SPRINGSTEEN : DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE : Tuesday 28th October 2025

I saw the M Rated 'SPRINGSTEEN : DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE' this week, and this American biographical musical drama film is Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by Scott Cooper who made his Directorial debut with the critically acclaimed 'Crazy Heart' in 2009 and would go on to Direct 'Out of the Furnace' in 2013, 'Black Mass' in 2015, 'Hostiles' in 2017, 'Antlers' in 2021 and 'The Pale Blue Eye' in 2022. This film is based on the 2023 book 'Deliver Me from Nowhere' by Warren Zanes. The film saw its World Premiere showcasing at the Telluride Film Festival at the end of August with its US and Australian release last week. It has received mixed reviews from critics, and has so far grossed US$18M from a production budget of US$55M.

The film opens in 1957 with a young Bruce Springsteen (Matthew Anthony Pellicano) driving in his family car with his mother Adele (Gaby Hoffman) to a local bar, where Bruce is told to go inside and get his father Douglas (Stephen Graham) to come home. He gingerly taps his father, sitting at the bar, on his back and tells him its time to come home. Douglas turns around and tells him to go and wait outside. Fast forward to 1981 and Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) reaches the end of his latest sold-out concert tour. Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong), his manager and record producer, rents a house for Bruce to lay low from his growing fame, near Freehold, New Jersey where he grew up. 

Bruce's friend and mechanic Matt Delia (Harrison Gilbertson) drives him to the house in Colts Neck, New Jersey and Bruce buys his first new car - a Chevrolet Camaro Z28. Playing with local bands at the Stone Pony (a live music venue in Asbury Park, New Jersey), he meets Faye Romano (Odessa Young), an old classmate's younger sister. On the heels of his first top-ten song, 'Hungry Heart', his record label has high expectations of another hit album, and Bruce suggests trimming studio costs, which he had hitherto funded largely himself, by preparing a demo himself. 

Locked away in his retreat at Colts Neck he reads the works of Flannery O'Connor (an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist), Bruce catches the 1973 Terrence Malick Directed film 'Badlands' on TV with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, and is drawn to research the crime spree of Charles Starkweather who killed eleven people in Nebraska and Wyoming between late 1957 and early 1958. Inspired, he writes a song in the killer's own voice, and later takes Faye on a first date to Asbury Park.

At the house, Bruce enlists the support of his guitar technician Mike Batlan (Paul Walter Hauser) to turn the bedroom into a makeshift studio, with a four-track recorder to arrange the demo themselves. As Bruce's relationship with Faye grows, he writes a collection of stark, somber songs with a blue-collar viewpoint, influenced by his childhood memories, especially of his father with whom he had a complicated and less that ideal relationship. Jon informs Bruce of other opportunities piling up, including a possible movie role written by Paul Schrader and set to star Robert De Niro called 'Born in the U.S.A.' but Bruce is committed to his new music. Recording his new tracks unaccompanied, he makes the risky choice to embrace an imperfect, unvarnished sound quality.

Later, Mike personally delivers to Jon the only copy of the completed demo, a single cassette tape, and Jon confides in his wife about the unexpectedly darker and very personal sounding songs. Now living in California, Adele calls Bruce for help with an increasingly erratic Douglas, who has been fired from his job and is off his medications. After visiting his father, Bruce arrives in New York City to record the new album, reuniting with the E Street Band. They lay down several successful tracks, including 'Born in the U.S.A.' which he wrote for the soundtrack to his abandoned movie offer, but Bruce is unhappy with the overall full-band studio sound of the record.

Following another two weeks of recording and Bruce is still not satisfied with his acoustic vision for the album. Abandoning Faye, he insists on shelving the potential hits ('Born in the U.S.A.', 'Glory Days' and 'I'm On Fire') until he is satisfied. Jon agrees to use Bruce's raw demo, unchanged, as the new record, suspecting Bruce fears losing himself in the face of success. Using older equipment to recreate the demo tape as a vinyl master recording, Bruce's original sound is successfully preserved for the new album, 'Nebraska'.

Columbia Record Executive Al Teller (David Krumholtz) is dismayed by this new stylistic approach, and the absence of any prospective hit singles, but Jon defends Bruce's artistic vision and decision to let the album speak for itself, with no singles, tours, or press appearances, not even his face on the cover to promote the album. Bruce tells Faye that he is moving to California alone, and that he has purchased a house in Los Angeles. She tearfully accuses him of refusing to face his fears. He suffers a mental breakdown as Matt drives him across the country, but they reach his new home in LA. Thinking about suicide, Bruce reaches out to Jon, who urges him to seek professional help, and Bruce visits a therapist and breaks down emotionally.

Ten months later, Bruce is back on tour with Jon's support, and is visited by his proud parents. Douglas asks the 32-year-old Bruce to sit on his lap for the first time, reconnecting with his son and acknowledging that he had not always been a good father but that he is very proud of his son. The pair embrace. An epilogue reveals that 'Nebraska' reached number three on the Billboard charts, while the hits included on Bruce's following album 'Born in the U.S.A.' launched him to global superstardom, as he continued to suffer bouts of depression, but now always with help and hope. 

Make no mistake, this is Jeremy Allen White's film in the way he embodies Bruce Springsteen's mannerisms, his emotions, his working class roots and his raw energy when he's belting out those songs on stage, or in the quieter moments when he's writing his songs and laying them down himself on his four-track recorder in his bedroom. Whilst this film is sure to please the Springsteen fans among us, for me concentrating purely on the recording of one of his least commercially successful albums (despite going to #3 on the album chart), was perhaps a misstep, and I would have preferred to see a little more of his later years, and his rise to legendary status. That said, 'Springsteen : Deliver Me From Nowhere' is worthy of your attention, although you can wait to catch it on your favoured streaming service in due course, but be warned, this is no 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'Rocket Man' or 'Elvis'.

'Springsteen : Deliver Me From Nowhere' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

SHIRLEY : Tuesday 14th July 2020.

'SHIRLEY', which was my first return foray out to my local independent movie theatre earlier this week following four months of cinema closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is Directed by Josephine Decker whose previous film making credits include 'Butter on the Latch', 'Thou Wast Mild and Lovely' and 'Madeline's Madeline' most recently in 2018. Based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Susan Scarfe Merrell, the film saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival in late January this year, went on general release on June 5th in the US, and here in Australia on July 9th. This biographical drama film charts a period in the life of acclaimed American  horror and mystery author Shirley Jackson who lived from 1916 until 1965 and who penned amongst others 'The Haunting of Hill House', is portrayed by Elisabeth Moss, who also takes a Co-Producer credit. It has generated mostly positive Reviews so far.

The film opens up with Rose (Odessa Young) reading the finishing pages of 'The Lottery' a short story by Shirley Jackson while abroad a train bound for Vermont, and then feeling horny grabs her husband Fred (Logan Lerman) and leads him into the toilet for a quick one.

Arriving at the home of Shirley Jackson (Elisabeth Moss) and her husband Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg) during a party, Rose announces to Shirley that they are invited house guests and will be staying for a week or so at the behest of her husband - a literary critic and Professor at Bennington College, in Vermont. Rose and Fred are to continue with their studies, with Fred working alongside Stanley to aid him with his research while he completes his dissertation. Shirley is far from welcoming of Rose and Fred saying that she does not like strangers around the house, and their initial interactions are frosty to say the least.

It doesn't take long before Stanley puts a proposal to Fred for them both to remain at the house for an extended period with free board and lodgings if Rose is prepared to help clean, cook, and look after Shirley throughout the day, on the basis that their last housekeeper just upped sticks and left without warning because of Shirley's mood swings, demands and unpredictable nature. Fred wholeheartedly agrees but Rose is more reluctant as it means that she'll need to drop out of college for the foreseeable future when she thought that she and Fred would both be studying on an equal footing.

Shirley is in the throes of depression, struggles with agoraphobia, suffering from writers block, and spending the majority of her time languishing in her bed all day with a cigarette in one hand and a stiff drink in the other. She is barely only able to surface at dinner time when Stanley and Fred return from their day at College and it's cocktail hour before dinner is served. Slowly, however, Shirley begins to warm towards Rose, and she begins tapping away at her typewriter working on a novel about a missing girl named Paula Jean Welden, that would go on to become 'Hangsaman', who disappeared from the Bennington College campus. Stanley meanwhile, is off to his philandering and controlling ways with young Fred in tow at College for most of the day, and plays the dutiful husband when he gets home at night just in time for cocktail hour, or well beyond it having stayed late to attend the 'Shakespeare Society'. However, it quickly becomes plain that Stanley's motives to get his wife writing again are more driven by the finances her next work will generate, and the kudos he reaps from being the literary critic of his wife's works.

Shirley and Stanley seem to bicker most of the time, sparring off against each other often with a subtle malevolence, but they also relish in belittling Rose and Fred over dinner for their own amusement and for which they offer no apology, and which only goes to show the young couple as lesser mediocre mortals in their eyes. Rose and Fred's relationship begins to deteriorate when Fred begins coming home late from College having attended the Shakespeare Society, and Fred starts seeing the influence that Shirley is having upon Rose. Furthermore, Rose is in the early stages of pregnancy - a fact that Shirley is able to 'sense', and blurts it out one evening over dinner much to the surprise of Fred. As Rose's pregnancy develops so Fred seems increasingly turned off by her ever expanding bump. Ultimately, Shirley tells Rose that there is no such thing as the Shakespeare Society at College, this is just a cover for meeting young female students that the men can take advantage off, and often do.

As Shirley's novel develops so her fascination with the disappearance of Paula intensifies. Shirley imagines Rose, and Rose imagines herself as Paula, the red head walking quickly through the woods wearing a red coat with her face blurred out, looking over her shoulder.

This all comes to head when Rose has had her baby and one day while driving in the car together with Shirley, Rose asks Shirley to stop the car. Rose gets out leaving Shirley holding the baby, and off Rose trundles at a goodly pace through the woods, leaving Shirley to traipse after her carrying the crying child. Shirley emerges at a clearing with Rose standing at the edge of a sheer drop, with Shirley begging her to step away from the edge. Is it Rose or Paula standing there, as the figure launches itself into the air. We then cut away to Rose and her baby, and Fred, departing the residence for good in a car, bidding their farewells.

The final scene sees Stanley critiquing Shirley's manuscript of what will be her latest novel, completed. She sits as the dining table dutifully, complete with facial ticks, tweaks and distortions, while Stanley reads the final pages. He rises out of his lounge chair in the background and approaches the table and sits in front of her. Brilliant he exclaims, her best work yet and a sure fire best seller, although he has made some notes as is his want in life.

This is Elisabeth Moss' film for sure - she excels in her portrayal of Shirley Jackson, even down to the dead ringer looks, the think rimmed spectacles, the mane of hair, her frumpy dress style and her seemingly never ending consumption of cigarettes and alcohol. The Director Josephine Decker while taking liberties with the truth, for example portraying Jackson and Hyman as childless when in fact they had four children, and her reliance on short stories and novels in the horror and mystery genre was in fact more successful in writing parenting books and children's works. Despite this poetic license, Decker has crafted an insightful film that lurches from gothic undertones to domestic drama to horror and back again with Young cast as the prefect foil for Moss as they tip toe through their evolving relationship without it ever really going anywhere, and Stuhlbarg as the bigoted womanising holier than thou acerbic husband. All that said, 'Shirley' is at times confusing, its plods along at times at a snails pace, and is more style over substance but is saved by Moss' stellar performance, her razor sharp dialogue, and her uncanny knack for inhibiting this character with a realism and believability that is worthy of an Oscar nod for sure.

'Shirley' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-