‘Be open to the moment you never expected': How ‘Road Diary' captured Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in full force
In the hands of longtime Bruce Springsteen collaborator, director, and editor Thom Zimny, the many compelling, sometimes contrasting shades of the Boss are on full display in the Hulu documentary — the artist and the showman, the poet and the ham, and above all, a lively force grappling with death and the passage of time. Road Diary follows Springsteen and the E Street Band both in the studio and on tour, bringing people together after the pandemic.
More from GoldDerby
Tom Cruise finally gets his (honorary) Oscar moment: Here's his complete awards history
Alan Cumming would be the 4th person to repeat in Best Reality Host: See fresh Emmy odds
Dolly Parton adds honorary Oscar to her trophy shelf: A look back at her legendary awards history
Zimny wanted the story of Springsteen and the band's return to the road — after a six-year break — to unfold naturally. 'I did not come in with a preconceived pitch of 'this documentary will reflect the world,'' Zimny told Gold Derby. 'I took my cues from watching Bruce. In those rehearsals, I saw him craft a setlist that dealt with looking at life and the past and loss and the present moment, being alive in the present moment as much as you can. The show itself was a guiding force in the edit.'
Capturing the scope of any Springsteen and E Street Band show is a tall order. As Springsteen says in the film's opening, he wanted to throw the biggest party he could with this tour. But in under 100 minutes, how does a filmmaker capture all the intense emotions that flow during the Boss' legendary three-hour shows? 'When I'm looking at how to bottle this experience and put it forth in a film,' Zimny said, 'I try to focus on my own personal memories, taking cues from the faces in the crowd and the connection they're having. And with Road Diary, I wanted to make it an emotional film and film it in a way that captured transitions in people's eyes, transitions while they're listening to the music.'
The film also captures Springsteen's evolution from perfectionist to an artist embracing beautiful mistakes. Let the song live how it lives, basically. 'What he said in the documentary, in the spontaneous moment to the band, was that you want to be able to fuck up during the course of the night because it's live,' Zimny said. 'That's what the people are paying for. In that, I find the philosophy that I've held onto in making films with Bruce: come fully prepared, but be open to the moment you never expected.'
For Zimny, his own perfectionism kicks in during post-production, specifically in the sound department. Communicating the thundering sound of a Springsteen show is a delicate process. 'Capturing that quality in the mix was an obsession,' Zimny said. 'You feel the bass in your heart and the drums in your stomach, like you're in the pit. Capturing that gave it the cinematic language of a narrative film. There's not a mix just laid onto a clip — every shot had detailed work on crowd sound and instrument balance. We mix to picture. It's not done casually.'
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is an immediate portrayal of where the band is today — not just how they play, but how they live. Zimny and his team show how they got there, often through archival footage that — in true Springsteen and Zimny fashion — doesn't soften the edges. 'The power of memory is that the flicker and the lack of clarity evoke a romantic feeling,' Zimny said. 'If I cleaned it up and balanced the color, took out some of the video textures, it would take away some of the soul. But each individual clip is looked at closely. How far do you go to clean it up? You've got to listen to that voice inside the edit room when you just go, 'Wow, this really takes me back.''
Best of GoldDerby
'It was wonderful to be on that ride': Christian Slater talks his beloved roles, from cult classics ('Heathers,' 'True Romance') to TV hits ('Mr. Robot,' 'Dexter: Original Sin')
Sam Rockwell on Frank's 'White Lotus' backstory, Woody Harrelson's influence, and going all in on 'this arc of Buddhist to Bad Lieutenant'
Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh admit they 'never had the audacity to realize' a show like 'Deli Boys' was possible
Click here to read the full article.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Tom's Guide
43 minutes ago
- Tom's Guide
7 best twist endings of all time
What makes a successful twist ending? First of all, it has to surprise the audience. If you somehow guess the twist before it happens, then the movie failed to do its job. Furthermore, the twist has to make sense. Movies like 'Serenity' and 'Remember Me' featured shocking endings that did not belong. These twists ruined, not helped, the story. This month, 'The Usual Suspects' celebrates its 30th anniversary. The final twist in the Oscar-winning thriller is still one of the best in cinematic history. Where does it rank among all-time twist endings? Let's find out. 'It was clear whoever got that role was going to blow up,' Matt Damon said about auditioning for the 1996 legal thriller, 'Primal Fear.' The role in question was for Aaron Stampler, a stuttering boy accused of murdering the archbishop of Chicago. Edward Norton won the coveted part and, like Damon predicted, blew up, culminating in an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. There's no proof as to what moment secured Norton the critical acclaim; the best guess is that it happened during the film's final moments. After a not guilty verdict, Aaron reveals he faked an alternate personality to get away with murder. Richard Gere's stunned look speaks for everyone in that moment. Watch on Paramount Plus If you listen closely, you might still hear Charlton Heston's scream at the end of 'Planet of the Apes.' In the distant future, astronaut George Taylor (Heston) and his crew crash-land on an unknown planet where apes are the dominant species. On this planet, apes can talk and think like people, while humans are mute and primitive. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. The makeup and philosophical themes have stood the test of time and even spawned an entire franchise that still exists today. However, the ending remains the film's lasting legacy. Taylor learning that the planet he landed on is Earth in the future remains a stroke of genius and a shocking conclusion to a revolutionary film. Rent/buy on Amazon or Apple Imagine being a child in 1980 and seeing 'The Empire Strikes Back.' After George Lucas opened your world to the wonder of a space opera in 'Star Wars,' you then learned that Darth Vader, one of the three most famous villains in cinematic history, was the father of Luke Skywalker. In today's Hollywood, twists are spoiled within minutes of the embargo lifting. But 45 years ago, you had to sit on that cliffhanger for three years before the trilogy wrapped in 1983's 'Return of the Jedi.' If this list consisted of misquoted lines in movie history, 'The Empire Strikes Back' might occupy the top spot. As much fun as it is to say, 'Luke, I am your father,' the correct reciting of Darth Vader's line reads, 'No, I am your father.' Watch on Disney Plus From a critical standpoint, 'Psycho' is on the shortlist of most influential horror movies ever produced. Alfred Hitchcock's mystery centers around Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a real estate secretary who, after stealing money from her employer, flees Phoenix for California. Due to heavy rain, Marion stops for the night at the Bates Motel, where she meets a peculiar proprietor, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Hitchcock solidified his 'Master of Suspense' title thanks to his revolutionary camerawork and haunting score. The tale also included two twists. The first occurs during a stabbing in the shower. The final twist happens near the end, when Norman, not his mother, is revealed to be the killer. Norman's sadistic smile will be ingrained in your memory. Rent/buy on Amazon or Apple The first rule of Fight Club: Do not talk about Fight Club. Apologies to Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, but we have to break the first rule for good reason. David Fincher's crime drama follows the journeys of the unnamed Narrator (Norton) and soap salesman Tyler Durden (Pitt) as they form an underground fight club. The club attracts depressed men looking for excitement in their lives. Eventually, the club transitions into Project Mayhem, an anarchist movement to disrupt the social order through acts of violence and vandalism. The Narrator disapproves of Tyler's methods until he realizes — and here's the twist — that Tyler is his alter ego. The second rule of Fight Club should be: Don't talk about the twist unless your job requires you to make a list about twist endings. Watch on Hulu The movie that inspired the list has to be near the top. For nearly the entire 106-minute runtime of 'The Usual Suspects,' Agent Dave Kujan (and the audience) attempted to identify the criminal mastermind known as Keyser Söze. Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) led us to believe Keyser Söze was Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne). Then, Kujan drops the coffee cup as the details from the random flyers jump off the wall. Keyser Söze was none other than Verbal Kint, and the moment his limp disappears remains one of cinema's most iconic images of the last 30 years. Watch on Prime Video The biggest strength of 'The Sixth Sense' is its twist ending. It also happens to be the film's greatest weakness. 'The Sixth Sense' relies on its twist more than any other movie on this list. It's hard to enjoy M. Night Shyamalan's psychological thriller and pretend like the reveal isn't coming. The twist is all you can think about, which hurts the movie's rewatchability. Nevertheless, learning that Malcolm (Bruce Willis) had been dead the entire time was jaw-dropping. It changed the trajectory of Shyamalan's career and became the new standard for twist endings. Rent/buy on Amazon or Apple Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Tom's Guide
3 hours ago
- Tom's Guide
Hulu just added one of the best new movies of the week and it's perfect for fans of 'The Conjuring'
It would be pretty understandable to initially assume 'It Feeds,' a new horror movie added to Hulu this week, was a sequel to 'It Follows,' the modern classic chiller released in 2014. The two movies even share a common narrative trait: Both focus on a sinister entity working its way back down a list of victims once the current 'host' has been dealt with. Unfortunately, 'It Feeds' is not a follow-up to one of my favorite horror movies of the 2010s (though, as an aside, 'It Follows 2' is in development). Instead, 'It Feeds' is a different beast. And while it lacks the substance and texture of the so-called 'elevated horror' subgenre, it still offers plenty of scares for horror-obsessives and a twisted sense of tension. It's been a slower week for new movies on the best streaming services this week — though the surprise release of 'Superman' on PVOD has certainly boosted the field — but 'It Feeds' is a low-budget, but effective, horror that is worth your time if you're craving a spooky summer watch. Cynthia (Ashley Greene) is a clairvoyant psychic and mother to a young daughter, Jordan (Ellie O'Brien). Cynthia's abilities allow her to enter the mindspace of her patients, exploring their past memories, healing their traumas, and even learning their darkest secrets and intentions. When a young girl named Riley (Shayelin Martin) bursts into her home begging for help, Cynthia is shocked to learn that a sinister entity has latched itself onto the girl. Cynthia wants no part in the matter, believing the entity is too strong to be stopped, and Riley's father (Shawn Ashmore) is also convinced that a psychic cannot save his daughter's soul. However, Jordan opts to investigate further, but in doing so, puts herself in the path of the entity, which is slowly feeding on Riley, forcing Cynthia to step in to save two innocent lives. 'It Feeds' may not reach the standard of the most acclaimed recent efforts in the horror genre — it's not going to give 'Weapons' or 'Sinners' any competition to be named best horror of 2025 — but it's got a similar vibe to popular 2010s horror like 'Insidious' and 'The Conjuring.' Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. It's a movie where you're never far from a jumpscare, and the core cast spent the 100-minute runtime being constantly shaken up by the sudden appearance of a twisted apparition, usually with gnarled fingers that claw at them. If you were being cynical, you could call it 'run of the mill,' but as a horror fan, I enjoyed the comforting simplicity of it. Much like in 'It Follows,' the evil entity at the movie's core has the additional wrinkle of being passed between victims, adding a sense of paranoia, and results in one character going to extreme (and stomach-turning) lengths to pass the 'curse' to somebody else. This is boilerplate stuff that we saw more than a decade ago, but it's still effective here. Which is sort of 'It Feeds' to a tee. It doesn't break out from the genre conventions that have been well established in other (often better) movies, but it fits all the familiar pieces together into a very watchable final product. It's helped by a fitting leading performance from star Ashley Greene, who looks thoroughly frightened at all the right moments, and I'm always down to see Shawn Ashmore pop up. The much younger members of the cast also do a great job. 'It Feeds' isn't the type of horror movie that will stay with you for days and weeks after watching, which is somewhat ironic considering its central entity latches itself to victims, but that's far from a dealbreaker. If you're looking for a quick spooky fix this summer, 'It Feeds' certainly serves its purpose. And like all horror movies should, it keeps the sense of dread up throughout, coming to a close that teases that the evil hasn't quite been fully defeated. But if you're truly not convinced by 'It Feels,' or you'd just rather save your hunger for horror for the final installment in 'The Conjuring' franchise (which hits theatres next month), here's a roundup of all the top new movies that have arrived on streaming this week. Watch "It Feeds" on Hulu now Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
New York Post
6 hours ago
- New York Post
Denzel Washington blasts cancel culture, says faith matters more than followers
Denzel Washington is making it clear – he wants nothing to do with cancel culture. In a heated conversation on the topic with Complex, the actor ripped into the concept of being canceled, saying he doesn't care that much about public support or followers. Advertisement When asked if he considers the idea of being 'canceled,' Washington was quick to question the term, asking, 'What does that mean — to be canceled?' While she explained that the term essentially meant losing public support, Washington's response was unapologetically bold: 'Who cares? What made public support so important to begin with?' The reporter told him that 'followers now are currency,' to which he replied, 'I don't care who's following who.' For Washington, the idea of chasing after followers — or public support in general — isn't that important. Advertisement 'You can't lead and follow at the same time, and you can't follow and lead at the same time,' he said. 'I don't follow anybody. I follow the heavenly spirit. I follow God, I don't follow man. I have faith in God. I have hope in man, but look around, it ain't working out so well.' 5 Spike Lee and Denzel Washington at a special screening for 'Highest 2 Lowest' at the Tedd Mann Theater in Los Angeles, Calif. on Aug. 13, 2025. Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/MEGA He added, 'You can't be canceled if you haven't signed up. Don't sign up.' After that, he leaned back in his chair and began laughing, saying, 'Don't get me started. My chest started hurting. You know, chest is getting tight talking about it.' Advertisement The Oscar winner made these comments as he sat next to 'Highest 2 Lowest' director Spike Lee during the interview. 5 Denzel Washington in a scene from the 2002 film 'John Q.' New Line Cinema 5 Washington poses with his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in 'Glory' at the 62nd Academy Awards. Sygma via Getty Images 5 For Washington, the idea of chasing after followers — or public support in general — isn't that important. AP Advertisement Lee echoed the same sentiments as Washington, saying, 'I could care less.' Reps for Washington did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Throughout the span of Washington's illustrious career, the legendary actor has continued to make a major impact in Hollywood. Earlier this year, the actor received his 11th Golden Globe nomination for his work in 'Gladiator II,' setting a new record as the Black actor with the most nominations in the history of the awards show. Washington took home a Golden Globe for best performance by a male actor in a supporting role for his portrayal of Macrinus in the action film. 5 Throughout the span of Washington's illustrious career, the legendary actor has continued to make a major impact in Hollywood. Mike Marsland/WireImage The 'Training Day' actor previously sent his passionate fans into a tailspin with his retirement rumors. Advertisement 'I didn't say I was going to go into retirement,' he told BuzzFeed. 'I said that it has to be a level of interest for me. I'm more interested in getting behind the camera, so that's about five years out.' 'It's very difficult. And I may have used the word 'retire,' but I look at life in three sections: you learn, you earn, you return. I'm in the return part of life.'
