Review: "Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen"

You'd be hard-pressed not to find something to like in this documentary, which has appeal beyond the musician's enormous international fan base.

Despite the fact that Springsteen himself doesn't sit for an on-camera interview, as most of his bandmates do in Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, he provides the narration. It sounds like he may be reading a script, but any potential stiffness or distance in that is overpowered by the insights he and his bandmates offer into what makes the legendary E Street Band tick as a tight-knit company and what drives Bruce as a performer, and, corny as it sounds, a human.

Springsteen is downright soulful about performing live ("a deep and lasting part of who I am. And how I justify my existence"), the tragic loss of friends and bandmates ("different parts of the same spiritual body… God bless them"), aging (the film is dedicated to his mother, who passed away at 98 in February), and about hoping his fans leave his concerts with a feeling of love and a smile.

Footage from the 2023-24 world comeback-from-COVID tour provides the beat to concisely-edited interviews about the band's history, their creative process, Bruce's influences, the importance of their lifelong relationships, and the "story" Bruce weaves about "life, death, and everything in between" with his 28-song setlist.

Like the band's concert attendees, come for the music and stay for the story.