In 2023, a book was published named “Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska”. This book is written by music biographer Warren Zanes and has been adapted into the film, "Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere." This film is a biopic on the life of famous rock & roll legend, Bruce Springsteen, but it focuses only on an approximate two-year period when he created his famed 1982 album “Nebraska”.
With flashbacks to a frightening and abusive childhood, Bruce struggles to move through his depression and see his strange musical vision realized. "Deliver Me from Nowhere" is a touching, real-life, musical drama but without the expected extravagance you might see in a rock star’s story. There’s no drug use, no orgies, and no expensive parties in this musician’s life, because he’s so full of guilt, fear, and thoughts of suicide.
Showing Springsteen’s severe mental health issues makes this film quietly emotional, painfully honest, and stripped of any glamor, excitement, or speed. These qualities make this film something unexpected. It stands out from the constantly growing library of biopics (especially music biopics) being released every year. Movie lovers need only look at Oscar nominations each year, Golden Globe nominations each year, or the marquees of any movie theater in the winter months to see we’re swimming in biopics of various kinds.
"Christy" (2025), "The Smashing Machine" (2025), "A Complete Unknown" (2024), "Maria" (2024), "Oppenheimer" (2023), "Maestro" (2023), "Nyad" (2023), "Rustin" (2023), "Elvis" (2022), and "King Richard" (2021) are all biopics released in the past five years. And there's plenty more biopics from the last five years I could add to this list.
It’s clear "Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere" was a crowd-pleaser when I watched it in the movie theater. And I enjoyed the film too. I just wasn’t amazed by it since I’m feeling such fatigue from so many biopics being released the past few years and the automatic stamp of prestige many of these biopics get.
Because this film is so quietly emotional, as I said before, it has a lot of sensitivity and depth which is great. But because it’s so inward and devoted to a spare realistic mood, the first half of the film feels horribly slow and devoid of interesting content. Only after the first hour do things get going with the details of song recordings, cassette tapes, and discussions of compromise. And like most biopics, this has a sprinkling of forced dialogue explaining the mainstream musical tastes of the early 1980s and the established protocol for making professional hits.
Actor Jeremy Allen White has had explosive fame the last three years from leading the TV series "The Bear" since 2022, and he has won two Primetime Emmy Awards for his role on the show. As Bruce Springsteen, he gives a fully committed performance with authenticity, musicality, and the wistfulness of a bruised factory worker. He plays the harmonica in the film and does much of his own singing which, of course, adds to the authenticity of his whole look and his reputation for hard work.
May I also say, I’m not a fan of Bruce Springsteen? I’m indifferent. I don’t know much of his music, and I haven’t read the book this film is adapted from. Multiple times while watching this, I thought, “This is made mainly for fans of Springsteen and lovers of the technical processes in music production.” I fit into neither of these groups, so maybe that's why I think this film is just okay.
I appreciate how this film gives a lot of time showing the different symptoms of depression. It’s isolating and difficult to communicate, and this reminded me of another music biopic, "Love & Mercy" (2014). The ultimate message from this film is how someone can express their turmoil through the creative process and then find success. It's effectively moving and simple in many parts, but it's also disappointingly predictable in others.
