SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE
(director/writer: Scott Cooper; screenwriter: book “Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making Of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska” by Warren Zanes; cinematographer: Masanobu Takayanagi; editor: Pamela Martin; music: Jeremiah Fraitas; cast: Jeremy Allen White (Bruce Springsteen), Jeremy Strong (Jon Landau), Paul Walter Hauser (Mike Batlan), Stephen Graham (Douglas Springsteen, father), Odessa Young (Faye Romano), David Krumholtz (Al Teller), Gaby Hoffmann (Adele Springsteen, mother), Harrison Sloan Gilbertson (Matt Della), Grace Gummer (Barbara Landau), Marc Maron (Chuck Plotkin), Matthew Pellicano (Young Bruce), Grace Gummer (Barbara Landau, wife); Runtime: 120; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Scott Cooper, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Eric Robinson, Scott Stuber.; Bluegrass Films/A 20th Century Studios release; 2025)
“Modest musical biopic.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Scott Cooper (“The Pale Blue Eye”/”Antlers”) directs and writes this modest musical biopic that’s not critical of the music industry for the way it does business or of making Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) to be such a squeaky clean character-never showing him take drugs or do anything anti-social we realistically expect rockers to do.
Nevertheless, it’s an entertaining and emotionally sound film that’s perhaps more interested in observing the psyche of the beloved rock singer/poet for the working-class than in critiquing him or his music.
We’re informed Bruce hails from Freehold, New Jersey, and got his early start singing in the Asbury Park bar called the Stone Pony.
The film’s based on the 2023 non-fiction book “Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska” by Warren Zanes, that tells of the singer’s loneliness, fragility, childhood abuse (from an alcoholic father-Stephen Graham), depression and also his love of music. It mainly covers the time when Bruce recorded the 1982 acoustic album ‘Nebraska,’ with occasional flashbacks of him as a child of eight (Matthew Pellicano).
After Bruce tours with his E Street Band and performs his hit 1981 fifth album The River, the 32-year-old bachelor is exhausted, and returns to rent a farmhouse in Colts Neck, New Jersey where he will work on his next album Nebraska. The Columbia Records executive Al Teller (David Krumholtz) conveys to the popular singer’s longtime friend and loyal manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) the message for Bruce to get another commercially successful album out soon while he’s hot. Only the music engineer Mike Batlan (Paul Walter Hauser) is with him at the farm mixing the sounds, while Bruce is inspired to write the songs by reading Flannery O’Connor stories and watching Terrence Malick’s “Badlands.” The singer will come up with his best album ever–a non-commercial arty one.
The denim-wearing Bruce is depicted as a loner, who doesn’t hang-out with his E Street Band when not working, and loves eating in diners where he sometimes is not recognized.
It depicts his tender romance with the single mom Faye Romano (Odessa Young), who he met when a high school friend introduced him to his sister.
His signature hits “Born in the USA,” “Mansion on a Hill,” and “Born to Run” make it into the film, with Jeremy Allen White doing a great job singing all of Bruce’s songs.
Thankfully the film left out much of the usual musical biopic formulaic stuff (like talking heads). On the critical side, the film gives the viewer a chance to see Bruce’s cynical take on the American political and social scene.
The film also allows us to see the rock icon as a regular guy who is affectionately known as ‘The Boss.’ He’s the superstar who has made peace with himself and is not afraid to take on activist causes to try and make the world a better place to live in.
It played at the New York Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 10/19/2025 GRADE: B
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