My thoughts on Deliver Me From Nowhere:
I was very skeptical going into this because 1) I've been a diehard Bruce fan for the past 18 years and 2) I really disliked the trailer, I thought it looked terrible. So imagine my surprise when it wasn't absolutely shit!
So I've been reading some reviews and I think -- as with all biopics -- how people feel about it really depends on their connection to and knowledge of the subject. For me, as a longtime fan, there were many moments where my extensive knowledge of Bruce's background made me dislike it because plenty of liberties were taken with certain events. (E.g. the roadtrip, the inclusion of Faye.) But, I also think that if I didn't have the close connection I have to Bruce, I should certainly not have liked the movie as much as I did. Non-fans are saying it's a very basic story about a depressed guy with an abusive father, and I get that. In fact, that is my main gripe with the film. Having heard Bruce talk about his childhood innumerable times, having pored over his lyrics, and having used his music to console myself during hard times in my own family life, it was all imbued with meaning for me. I recognized so much: his dad sitting smoking in the kitchen, Bruce dancing with his mom, Bruce driving by his childhood home. If I didn't have this knowledge, though, it definitely wouldn't have hit me as hard. But it also made me think that they could have gone much deeper with the relationship between Bruce and his dad. They could have shown his relationship with his father as a teen, too, the argument with the hair, the story about the draft he tells on "The River 1975-85", to give the storyline a bit more meat. The way Bruce also loved his dad and wanted to emulate him is so interesting and there was almost none of that. Still, I thought the flashbacks were touching and the young actor playing Bruce was really good. Stephen Graham's performance was truly a highlight.
Jeremy Allen White actually grew on me while watching, there were scenes where he did look very much like Bruce and he certainly got his demeanour down. It felt a little forced sometimes -- I felt this way about Jeremy Strong's Jon Landau too -- but I was still impressed. His singing voice is really good, he really fooled me a couple of times where I wondered if I was still hearing him or if it was Bruce. I don't actually mind that he doesn't look exactly like Bruce. Taron Egerton doesn't look exactly like Elton John and he knocked it out of the park in Rocketman. His acting in one of the final scenes, where he sits down in the psychiatrist's office and breaks down crying, I thought was so good. (The immediate cut to him playing on the BitUSA tour gave me whiplash, though.) I wouldn't call it an Oscar-worthy performance though.
I loved that they showed so much of the record-making process. I get that a lot of fans are nitpicking how much was shown of the songwriting process; it did feel a bit like "Bruce sees a mansion on the hill - writes Mansion on the Hill", very standard musician biopic-y. I found myself wishing that more context was shown for Bruce wanting to write about these topics specifically because of his own issues, more than changing "him" in the song Starkweather/Nebraska to "ME". The way his issues with his father influenced the way he loves and receives love has been described extensively by Bruce himself. They brought in a woman for him to showcase that with, so why didn't they make it more explicit? Also, it would have made more sense to show him distancing himself from the rest of the E Street Band, I think -- speaking of which, where the hell was the E Street Band? I think they had two scenes?! Terrible.
The script was okay. There was far too much exposition through dialogue, especially from Jeremy Strong/Jon Landau, which is never a good thing. (At least they cut that terrible line from the trailer, you know the one: Bruce is a repairman, and he's repairing a hole in his floor and in himself, and once he's done that he's gonna repair the entire world. Yegh.)
Visually, I found it not too convincing as the 1970s -- this is a gripe I have with every modern film set in that era -- just too clean, too polished, too... digital. Gimme grainy, gimme dirty, gimme real people wearing clothes that look worn! I actually loved the choice to put the childhood scenes in black and white, but maybe that's just because I love black and white movies. They seemed a lot more carefully composed and better lit than the scenes set in the 1970s.
All in all, I think DMFN doesn't please either the fans or the casual moviegoing public, because they simply didn't delve deeply enough to make it recognizable for those of us who know the story or compelling for those who don't. Still, I was captured from beginning to end, it made me cry a few times and I think it had heart. (I also kept picturing Bruce himself on set a few feet away each time lol.) There was only one thing I really could not forgive, and that was not including the road trip emotional support teddy bear.
