Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Biopics work best when they deal with a small but significant portion of the subject's life instead of trying to crunch an entire lifetime into a two- or three-hour movie. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, about singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen (this writer is a huge fan), generally works as it covers the period in the early 1980s where Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White in a spot-on performance) is working on new acoustic material, which would become the stark, deeply personal, 1982 album Nebraska.
Coming off the success of his 1980 double album The River, which contains the hit "Hungry Heart," the record label pressures the singer for another hit record. Springsteen is also struggling with depression and childhood trauma due to his father's alcoholism and mental illness.
Deliver Me from Nowhere, directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart), is at its best when dealing with the recording of the music—which was done at Springsteen's house using a four-track recorder—and the fight with the record company that wants a commercially viable album.
What feels rushed, however, is the rock bottom of Springsteen's depression and his attempt to get help.
White, who could pass for Springsteen's stunt double, is terrific here
and also does much of his own singing. Stealing the movie, however, is Jeremy
Strong as Springsteen's manager, record producer, and good friend Jon Landau.
He will do anything for 'the Boss," and the friendship between the two men is
the glue that holds the movie together.
