Scott Cooper’s moody, introspective musical biopic “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” begins on rocky ground. Opening in Freehold, New Jersey circa 1957, with a lacquer of black and white to prove the point, we witness an 8-year-old Springsteen (Matthew Anthony Pellicano) climbing into his mother’s car to fetch his drunkard father Dutch (Stephen Graham) from the bar. Later that night, a violent Dutch storms toward his son’s room. One can presume this type of scene often happens in his troubled home. But before we can see that scene’s conclusion, we’re shot forward to Cincinnati 1981, The River Tour, where Jeremy Allen White as an adult Springsteen performs what might as well be a bad night of karaoke. The sweat rises faster than a Springsteen set with the fear that Cooper might’ve bungled the whole thing.
Adapted from Warren Zanes’s Springsteen biography Deliver from Me from Nowhere, the film, which premiered yesterday at Telluride Film Festival, roughly takes place over a pivotal two-year period in the singer/songwriter’s life. Inundated by fame after scoring a top 10 hit with “Hungry Heart,” Springsteen decides to rent a house in Colts Neck, New Jersey. The record company expects Springsteen to write the songs that’ll catapult him into a cultural phenomenon. But Springsteen has more pressing matters on his mind. He’s sitting alone in a dark house reading Flannery O’Connor, driving to his abandoned childhood home, going to the movies to watch “Night of the Hunter,” and is repeatedly watching Terrance Malick’s “Badlands.” He buys a four-track TEAC 144 Portastudio recorder hoping that will catch the bleak musical thoughts rattling around in his head. He even begins a relationship with Faye (Odessa Young), a single mother who regularly attends his impromptu blues sets at the Stone Pony where he does howling covers of John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom” and Little Richard’s “Lucille.”
The film is initially overburdened with cliches. Songs like “Nebraska,” which he originally titled “Starkweather” after the serial killer that inspired “Badlands,” are seemingly written in a single sitting. Cooper and editor Pamela Martin indiscriminately provide several flurries of flashbacks to Springsteen’s childhood to remind you that Springsteen is still that frightened child. Early scenes involving John Landau (Jeremy Strong), Springsteen’s manager and producer, witness him dragging the audience along. “It’s like he’s channeling something deeply personal and dark,” Landau explains to his wife (Grace Gummer) after listening to Springsteen’s finished demo tape. “It sounds like he’s pushing boundaries,” she responds. We’ve seen this kind of movie plenty of times before.
But then “Deliver from Me from Nowhere” shifts. It begins to open up, becoming a soulful and meditative character study of a depressed artist laid bare.
While the first third of the film relies on tired images of the magically inspired artist mixed with vibrant, neon-soaked date nights between Bruce and Faye, the mid-section centers Springsteen’s search for authenticity. Suddenly, as Springsteen attempts to replicate his bedroom demos in the studio, White doesn’t feel like a caricature of a gruff-voiced Jersey kid. He’s pained, tortured and fearful, emotions that are translated through his bulging facial features and his stammering delivery. He does less emulation and more acting, listening and reacting, thinking about his character’s emotions. Strong also takes on a greater role, offering the most tender performance of his career. Landau cares for Springsteen. Not as a product but as a therapist and a friend. Strong never overplays Landau’s support, allowing his eyes to transmit kindness with a light smile to punctuate the moment.
These humanist touches intensify the already incredible potency of the music. We get every track from Nebraska, including an electrified version of the title track that Springsteen despises and a scene of the band recording “Born in the USA,” which was demoed at Colts Neck too. Sometimes Cooper can be on the nose dramatizing the music, like showing Springsteen and his sister running through fields as “Mansion on the Hill” plays. Other times when Springsteen is in the darkness of his house, the staging and the grace of the shadows falling across White’s face are quite affecting. Cooper, of course, first broke out with country singer character study “Crazy Heart.” Unlike that movie, which mostly thrived on Jeff Bridges’s acting, this one understands the transmission of music to story better, allowing the songs to accentuate and not dominate.
This movie elevates itself by not mythologizing Springsteen. The recent documentary “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band” sold the legend of the artist by capturing his latest tour. The recent release of Tracks II: The Lost Albums fills in the blanks of his career through the reveal of seven unreleased albums. Peter Ames Carlin’s new book Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run fills in even more gaps. There’s been a general push around Springsteen and others to narrativize his career.
It’s a trend that “Deliver from Me from Nowhere” seemed destined to follow too. But the third act throws away that script entirely. His relationship with Faye takes a hard turn, his father’s mental issues rise again, and his own depression moves to the forefront. Though you feel like Cooper’s film could’ve begun exploring this ground a few minutes earlier, when the moment arrives, it does so with a wallop, balancing the psychological with the cinematic. Cooper doesn’t try to tie neat bows either. He allows this superstar to be flawed and damaged, but not in a cheap melodramatic way, in a relatable way that actually gives you strength to find a reason to believe in seeking help. Springsteen becomes as raw and as frank as the characters in his songs.
This review was filed from the world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival. It will be released on October 24, 2025.
