Jeremy Allen White’s ‘The Boss’ Looks Like an Employee

Jeremy Allen White’s ‘The Boss’ Looks Like an Employee

By
Jason P. Frank,
a Vulture writer covering comedy, theater, and music

Bruuuuuuuuuuuuce.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Getty Images (Pascal Le Segretain, Kristina Bumphrey/Variety)

Deliver Me From Nowhere, the Jeremy Allen White–starring Bruce Springsteen biopic, just released a first-look photo, and I think I saw him on the PATH train last week. Maybe it’s just that there’s no way to make “Bruce Springsteen costume” particularly notable — he mostly just wears normal-people clothes, and he doesn’t have any distinguishing facial features like an iconic mustache. White has a little more sideburn than normal, but otherwise, it’s not like this is a particularly transformative role for him. What are Springsteen fans supposed to get excited over, exactly?

This photo looks like the only non-selfie on a Jersey bro’s Tinder. It’s giving “paparazzi shot of Jeremy Allen White going to meet Rosalía.” You know, “some guy.” And that’s not necessarily inappropriate for a Springsteen movie! Based on Warren Zanes’s book of the same name, it doesn’t cover the Born in the U.S.A. era with its iconic denim and bandana look but the writing of Nebraska, a haunting, stripped-down narrative. If you can’t love him during his blue-collar blues, you don’t deserve him as a disillusioned rock star.

Jeremy Allen White’s ‘The Boss’ Looks Like an Employee