Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere Review LFF 2025

Jeremy Allen White’s Bruce Springsteen biopic digs in to the artists demons

One of the hardest working men in rock and roll, Bruce Springsteen’s music career has stretched for nearly 60 years and he’s been a household name for 40 of those – but it wasn’t a straightforward assent to superstardom for Bruce. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is a slice of life biopic that charts the recording of his 1982 album Nebraska, a turning point in his life that nearly saw him lose everything.

As we join Bruce (Jeremy Allen White) he has just finished touring his fifth studio album. He’s a massive success, scoring top ten chart positions and magazine covers, he’s in demand for everything from talk show appearances to movie roles. His producer/manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) sends him home to New Jersey to take some time off, reminding him he’s got studio time booked in a few months to get working on his next album. And the record label wants hits.

But coming off the back of radio friendly songs like ‘Born to Run’ and ‘Hungry Heart,’ inspiration strikes Bruce to head in an entirely different direction. He records the album that would become Nebraska, a solo, acoustic folk album charting stories of blue-collar workers and criminals. It took inspiration from the serious mental health issues Springsteen was struggling with at the time, and reflects on his troubled childhood with his erratic, violent father (Stephen Graham.) A decidedly niche and un-radio-friendly album, Bruce refused to release anything else – shelving songs that would later become bestsellers in favour of it.

White disappears into the role, doing his own singing and mimicking the mannerisms of Springsteen consistently well. He portrays a Bruce gripped by the desire to lay down this album with the desperation of a man trying to exorcise a demon. He is spiralling long before he even has the ability to see it for himself, pushing everyone and everything else away in favour of this work he can’t let go of, even if no one else understands it. While Springsteen’s live shows famously often top out at over 4 hours, Deliver Me from Nowhere paints this as the result of a man who just can’t bear to be alone at home with his thoughts. White bristles with nervous energy and exhaustion at alternate turns.

Strong’s part is that of a person as rare as gold dust – a genuinely supportive, caring music manager, He’ll do anything for his client, even when he is making absurd demands such as to release an album with ‘’no singles, no tour and no press.’’ His accent work verges into caricature at times, but there are some absolutely beautiful emotional scenes between him and White.

Deliver Me from Nowhere doesn’t necessarily capture Springsteen’s music, and in particular his live performances, with as much attention and care as it could do. It doesn’t have the electric feel of genius of ‘Elvis’ or ‘A Complete Unknown’ – but the decision to focus on this particular part of his life is probably the most interesting and important take we could get on him.

Watching Springsteen’s struggle and response to a serious bout of depression acts in complete opposition to the way he’s often incorrectly held up as a bastion of ‘’tough,’’ old fashioned, working class masculinity by people who may not know him particularly well. In particular it shows how trying to tough things out in the way his father’s generation did nearly cost him his life, and only by getting help was he able to move on and become an even bigger star (Born in the USA – one of the best-selling albums of all time – would be his next release after Nebraska.)

There are some slightly clunky scenes in which Strong’s Landau verbally explains Springsteen’s mental state to his wife, that ring as if Deliver Me from Nowhere didn’t quite trust itself enough to just show and not tell. They stand out as unnecessary in a film that actually very transparently draws a line between Bruce’s history and the music he was coming out with. Whether true to life or not, it’s all very neatly told and easily digestible for a casual audience.

An engrossing slice of music history, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere depicts a fascinating period in the life of an artist who has consistently fought to remain an authentic, egoless storyteller in the face of an industry that just wants musicians to conform. With some deeply moving scenes, particularly between White and Graham, there’s plenty to enjoy here whether you’re a fan of the ‘Boss’ or not.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is playing as part of the BFI London Film Festival. It will be released in UK cinemas on 24th October 2025