Who's the Boss?

"Straight as he may be, Bruce Springsteen has always spoken to my queerness. There's something about the alienation and longing in his music-the sense of isolation coupled with unfulfilled desire that one can't ignore-that resonates with my experience of growing up queer in the United States. Judging by the proliferation of essays, zines, and podcasts exploring this element of Springsteen's work, some people seem to share this interpretation."

"But whether he was ever a queer icon or not, one thing is clear: There's nothing queer left about the Boss in Deliver Me From Nowhere, or arguably, much that's substantive about him at all. In Scott Cooper's new biopic we see a version of Bruce Springsteen that's been stripped of all the complexity, contradictions, and political substance that made his work enduring in the first place."

Scott Cooper's Deliver Me From Nowhere portrays Bruce Springsteen during 1981, after The River tour and during the making of Nebraska. Jeremy Allen White plays Springsteen as isolated, uncomfortable with fame, and pressured to produce hits. The film situates him in a rented house in Colts Neck, shows a new Camaro purchase, and depicts a relationship with Faye, a composite single mother who functions as a canvas for his intimacy issues. The portrayal flattens complexity, contradictions, and political substance from Springsteen's persona and diminishes the queer resonance and artistic depth present in his work. The result is a narrowed, less substantive depiction focused on personal angst while eliding broader social context.

Read at The Nation