Movie Review - Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (NYFF)

The biopic about a musician has been done to death at this point. There have been the good ones like Crazy Heart and Walk the Line, the serviceable ones like Straight Outta Compton and Elvis, and the bad ones like Bob Marley: One Love and Back to Black. Some of the issues from the ones that work less well is that they can feel over-bloated by trying to catch all the key moments in one movie and the fact that the artist, living or dead, is in and of themselves a brand, the powers that be surrounding the rights to the movie have too tight a leash to make sure the subject is portrayed to the mythological ideal (see Bohemian Rhapsody).

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is not designed to tell the entire story of Bruce Springsteen; it is designed to specifically tell the story about what circumstances led to the creation and release of his album Nebraska coming off the tour for The River. The focused approach the movie has to one specific and not particularly well-documented part of his career does a lot to allow the characters and relationships to breathe and develop for the viewer to provide a deeper insight into the man behind the rock star.

The concern with a movie like Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is that Bruce himself is still alive and was actively involved in the film. When this happens, there is a certain amount of apprehension that the viewer will rightfully bring with them to the screening. Fortunately, there is an emotional intimacy present throughout the movie that indicates more of a hands-off approach than one would expect. At its core, this film is about someone exorcising demons through creation and coming to terms with both their current depression and some of the traumas of their past. To accurately portray this, a certain degree of honesty is needed to make sure that the viewer understands and buys into what's driving the character.

What the film ends up as is one of the most authentic portrayals of clinical depression seen in a movie. The highs and lows, the socialization and withdrawal, the ability to come out and present as if everything is fine, all of which is handled perfectly by Jeremy Allen White in the lead. He's helped of course by Jeremy Strong and Odessa Young as his producer, Jon Landau, and his girlfriend, Faye, respectively, both of whom play people who are in the inner circle of someone dealing with major depressive issues very well.

The key element that does a lot to help exposit the backstory without overloading the audience with extra information is the flashbacks that Bruce experiences to his childhood. Interestingly, this allows him to deal with the trauma from growing up with an abusive parent and the complexities that go along with that. Along with showing him interacting with this parent in the present, the way the film plays with the malleability of memory allows for the present-Bruce to interact with past-parent for a unique exploration of their relationship.

All that said, there is still a fantastic moment about halfway through the movie that I was not expecting to see in this film, and that scene is worth the price of admission alone. In a world where audiences are subjected to many run-of-the-mill biopics about icons, it is always worth exploring the ones that try something new, dive deeper or more intimately into the subject, and deliver fantastic performances from an all-star cast. Check out Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere when it arrives in theaters on October 24th, 2025.

★★★★★