Not every music biopic needs to chronicle an entire life, and Scott Cooperβs Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere doesnβt attempt to depict The Boss in such a way. Bruce Springsteenβs catapult to fame? Skipped over. Instead, the film trades Springsteenβs hits for the moodier tracks of his sixth studio album, Nebraska. With a focus on this particular chapter of his life, the film sidesteps some biopic clichΓ©s β only to trip over others.
To his credit, director-writer Scott Cooperβs decision to adapt Warren Zanesβ Deliver Me From Nowhere for the screen was a good one, to approach the musicianβs biopic a bit differently. Instead of documenting Bruce Springsteenβs life and career, the film captures the vignette that is Zanesβ book: the making-of of Nebraska, the rock musicianβs departure album, and the emotional low point in his life that prompted him to create something so drastically different from his typical sound. By nature, the movie skips over parts of Springsteenβs life that unknowing audiences went in to see, probably, but also breaking free from some of the typical biopic clichΓ©s.
Our first look at Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) is in 1981; heβs already famous, heβs already assembled Clarence Clemons and the rest of the E Street Band, and he has five albums behind him. The Bruce Springsteen weβre shown is one weighed down by depression, who holes himself away in the Colts Neck ranch he rented out at the time, and where he fashioned a makeshift recording studio to write and record Nebraska.
The film makes the choice, perhaps wisely, to flip the βartist vs. the machineβ trope; instead, this struggle simply feels like a footnote in the story. One can hardly blame Columbia record executive Al Teller (David Krumholtz) for his baffled response to Springsteenβs demands for Nebraska via his manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) β no singles, no tour, no press, not even his face on the album cover β but a quick concession kills the trope before it becomes a formative part of the story.
Still, while trying to run from typical musical biopic clichΓ©s, the movie manages to run into them anyway β and, tragically, afflicts the audience with schmaltzy lines and moments throughout. During the Landau-Teller meeting, Strongβs character delivers the blow that wins Springsteen the artistic freedom he needs during his low point: βIn my office, we believe in Bruce Springsteen.β Such is hardly the first groan-inducing moment of the movie.
A line so clichΓ©d that it feels ripped from every music biopic ever, The Boss tells Landau it βfeels good to be back out there,β through Whiteβs brutal Jersey accent. He sees a mansion on a hill in a flashbackβ¦and writes βMansion on a Hill.β And, of course, heβs a rocker, so that must mean heβs a heartbreaker. Cue Faye Romano (Odessa Young), a composite character representing Springsteenβs relationships with local women in his Stone Pony days. βIβm moving to L.A.,β he tells her, before she flees from his sight in tears.
And then thereβs the king (Boss?) of all music biopic clichΓ©s: the childhood flashback. Black-and-white sequences reveal his boyhood trauma. One features the younger Springsteen (Matthew Anthony Pellicano) protecting his mother from his abusive alcoholic father, striking him from behind with a bat; in others, heβs on guard during obligatory father-son bonding time. The most redeeming thing about these flashbacks is the reference to The Night of the Hunter, which served its purpose well as a slick motif for his contentious relationship with dad.
This relationship eventually heals in the movieβs present time when Bruce Springsteen β yes, the adult Bruce β sits on his fatherβs lap and forgives him for the hard times of his youth. βYou had your own battles to fight,β the younger Springsteen says. Those who might criticize Bruce Springsteenβs choice to offer forgiveness to his father βif this discourse comes about βdonβt understand the nuances of growing up Italian or Irish. Catholic guilt is a strong force, which Springsteen even notes in his own autobiography when he writes, βThe Italian part of me wanted to be successful and show off. The Irish part held guilt and depression. Together they made for a complicated combination.β Such had the potential to add complexity to the movieβs Springsteen, and perhaps salvage the screenplay, by offering a clue to the rockerβs depression; instead, this part of The Bossβs identity is omitted, an unfortunate missed opportunity.
Still, this part of the movie is redeemed by a portrayal of healthy masculinity that, hopefully, strikes a heartfelt chord with audiences. The elder Springsteen tells his son heβs proud of him, moving one of the manliest rockers of the eighties to tears. This mental health lens is an interesting one, as such was a taboo topic in the eighties, but itβs there to be embraced β and appreciated β by a modern audience. This theme of the story is certainly welcome, and connects well to his deep songwriting process for Nebraska. The audience, however, learns very little about Bruce Springsteen beyond his depression.
By movieβs end, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere feels like a mixed bag. It avoids some of the usual biopic traps β with credit for that going to the source material β but crashes headfirst into others with cheesy sentimentality. Fans of The Boss will geek out over the story of this pivotal moment in Springsteenβs career, and moviegoers who turn out for music biopics will certainly appreciate it. But if Cooperβs film hoped to shake up the subgenre, it instead struck the wrong chord.
βSpringsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhereβ will be released nationwide in theaters on October 24, 2025.