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Things were looking good for Bruce Springsteen in 1981. He’d just had his chart breakthrough with Hungry Heart and everyone from the record company bosses on down expected his next release to catapult him to multi-platinum status.
Springsteen had other ideas. Hiding away in a rented home in rural New Jersey with a four-track, a few guitars, and a lot of demons for company, he took the crucial artistic left-turn towards Nebraska, a sparse acoustic record that he, and many others, still consider to be among his best.
Cooper’s movie, authorised and, in part, overseen by a set-visiting Springsteen captures the creation of Nebraska well, from the inspiration provided by Flannery O’Connor and Terrence Malick to the problems of mastering to vinyl from the wonky cassette that emerged from Bruce’s bedroom. But it also concerns itself with a man facing up to his past, from the strained relationship with his father (Stephen Graham) to a crumbling psyche that required urgent attention.
Sticking closely to Warren Zanes' excellent book Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, apart from the poorly treated composite character of love interest Faye (Odessa Young), it’s a naturally downbeat portrait of a breakdown, albeit one soundtracked by some terrific tunes, including performances from Rival Sons' Jay Buchanan and two of Greta Van Fleet's Kiszka brothers as members of Cats On A Smooth Surface, the house band at Asbury Park's famed Stone Pony venue.
While there’s the odd bit of superfluous/neophyte-aiding exposition, mostly from Jeremy Strong’s Jon Landau, Jeremy Allen White’s central performance, despite a lot of staring into the distance which doesn’t always clearly define what’s actually bugging the boss, carries this account of a burgeoning superstar unsure of everything apart from the music.
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is in cinemas now.
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