The New Springsteen Biopic: Flawed, Downbeat, But Still Delivers

 Now playing at a multiplex near everybody:

SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE
(Dir. Scott Cooper, 2025)

 

Like James Mangold’s A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, Scott Cooper’s new Bruce Springsteen drama is a specific biopic, centering on a crucial period instead of a full career overview. Based on Warren Zanes’ 2023 book of the same name, the narrative concerns the making of the Boss’s classic 1982 album, Nebraska, which was a departure for the artist; a spare, haunting acoustic album that was in a different world from the radio hits, and arena anthems, which had previously dominated his discography.

 

Jeremy Allen White (Shameless, The Bear) fills Springsteen’s shoes admirably, giving an intensely troubled performance as a man who, as Bruce would say is “livin’ in his own skin, and can’t stand the company.” After coming off a huge stadium tour for his best-selling double album, The River, which yielded his first top 10 single “Hungry Heart,” the musician finds himself wanting to explore a different direction.

That involved recording some spare demos on a crude four-track cassette recorder in a rented house in Colt’s Neck, New Jersey, where he tells engineer Mike Batlan (Paul Hauser), “It doesn’t have to be perfect, I want it to feel like I’m in the room by myself.” Meanwhile, Springsteen’s stoical manager, Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong), fends off CBS Records exec Al Teller (David Krumholtz), who wants something more commercial as the singer-songwriter is on the verge of superstardom.

 

Interspersed throughout the movie are black and white flashbacks depicting Springsteen’s father Douglas (Stephen Graham), abusing him, and his mother, Adele (Gaby Hoffmann), which inform our protagonist’s writing as does a book of Flannery O’Conner’s work, and, more importantly, his coming across Terrence Mallick’s 1973 crime classic BADLANDS on TV. This inspired Nebraska’s title track, told in the voice of serial killer, Charles Starkweather, while the record’s other songs illustrated the desperate musings of a cast of guilt-ridden outsiders fighting interpersonal demons.

 

The biggest liberty that Cooper’s screenplay takes with Springsteen’s story is the addition of a fictitious girlfriend, Faye Romano, played by Odessa Young. As a Jersey Girl, who is a single mother working as a waitress in a diner named Frankie’s, Faye seems like should could’ve been a subject of one the Boss’s ‘70s songs, and Young puts in an affecting turn as the fan turned love interest on the side, but I’m not sure it was a necessary element in this scenario. Yet the couple’s scenes did get to me a bit emotionally (yeah, I teared up a few times) so I’m not complaining. Word is that the character is a composite based on a few women that the real Boss admits now that he ghosted at the time.

 

As a musical biopic largely dealing with depression over daddy issues, this lowkey, downbeat treatise is more like Bill Pohlad’s 2014 Brian Wilson biopic, LOVE AND MERCY, than it is like A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. Despite a few loud concert scenes, it’s mostly a downbeat, introspective affair, much like the album it centers on, with some of its best moments being about Springsteen’s friendship with Landau.

White’s immersion into the character isn’t as invested, and surprising as Timothy Chamalet’s turn as Dylan last year (or as Oscar-worthy), but he’s pretty damn convincing nevertheless as he consistently nails the nuances of the legendary musician, and his vocals on a bunch of the Boss’s very well known (and very well worn) iconic tunes.

 

While the soundtrack is mostly made of White’s vocals, Springsteen’s can be heard a number of times throughout the film, but, even as a big fan, there were times I wasn’t sure who I was hearing at times, which means for me, they really pulled off the conceit.

I bet other, more hardcore fans may be less impressed, but, while it has some over simplistic dialogue, a few predictable story beats, and some cringy clichés (though of the sort that are unavoidable in biopic formulas); DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE is overall a stirringly poignant portrait of an incredible (and incredibly sensitive) artist at the crossroads of fame, and finding oneself.

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That Time The Boss Came To John Cusack In A Vision

For this edition of Musician Movie Cameo Monday, I take a look at a memorable scene in one of my favorite films, Stephen Frears’ edgy 2000 rom com HIGH FIDELITY. Based on a very relatable (at least to me) novel by Nick Hornby, the movie concerns John Cusack as Rob, a heartbroken Chicago record store owner, who comically reflects on his love-life. After a misguided phone call in which he tries to track down his first girlfriend, he plops down on his bed to contemplate reaching out to the rest of his top five failed romantic relationships. 

“All of them, you know,” Rob tells the camera (he breaks the fourth wall throughout the film). “Just see them, and talk to them…like a Bruce Springsteen song.”

That’s when The Boss appears, playing licks on his Fender Telecaster, and responding to Rob by saying, “You call, ask them how they are, and see if they’ve forgiven you.” Rob smiles, and adds “Yeah, then I’d feel good, and they’d feel good.” Springsteen interjects, “They’d feel good, maybe, but you’d feel better.” 

 

Rob basks in the idea, “I’d feel clean, and calm.” Springsteen concludes, “That’s what you’re looking for when you get ready to start again, it’d be good for you. You’d give that final goodbye and good luck to your old-time top five and move on down the road.”

The Springsteen song that this scenario most resembles is “Bobby Jean,” especially in the line, “And I’m just calling one last time, not to change your mind / But just to say ‘I miss you baby. Good luck. Goodbye, Bobby Jean.’” The version of Rob in the novel mentions this tune, and declares that, “I’d like my life to be like a Bruce Springsteen song.” So, obviously, the filmmakers took this notion further.

 

It’s notable that although this cameo is Springsteen’s first major movie role (if you don’t count concert films or rock videos), HIGH FIDELITY contains an excerpt of only one of his songs (“The River”). Meanwhile, Bob Dylan, who was Cusack’s first choice for The Boss’s part, has two songs in the movie.

 

In a later interview, Cusack explained how Springsteen’s cameo came about: “I just called Bruce, and said, ‘Look, I know this is a weird question, but do you want to play yourself in a film talking to me in my head?’ And he went, ‘Yeah!’ I’m like, ‘Wow!’ We started laughing.”

Cusack’s co-screenwriter, Steve Pink, said that The Boss was “like the magical Yoda that gives him the advice in his head,” and revealed that Springsteen had some input into the scene, “I’m happy to do this. But you can’t really say that they’ll feel better. You don’t really know that they’ll feel better.” This inspired the idea to change the line to “then they’ll feel good…maybe.”

 

Pink posited that this “helped our movie. He made it more sophisticated. And he was right.”

 

So the appearance of the celebrated rock artist in HIGH FIDELITY elevated the film in more than one way, and The Boss went on to an acclaimed acting career stealing movie after movie with his homespun persona. Okay, that didn’t happen, but with the guy’s unmistakable presence, it’s not a far-fetched premise.

 

Hornsby’s book, High Fidelity, was also adapted into a Broadway Musical, and a TV series which aired on Hulu in 2020. The part of Rob was gender flipped into Robyn, played by Zoë Kravitz, whose mother Lisa, was in the movie. 

Many scenes in the show were variations or straight lifts of parts of the movie, so it was natural that they’d recreate the musician cameo fantasy. In this version, Robyn is visited by a vision of Debbie Harry of the beloved band Blondie, who spouts dialogue very close to Springsteen’s: “Well, maybe they won’t feel so good, but you’ll feel great!”

When I posted about HIGH FIDELITY celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2010 (not sure why I didn’t update that in 2020), I didn’t even mention the Springsteen cameo. This is weird as it’s such a crucial part of the narrative. I guess I’m making up for that now, which makes me feel good, and you’ll feel good too...maybe.

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New Releases On Blu Ray & DVD: 10/29/13

This week, one of last summer’s biggest hits shares its home video release date with one of the summer’s biggest bombs: Dan Scanlon’s Pixar prequel MONSTER’S UNIVERSITY, which grossed over $700 million, and Robert Schwentke’s supernatural spoof R.I.P.D., which barely made back 10% of its $130 million budget. MONSTER’S UNIVERSITY, featuring Billy Crystal and John Goodman reprising their roles as Mike and Sullivan from 2002’s MONSTER’S, INC., is available in a 3 disc Blu ray edition (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy), and on a single disc DVD. Special Features include a bunch of featurettes, Art Galleries, Promo Picks, the 7 minute animated short BLUE UMBRELLA, and a audio commentary with co-writer/director Scanlon, producer Kori Rae and story supervisor Kelsey Mann.

Amid lots of critic's cracks that it looked like a lame remake of MEN IN BLACK, I skipped R.I.P.D. along with the rest of civilization when it briefly played in theaters last July. The flop comedy starring Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds as deceased policemen patrolling the afterlife is now out in spiffy 2 disc Blu ray (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD with UltraViolet) and 1 disc DVD editions. Special Features: Alternate Openings, Alternate/Deleted Scenes, over 30 minutes of featurettes, and Gag Reel.

Baille Walsh’s acclaimed 2012 rock doc about The Boss and his fans, SPRINGSTEEN & I, drops today in single disc Blu ray and DVD editions. Special Features include Springsteen’s Hard Rock Calling 2012 performance, in which Paul McCartney joins in with Bruce on “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “Twist and Shout”; 28 minutes of Fan Submissions, and over 10 minutes of “Meet the Fans.” Yep, this release is really fan-centric.

Also out today: Neil Jordan’s British-Irish Vampire film BYZANTIUM, Justin Kreutzmann’s concert film of tribute: Move Me Brightly: Celebrating Jerry Garcia's 70th Birthday, and Henry Saine’s sci-fi thriller BOUNTY KILLER.

On the older film out today front, there’s the Criterion Collection edition of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1961 classic LA NOTTE, Brian De Palma's 1978 cult horror flick THE FURY, Harold Cronk's Christmas comedy SILVER BELLS, and another title from the Pixar franchise division, CARS 3D: The Ultimate Collector's Edition.

TV series sets releasing this week: Christopher Guest's Family Tree: The Complete First Season, Degrassi Season 12, Line of Duty: Series 1, Damages: The Complete Series, and Agatha Christie's Poirot: Series 9.

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