SPRINGSTEEN, THE UNCOMPROMISING ARTIST AND WORKING CLASS HERO

 I joined a couple of friends, one of whom has a late October birthday we were still celebrating, to see Deliver Me From Nowhere, the Springsteen biopic starring the unforgettable Jeremy Allen White (of THE BEAR series, and before that, SHAMELESS series). To be honest, my expectations were not that high, as biopics often turn out to be slathering portraits mainly composed of colorful heaps of praise and lacking an equanimous lens, neither of which turns out to be true here.

In retrospect, low expectations is probably the best way to go see a film. White's performance as Springsteen and acting in general I cannot say enough about. Both he and Springsteen have that same grounded, gritty vitality and ooze a similar kind of unvarnished, sexy masculinity. White is 32 and plays Springsteen when he was the same age, working on his sixth album, Nebraska (which came out in 1982), a time when he was plagued by past demons and a nagging depression.

Deliver Me From Nowhere is a beautiful story about artistic struggle and integrity in the face of evolving technologies and demands in a business that is known for being too hard, especially on those who are vulnerable, young, and destined for stardom, as Springsteen was, and White's is a genuinely soulful, powerful performance.

This is a quiet, reflective, film, which could have been shot entirely in grainy black and white. The scenes where White as Springsteen struggles to find words for his feelings, writing lyrics for "Nebraska," for example, while engulfed in his personal pain, are authentic, beautiful, and simply shot. The lack of cinematic fluff complements Springsteen's own taste and preferences, certainly as regards his music.

I was as taken with White's performances as Springsteen onstage as with his slow and incredibly sensual love scenes with Odessa Young, who plays a waitress with whom Springsteen has an affair. I haven't seen such tenderness in a romantic approach from a male star since classic movies from the 40s, and even then they were proffered by polished, mature men in tuxes, not a scraggly-haired artist in jeans and cowboy boots, muscled in his t-shirt, playing a working class hero as impeccably true to his roots as his music.

I'm not mentioning the full cast, all of whom did a splendid job, because every scene was so completely about Springsteen and driven by White's outstanding performance. Scott Cooper, who directed the film, also co-wrote it with Warren Zanes, who wrote a book about Springsteen's Nebraska album.

I left the theater newly smitten with White's acting and intense, uncompromising portrayal, and with Springsteen's music, which I am eager to explore more.