Hollywood serves up a triple treat of biopics and reimaginings, from a disappointing take on The Boss to a charming heist tale and a haunting monster story.
SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE (M)
Director: Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart)
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham, Odessa Young.
**1/2
Forlorn in the USA
A figure as significant as Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen – one of the most vital, influential and popular singer-songwriters of the past half-century – is deserving of a far more enlightening biopic than what he cops here.
Deliver Me From Nowhere charts a single, seminal phase in the subject’s career: a crucial period of soul-searching introspection and undiagnosed depression that spawned two classic albums for Springsteen.
Released in 1982, the hauntingly stark Nebraska – recorded alone in a bedroom using equipment deemed primitive even back then – broadened Springsteen’s scope as a master storyteller. What emerged was a lastingly intuitive feel for how the American Dream can suddenly become a nightmare.
A few years later came Born In the USA, a disc of material composed in the same period covered by the movie, but recorded with a full band and a brighter mindset. That classic album became the biggest hit of Springsteen’s career, and cemented his status as a superstar of both studio and stadium.
If Deliver Me From Nowhere has a point to make, it is that while the angst-ridden creation of Nebraska could have been the breaking of Bruce Springsteen, purging himself of so much interior turmoil proved to be the making of a major force in modern music.
The movie attributes the bulk of Springsteen’s personal troubles in the early 1980s to a problematic upbringing at the hands of a hard-drinking, psychologically abusive and occasionally violent father.
This leaves Deliver Me From Nowhere trapped inside a closed narrative loop for much of its running time.
If Bruce (played passably, yet passively by The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White) isn’t agonising over lyrics, chord changes, equipment issues, record company demands or running from a relationship with a pretty waitress (Odessa Young), then his mind will flash back to the days when his dad (Adolescence star Stephen Graham) would be raising a glass, raising his voice, or raising his hand.
Ever-present to snap The Boss out of his funk with wonky words of worship is the artist’s longtime manager and mentor, Jon Landau (a dreadfully miscast Jeremy Strong from Succession).
A consistently corny and disarmingly drab affair, Deliver Me From Nowhere is bound to disappoint just about everyone.
The only possible exception might be the most ardent fans of The Boss, who will be content enough to see their hero in any shape or form on the big screen.
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is in cinemas now.
ROOFMAN (M)
***1/2
General release.
An utterly charming blend of light comedy and deceptively deep character study, based on an intriguing true story. The US media called Jeffery Manchester (played by Channing Tatum) ‘The Roofman’ on account of the format he developed for low-stakes, high-return heists. Manchester would prise open the top of a fast-food outlet in the dead of the night, then politely rob the joint when its first wave of employees arrived in the morning. The bulk of this endearing biopic takes place after The Roofman was taken down by authorities and jailed. After cleverly concocting an escape from prison, Manchester hid away inside a Toys R Us store until the heat for his capture died down. That meant Manchester was forced to live within secret spaces of the toy shop for over six months, by which time he had subtly inserted himself not only into the lives of those working at the store, but also the wider community as a whole. Manchester’s unusual combination of sweetness and cunning is ably read by Tatum, who delivers one of the best performances of his career. An excellent support cast led by Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage and Ben Mendelsohn follow the leading man’s example with aplomb.
FRANKENSTEIN (MA15+)
****
Selected cinemas. Streaming on Netflix from November 6.
Master filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth) has taken mild, yet telling liberties with author Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein to better realise a complex vision that’s been brewing inside his head for decades.
While not a Frankenstein all will recognise, it definitely is not a Frankenstein anyone will forget. The source material has been cleaved in two, with one section detailing events from the perspective of legendary mad scientist Baron Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), while the other takes the POV of the Baron’s marauding monster (Jacob Elordi).
This means it takes quite a while for this movie to get to the grotesque stuff (let alone catch a glimpse of the monster in all his gory glory).
The wait does prove its worth, however. For once del Toro lets rip with the reanimation of corpses and so on, the production shifts into a confidently gruesome overdrive that spirits the viewer away to many a dark and disturbing place.
Isaac and Elordi both bring their A-game to demanding parts, while del Toro stages certain sequences with a flair and fury that ranks with his best work. Co-stars Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth.
Read the full movie reviews in today’s papers.
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