Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

"I do know who you are...."

"Well that makes one of us....."

As a casual Springsteen fan at best, I went into SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE with middling expectations. I left impressed.

Taking a page from Spielberg's "Lincoln", the film focuses on a very specific time in a famous life, the emergence of Springsteen's album, "Nebraska".

Anyone coming in hoping for a rousing doc loaded with energetic concert scenes will get their hopes up as the film opens with a great recreation of Bruce and the E Street Band on stage at the end of a tour, slaying "Born To Run"in front of a rowdy crowd. It's electric.

Springsteen wasn't even on my personal radar until I attended a three hour concert in Phoenix in the 80's that absolutely blew me away. I left that concert and headed to Tower Records, buying every Springsteen CD I could find and diving in. The energy of those concerts in the 80's was something that had to be experienced. Pounding rock, thousands singing every chorus and Bruce screaming his way through every power riff.

But that's not what this film is.

We see Bruce at a turning point, resisting the urge to become a mainstream star after his first huge record. He's an album guy. CBS/Columbia Records wants number one singles and to feed their machine and the public's hunger for more.

Writer/Director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart), basing his screenplay on Warren Zanes book of the same name, flashes back and forth to Bruce's childhood. He's constantly protecting his mother Adele (Gaby Hoffman from "Field of Dreams" and "Uncle Buck") from his alcoholic, abusive father Douglas (Stephen Graham, so brilliant as a much different type of Dad in "Adolesence"). Those wounds run deep.

The center of the film is Jeremy Allen White (The Iron Claw, The Bear) as Bruce. It's a fantastic performance. White never does an impression, he just becomes The Boss. There are angles in the back seats of cars, on stage and in dark corners where you swear it's Springsteen. The voice is perfect, the attitude even better.

Springsteen retreats to a house in the country in Jersey, secluding himself and feeling uninspired on what's next, until he sees a late night broadcast of Terence Malick's 1973 film "Badlands". In it, Martin Sheen plays a killer based on Charles Starkweather. Springsteen sees something in it that touches his own past and he dives in, researching the true story of Starkweather's killing spree.

Bruce wants to avoid the studio and build an album that's raw, unpolished.

Engineer Mike Batlan (Paul Walter Hauser) arrives with a cheap, 4 track recorder so Bruce can lay down the basic tracks of his songs. What emerges is an album he first calls "Starkweather" but then changes to Nebraska.

The rest of the film weaves between Bruce's hesitant attraction to a diner waitress Faye Romano (Odessa Young), flashbacks to the emotional terrors of his childhood Jersey home and his battle with studio execs on a very unconventional album.

That battle is made all the more interesting by Jeremy Strong's great performance as Bruce's manager, Jon Landau. Landau is Springsteen's protector, friend and absolute champion. The relationship between them is fascinating and powerful, with White and Strong's performances adding plenty of great moments.

David Krumholtz is also very good as Columbia Records chief Al Teller. I've done business in that CBS/Columbia (Sony) office on 6th Avenue in Manhattan and seeing it on film conjured up some great personal memories of working with the record labels.

A special shout out to young Matthew Anthony Pellicano Jr, making his film debut as young Bruce in the black and white flashbacks. The kid is amazing and will haunt you.

This is a film based on quiet introspection, the creative process and an artist battling his internal demons. There are moments of great sadness, revealing the depth of Springsteen's battle with depression and commitment to his vision.

The film also finds a near perfect ending with a scene between Bruce and his Father that cuts deeply.

In the wake of some of the best artist documentary style films in memory, Luhrman's "Elvis"and James Mangold's excellent Bob Dylan film "A Complete Unknown", DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE is driven less by live musical performances than emotions and truth telling.

Just like that first Springsteen concert I attended, I left the film impressed and wanting to learn more.

White is fantastic in a less showy but no less effective performance than Chalamet's Dylan or Austin Butler's Elvis, earning the film a surprising B+.