice, mannerisms and musical performance, even when the film is emotionally inert. <\/p>\n His brooding Springsteen hunches and ranges through the many stages of denim-clad angst. But White\u2019s sincerity is often checked by a project that is too overawed by its subject to attempt anything too rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. Despite the best efforts of Graham, menacing in monochrome flashbacks, the sanitised script never truly pins whatever unprocessed trauma is eating at the rising star. <\/p>\n