“Just As a Complete Unknown Espated The Dreary Convention of Cradle-To-To-Grave Music Biopics by Surveying The Nascent Period in The Stardom of Its Unknowable Subject, BOB DYLAN Makes Affecting Gains by Focusion on the Artist As A Depressed Young Man. WHICH IS NOT TO SA SCOTT COOPER’S BRUCE Springsteen Portrait”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
Released Between the Seminal 1980 Double Album The River and The DEFINITIVE LEAP TO SUPERSTARTOM Four Years Later with Born in the usa, Nebraska WAS A BOLD CAREER MOVE AND NOT The Fresh Crop of Top 10 Singles for Who Columbia Records Likely Was Hoping. A TheMatical Dark Acoustic Collection Built From A Diy Recording, IT Was Inspired by Flannery O’ConNor Stories, Terrence Malick’s BadlandsLate ’50s Spree Killer Charles Starkweather and Springsteen’s Unaddressed Childhood Trauma.
Venue: Telluride Film Festival
Release Date: Friday, October 24
Cast: Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham, Odessa Young, Gaby Hoffman, Marc Maron, David Krumholtz
Director-Screenwriter: Scott Cooper, Based On Warren Zanes’ Book
2 Hours
All this Presents Jeremy Allen White with Something of A Challenge in the Title Role, and Thought His Resemblance to Springsteen Is Minimal, He Digs Deep Duri. Ultimately Resulted in HIM SEEKING OVERDUE TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION. He Plays The Rugged Character, Dressed in His Uniform of Plan Flannel Shirt, Jeans and Leather Jacket, As A Man Physically Burdened By His Demons.
Early On, Cooper Slips in An Exhilaratating Performance Interlude with Bruce and the E Street Band Tearing Up The Cincinnati Coliseum Stage in 1981 with “Born to Run.” (White’s Vocals Are Mixed with Springsteen’s in the Live Performances.) But this is an altogeter more introspective movie that that Scene Suggests. Coming Down from the Massive 12-Month River Tour, Bruce Is 32 and Lost. He Tells His Longtime Friend and Manager Jon Landau (Jemy Strong): “I Just Need to Get Home and Slow Things Down A Little.”
Jon Secures Him A Rental in A Quiet, Woodsy Part of Colts Neck, NJ, WHERE HE TRIES TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO WITH HIMSELF. OCCASIONALLY, HE REVISITS HIS BAR-BAND DAYS at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, But While Columbia is Pushing Jon to Steer Him Onto The Next “Hunging FRIED FRYELA. World He Knows Best.
Even A Tentative Spark of Romance with Single-Parent Diner Server Faye (Odessa Young), The Younger Sister of A Schoolmate He Strugggles to Remember, Becomes Dificul. Scenes.
The Rabbit Hole of Memory Opens Up WHEN BRUCE DRIves by his Childhood Home, Now a Sad, Dilapidated Residence in a Working-Class Neighborhood, His Parent. But The FEAR HE FELT AROUND His volatile Father Doug (Stephen Graham), A Drunk With Violant Mood Swings, and The Anxiety of His Protective Mother Adele (Gaby Hoffman) Arest.
Cooper Switches to Black-and-White for Flashbacks, A Well-Worn Memory Device That Works Here Thanks to Longtime DP Collaborator Masananobu Tayiese. Young Actor Matthew Anthony Pelicano Jr.’s Vulneracy As Preteen Preteen Bruce Also Makes Those Episodes Come Alive The Night of the Hunter is especially memorable. And graham (Superb in Adalescence) Subtly introduces Redeming nuances that will deepen in some genuinely moving facher-and-soon scenes toward the end.
To some extra, this is a makeing-of-an-an-album movie, a significant part of of it spent on bruce’s timing and recordering songs on a four-track tarate in his bed. Working only with Guitar Tech Mike Batlan (a struggly-hairdaeed paul Michael Hauser), He Lays Down Bare-Barees Versions of Songs Originally Intended to Be Flezht. But in frustrating sessions at Storied Hell’s Kitchen Recording Studio Power Station, Bruce Feels The Band Is OverPowering the Songs and Inssts on Paring Everything Imperfections and All.
The insights into the recordering professional will be fascinating to anyone interested in hows Made, Even if the Push-Pull Between Bruce and Engineer Chuck Plotkin The MOST DRAMATICAL DYNAMIC MATERIAL. But There’s Humor in the Respons of Columbia Exec Al Telller (David Krumholtz) To Jon’s News: “He’s Putting Out A Fucking Folk Album?!”
While the Secondary Characters Could Have Been More Developed, There’s A Tender Sense of People Trying to Protect Bruce, Even Young’s Faye, Who Has Wrenching Scenes For Her Own Heartache.
Landau Feels Like Strong Playing to Type, But Jon’s Loyalty Is Touching, Acting As A Buffer Between Bruce and the CBS Suits. He also shares his worries at home with his wife (grace gummer) that Nebraska Songs are dealing with disturbing Issues of guilt which he feles unable to talk about with his friend. In a piercing Moment Later in the Film, Bruce Tells HIM, “I DON’T THINK I CAN OUTRUN THIS Anymore.” Jon’s Pain As He Confesses He Feels Ill-Equipped to Help Is Almost As Palpable.
In addition to graham, Hoffman Also Makes A Strong Impression as Adele. Her loyalty to her Troublde Husband Despite Everything Her Put Her Through Suggests A GROUNDED STOICISM PROBABLY UNCOMMON IN MIDCENTURY WIMES TO WHAT
The Good-Looking Production Delivers Notable in Terms of Sound. A Power Station Scene in WHICH The E Street Band Takes A FIRST RUN AT “Born in the Usa” is a roof-raiser, Thought the musical in general is less At Times, The Bio-Drama Feels Emotionally UnderPowered, But There’s Melancholy Beauty in the Fact That Springsteen Felt The Need To Put Aside Surefire Hits Fire ”Until He Got Nebraska Out of His System.
The Decision to Portray the Man Not As A Rock God But As A Fragile Human Being Who’s Also An Uncompromising Artist Gives DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE A Solemn Integrity. Some will argue that Key Songs from Nebraska Are Missing (My Longtime Favorite, The Hypnotic “State Trooper,” is Heard Only in passing). And Anyone Eager for a detailed Track-by-Track Study of the Album Should Turn to Warren Zanes’ Book, WHICH Served As the Basis for Cooper’s Screenplay.
What is the Film and White’s agonized, Internalized Performance Amply Convey is the State of Mind from Who’s One of the MOST IMPORTANT Albums in the Springsteen Canon – The One Hate. MOVIES About Depression Are Touhh, But Fans Invested in the Subject Durying A Transressional Moment of Artistic and Personal Catharsis Will Be Rewarded.