Will “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” Be Born to Run or Just Dancing in the Dark When it Hits Theaters This Week?

One of the most anticipated movies of the year hits theaters this Thursday night.

“Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” stars the very popular actor from “The Bear,” Jeremy Allen White, giving a sensational, passionate performance as Bruce Springsteen circa 1982. Already a rock star, Bruce is depressed and questioning his career. He’s a year away from putting together “Born in the USA,” the album that will change his life. (JAW is worth the price of admission.)

In the meantime, he’s holed up in the woods writing his “Nebraska” album. Manager Jon Landau — Jeremy Strong — is his main emotional support, and he’s got a cute girlfriend played by Odessa Young.

But “Nebraska” is not an E Street Band album. It’s Bruce, alone, telling song stories acoustically. Even his record company, Columbia, is not keen on putting it out. They can’t predict that 40 years later, “Nebraska” will be considered an important work of art.

Publicity? Disney/20th has Springsteen and JAW booked on Kimmel this Thursday night, but nothing else this week. I’m crossing my fingers this will be a performance and not just an interview.

“Deliver Me from Nowhere” at theaters is looking a little iffy right now, more so than I would have thought. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a positive but not stunning 67% among 44 critics. That’s not a lot of reviews, which raises the question of how the movie was shown to my colleagues around the country. Is Disney/20th waiting til the last minute?

Advance sales are not booming. There are no sell outs yet for preview shows except for a couple of instances in Bruce’s hometown area in New Jersey. In New York, there are plenty of tickets at AMC Lincoln Plaza — one of the great barometers. Ditto in Los Angeles where Century City Plaza and AMC Santa Monica 7 and other signal theaters have plenty of tickets.

A lifelong Bruce fan, I loved “Deliver Me from Nowhere” just as a great movie about the creative process. It’s not like I’m a great fan of “Nebraska,” although I’m anxious to hear “Electric Nebraska,” the never before released E Street band version which drops on Thursday night. But director Scott Cooper and the aforementioned actors have made an authentically compelling movie that I recommend without hesitation to everyone. 

Get over to Fandango!

Stay tuned…