‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ is the only biopic that The Boss would have allowed Jeremy Allen White plays the role in the film directed by Scott Cooper.

Bruce Springsteen had never agreed to make a film about his life and career, until now. The reason for his change of heart has a name. Or rather, a title: Nebraska. Released in 1982, the album by the New Jersey singer-songwriter is a deep descent into his own soul. A work in which the young musical prodigy, already successful but still on the verge of fully exploding, tried to come to terms with the shadows that continued to darken his spirit. The memories and torments of a life, a childhood, a violent father with whom he needed to make peace before moving forward. Someone he had to finally let go of, otherwise he couldn’t dare to fly, trying to reconcile with an inner self that he poured entirely into the songs of the album, played, written, and recorded in a house and released exactly as it was born. For Springsteen, who throughout his life has had to and chosen to battle the demons of depression, the early eighties were a turning point to which he has remained faithfully anchored. That’s why, when director and screenwriter Scott Cooper contacted him, the Boss agreed not only to see his story brought to the screen focused on that specific year but also to actively take part, going on set, providing props and lending some of his old clothes to the lead actor, even playing a decisive role in choosing him.

In Springsteen – Deliver Me from Nowhere, the task of portraying the Boss and his 1982 torment was given to Jeremy Allen White, a man who knows something about both talent and suffering, not only because of the role that has now become part of him, chef Carmy from the cult series The Bear, but also because he has had to confront his own inner struggles. The actor has been sober for two years now, having chosen to undergo daily alcohol testing and attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in order to preserve his relationship with his daughters. His addiction reached its peak at the end of the production of Shameless, the dramedy that first made his name, which ran for eleven years and as many seasons. When it ended, it left a void in his mind and in his sense of stability. The fear that everything was over and the loss of a decade-long equilibrium led Jeremy Allen White to the edge of a cliff, from which he managed to pull himself back in time. Exactly like Springsteen, who poured his darkness into Nebraska before asking for help, letting it all out and preparing himself for the wonderful years of success that would follow.

For its closeness to its themes, for the care with which they are treated, and for the evident attention shown in the writing, direction, and the actor’s approach to wearing the musician’s sometimes real-clothes, Springsteen – Deliver Me from Nowhere is a work worthy of respect. Decent and human, sincere and delicate, unlike the black-and-white memories and the relationship with the father, played by Stephen Graham. As a musical biopic, however, it doesn’t stray far from the canon of many other titles in the genre which, especially in recent years, have tended to oversaturate the cinematic landscape. Not always with exciting results, ranging from more conventional and bland efforts like Whitney – I Wanna Dance with Somebody or Back to Black, to more distinguished but still restrained ones like A Complete Unknown. Sometimes forgetting to give credit to more unconventional experiments, like the CGI monkey in Better Man, the film about Robbie Williams. Not to mention that more are on the horizon: four, in fact, about the Beatles by Sam Mendes, with each of the Fab Four getting his own title. With a tender and talented Jeremy Strong and a solid reconstruction of setting, historical moment, and memory, what will remain of Springsteen – Deliver Me from Nowhere is the protagonist’s creative process and the notes of Nebraska that we will keep listening to, because they have stood the test of time. The same test the film itself may not pass.