Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Scott Cooper

Starring:  Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, David Krumholz, Stephen Graham, Gaby Hoffman, Matthew Anthony Pelicano, Odessa Young, Paul Walter Hauser

Deliver Me from Nowhere takes a curious but fascinating approach to a biopic about Bruce Springsteen.  It covers a dark period between 1981 and 1982 in which Bruce, fresh off his most successful tour and first top 10 hit, retreats to a secluded New Jersey home and records songs which would wind up as the basis for Nebraska.  Nebraska, despite not have any singles, videos, or even much press coverage at Bruce's demand from his record label, was still a top 10 album, but the record label didn't have songs like Atlantic City in mind when they wanted a follow-up to The River.  The record company wanted hits and singles to strike while the iron was hot.  Bruce defiantly gave them Nebraska. 

Springsteen was coming face to face with his inner demons, which his father Douglas "Dutch" Springsteen (Graham) battled when Bruce was a child.  Dutch wasn't outwardly abusive, but he drank and the threat of violence seemed to hover over the household.   Bruce finds inspiration in watching Terence Malick's Badlands and visiting his abandoned childhood home, but not relief from his own depression.  His manager Jon Landau (Strong) doesn't see Bruce as a meal ticket, but someone he cares deeply about and someone he has to talk off the ledge more than once.  Jon doesn't quite understand Bruce's need to write such melancholy songs, but he adheres to Bruce's vision and even tells CBS records that it's either Nebraska or nothing.  

Bruce also wrote and recorded songs for Born in the USA, the album which made him a global phenomenon, but shelved them in favor of the non-commercial elements of Nebraska, even to the point of transferring his home recordings to vinyl to retain the darkened, weary soul of those songs.  Bruce also begins a relationship with a single mom/waitress named Faye (Young), who of course falls for Bruce quickly and he finds he can't reciprocate, although he wishes he could.  Throughout all of this, Jeremy Allen White, the last actor you would suspect could recreate Springsteen's aura and moves, is more than up to the task of providing us with a sympathetic Springsteen with warts and all.  However, I think Strong's performance will generate the most awards buzz, as Strong gives us almost the anti-Roy Cohn (his Oscar-nominated role in last year's The Apprentice) in Landau, whose fierce loyalty and friendship to Bruce is touching.

We know that Bruce Springsteen became immortalized after Born in the USA, but Deliver Me from Nowhere shows us that Born in the USA wouldn't have possible without the downward spiral which produced Nebraska.  The movie, written and directed by Scott Cooper, gives us Springsteen's fall and winter before he emerges with a glorious spring and summer in both his career and his personal life.  Many battle depression silently and without the outlet and resources of a Bruce Springsteen.  Could you imagine if he was unable to express himself through music?  It's horrible to think about.