Jeremy Allen White gives The Boss a biopic treatment, capturing the struggles that led to his 1982 masterwork Nebraska (and “Born in the U.S.A.”).
Returning to New Jersey from an international smash-hit tour, a 32-year-old Bruce Springsteen is poised to become a rock icon – only to sidestep the band and hole up in his bedroom for the next album. Scouring literature, history, and his own troubled background, he starts to create a raw, brilliant new sound, but getting it to shelves and keeping his head clear proves harder. Like A Complete Unknown, writer-director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, The Pale Blue Eye) avoids the subject’s full legend: focusing on a short period where, amid crumbling relationships and constant doubt, he created some of his richest work. White fully convinces in the man’s rougher, and quieter, moments.
