SPRINGSTEEN (2025): Does White Deliver Us from Nowhere?

Although I grew up on oldies and classic rock, I didn’t know many Bruce Springsteen songs until I began producing music reaction videos for YouTube a few years ago.

At that point, I dove headfirst into “The Boss’s” catalog, listening to every one of his studio albums, most of his big concerts, and several documentaries. (I’m currently going through the newly released box set, Tracks II: The Lost Albums, over on Patreon.) So, when Fox Searchlight announced, and subsequently released a trailer for, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, a Bruce biopic about the making of Nebraska (my favorite Springsteen album), and starring a top young actor, I was excited.

I was able to catch the film opening day, and the short verdict is: I enjoyed it. It was good. But it wasn’t great.

Overall well-written and directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart), the film is told in non-linear format, which I generally like as a narrative device. It’s set partially in the ’50s during Bruce’s childhood and primarily in 1981, following The River tour, with the record label pressuring Bruce to produce a new record.

While Cooper nails the period settings, he also refrains from using them to their full effect, certainly not to the level James Mangold did in A Complete Unknown, his Bob Dylan flick from last year. However, since a plurality, if not a majority, of the film features Bruce alone in a room, and the farther away we get from a period, the harder it is to reproduce that period on screen, Cooper gets a pass.

The dynamic between Bruce and his father (the primary, non-music plot line running through the movie) is gripping. Stephen Graham, who plays the elder Springsteen, delivers a standout performance that perfectly captures his generation — the archetypal dad-of-boomer, troubled by his experiences in the Depression, World War II, etc., whose destructive behavior causes a negative ripple effect for his own children throughout their lives. (I once talked to an “early boomer” who explained how growing up in the ’50s was just like Leave It to Beaver — except this person’s dad was a deadbeat alcoholic.)

Jeremy Strong is another standout player as Bruce’s longtime manager/producer Jon Landau. Prediction: if anyone gets an Oscar nomination out of this movie, it will be Strong for Best Supporting Actor.

Although I loved Jeremy Allen White in the first season of The Bear (which is the only thing I’ve seen him in), and I was impressed with the snippets I saw of him in Springsteen’s trailer, he didn’t quite embody Bruce in the film like Jamie Foxx embodied Ray Charles or Timothée Chalamet embodied Dylan. Instead of seeing Bruce brought to life on screen, I often felt I was watching Jeremy Allen White doing his best Springsteen impression on SNL (or since White strongly resembles a young Dustin Hoffman, I often felt like I was watching Hoffman impersonating Bruce.)

Although, prior to the film’s release, conflicting reports emerged over the extent of White’s singing in the film, I clocked one, possibly two, full vocal tracks from White, plus two partial tracks intercut with Springsteen’s originals. While White’s lack of singing isn’t a deal breaker, I prefer when actors do their own singing, even if they don’t sound exactly like the real-life artist they’re playing (e.g., Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line).

However, I freely admit I’ve probably watched too many Bruce interviews and concerts over the past three years to give a fair assessment of White’s performance. In truth, White did a fine job, most viewers probably won’t take an issue with his performance, and I’m likely being a little nit-picky.

The third act of the movie runs too long. Essentially, we get two climaxes, with a good bit of length between them. The first climax wraps up the music plot, which, for me, was the most interesting part of the movie. The second climax closes Bruce’s personal troubles, and the two resolutions feel disconnected.

If Cooper had crafted the third act in such a way that brought both plots to conclusion simultaneously, or at least closer together, the resolutions would have felt more satisfying. (Of course, this would have required more creative license with true events, but since Bruce’s love interest in the picture, Faye, was an amalgamated invention herself, Cooper clearly doesn’t mind taking liberties for the sake of narrative.)

After the second climax wraps, the film ends about three minutes later. Although it’s abrupt and a little jarring, the [MILD SPOILER] final scene between Bruce and his dad in 1982 packs an emotional punch that concludes Bruce’s arc nicely.

So how does Springsteen stack up against other top musical biopics?

It doesn’t reach the heights of Ray and Walk the Line, two musical biographies of the 2000s that still set the standard for the sub-genre. Behind those, I would put the Brian Wilson flick, Love and Mercy, followed by the aforementioned A Complete Unknown. I would put Springsteen just below the last flick, which is not a bad ranking.

Objectively, I give Deliver Me from Nowhere a 7/10. Subjectively, I rate it higher at 8/10 because I am a Bruce Springsteen fan and a musical history/biopic fan. But that’s also why I’m not sure how well this is going to play outside the fanbase.

Springsteen is very much about the music. Many of the film’s stakes are tied to the music, both its creation and production. We get to see Bruce sitting in a rented house alone, or with one other guy, recording an acoustic demo. But other than “Born in the USA,” and a couple of other big hits, there isn’t much in the film to appeal to casual fans or general audiences.

I keep going back to A Complete Unknown because it’s recent and comparable. That film sported the draw of Timothée Chalamet, who commands a large, young following, and once the audience was inside the theater, the film featured story hooks, such as a love triangle, that could keep the average viewer engaged and generate positive word of mouth. With Springsteen, there isn’t much here to reach beyond the “music people” and Bruce fans like me. (With the opening weekend numbers coming in this morning at a dismal $16m worldwide, with a #4 debut at the domestic box office, my fears appear to be justified.)

But if you are like me — if you like Bruce, musical biopics, and the minutiae of an “inside baseball” take on the music industry — you should definitely see this movie in theaters. If that’s not you, though, I can’t guarantee it will be worth your time to venture out and see Springsteen.

Adapted and updated from Words Like That S3 E9.

Check out Cole Powell’s Top 20 iTunes U.S. Singer/Songwriter album The Social Distance, available everywhere.