Adaptations are the bread and butter of entertainment, whether it’s “ripped from the headlines” episodes of some Law & Order spin-off to capture the zeitgeist or the story of an established celebrity. Going further are the adaptations of books which are, themselves, telling the story of an established person or group. In 2023, musician and author Warren Zanes (Del Fuegos; Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis) published a tome covering the making of famed musician Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, the ninth album in his catalogue which includes tracks “Nebraska” and “Atlantic City.” For those familiar with The Boss’s work, Nebraska is a significant piece and its creation was certainly unique, so it makes sense that someone would see cinematic potential in the adaptation of the book/real event. Enter filmmaker Scott Cooper (The Pale Blue Eye; Hostiles) and his dramatic slice-of-life portrait Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025). An initially standard picture highlighting the making of the album, through patience, Cooper reveals an internal motivation that takes center stage, shifting Deliver Me from Nowhere from a typical music biopic into something quiet and pensive, yet seething with rage. Now that the film is headed to home video with a four-part featurette, eager home viewers are invited inside the proverbial (and literal) studio on the making-of picture.
Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen in 20th Century Studios’ SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE. Photo Credit: Macall Polay. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved
After the last show on The River tour, Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) returns to Asbury, New Jersey, to recoup and recover. Amid staying in a rented house and occasionally joining gigs at The Stony Pony, Bruce finds himself in a more melancholic state than normal as he ponders his childhood. Inspired by Terrence Malick’s Badlands (1973), Bruce begins researching real life killer Charles Starkweather, kicking off a series of songs that feel confessional and deep in their lyricism, infused with an aura of weight and distance due to using non-professional equipment as he records in his home. Through the construction of the spontaneous album, Bruce is compelled to confront aspects of himself he’s left buried too long.
The following home release review is based on a digital edition provided by 20th Century Studios.
Disclosure: I am not a Springsteen fan. To be precise, I am not not a fan, either. I’m old enough to have seen Springsteen pull a young Courteney Cox (Friends; Scream franchise) on stage to dance in the dark and “Secret Garden” is a beautiful tune to accompany the lovely comedic surprise that is Jerry Maguire (1996). But with the exception of a few other tunes, there’s been no pull for me to explore his discography of works (though, in 2005, I did pick up Devils & Dust based entirely on a glowing Rolling Stones review). The point is, I cannot, at all, identify truths, falsehood, or malapropism within Cooper’s adaptation of Zanes’s book. To that end, what follows is entirely about the execution of the film with no regard for anything outside of it.
Unlike recent biopics like Rocketman (2019) or Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), which look at a broader period of time on their subjects, Deliver Me from Nowhere is specific to a brief period, making it have to do a great deal of work in order to connect with general audiences, as well as long-time fans. That’s an incredibly difficult needle to thread and, for the most part, Cooper and his team succeed. The film first opens in black-and-white, a young Bruce tasked with bidding his father exit a bar he’s apparently been in too long. For those whom the hook of Deliver Me is the creation of Nebraska, Cooper makes clear here that this film is going to be about the significance of Bruce’s adolescence and his relationship to his father. When the film transitions to the narrative’s present, 1981, the adult Bruce makes sense to us as a quiet, introverted sort whose attempts at extroversion come at a variety of costs, mostly self-inflected. White convincingly presents someone comfortable with (but more importantly graciously grateful for) fame, yet who returns to his hometown because he doesn’t know where else to go. As the film unfolds, we discover that this is as much about trying to figure out who he is as it is about making peace with a difficult past.
The presentation of Bruce is equally impressive and frustrating because White doesn’t mimic Springsteen so much as embody him, aligning more with Taron Egerton’s depiction of Elton John in Rocketman despite presenting an accurate in look and style akin to Rami Malik’s Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. What this means is that White never comes off as presenting a version of Springsteen, but a version of Bruce that the audience can use for character exploration regarding the significance of parental influence and how the past we run from is always going to be with us no matter where we go, so we may as well confront it. Those familiar with White’s work in other projects (such as the devastating The Iron Claw (2023)) know that White has the goods and he impresses further here, carrying the mystique and weight of The Boss while retaining the humanity that makes Springsteen viewed as “of the People” despite his fame. The problems arise in the film through the use of exposition via the other members of the cast who must declare things (to Bruce or to others) as a means of working in what things mean in the wider scheme of the narrative such as the scene between dedicated manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) and his wife, Barbara Landau (Grace Gummer), in which Jon tells her about his concerns for Bruce, but the scene feels like he’s talking to us rather than a revelation of some kind. Some of this may be because we don’t know Barbara’s relationship to Bruce nor do we witness her listening to the demos that would become Nebraska, let alone present her as anything other than a sounding board for Jon in two scenes, so it’s difficult to process scenes like this as anything more than a moment intended to communicate information to us versus the characters. These moments are few, but enough to cause one to be removed from the dramatic works of the actors and get yanked right out of the illusion. But when the film is focused on the dynamic between Douglas Springsteen (Stephen Graham) and Bruce, the film just devastates. Nothing does this more so than when the black-and-white depictions of young Bruce transfer to older Bruce as it really does hammer home just how much the past — all the good and so much of the bad — haunts him, making any success he finds in his art or in love a temporary salve that can never sustain. To this, as much as the creation of and the push to maintain the authenticity of what would become Nebraska are compelling, it’s what lies underneath Bruce’s passion and insistence to do so that powers this film. Once understood, the film opens up further. However, with so much of the film building toward the creation of and the constant nay-saying of his team, one could understand if they miss it.
The peek behind the curtain on Deliver Me covers a great deal of ground in a fairly short period of 34 minutes broken into four pieces: “Act 1: From Book to Screen,” “Act 2: Beyond the Music,” “Act 3: Becoming Bruce Springsteen,” and “Act 4: Deep Authenticity.” Being sourced from the iTunes digital edition, the options are to watch as one or to pick and choose which portion to start on. Each of them follow a similar pattern of talking head interviews mixed with behind-the-scenes footage and final film material. “Act 1” focuses on the run-up to production between setting up Zanes’s initial book, approaching Cooper, and the rest of the cast/team. In a bit of kismet, it seems that Cooper had been listening to Nebraska while working on his previous project, so his speaking on the early days of the project comes with a chuckle at the timing. Also of interest is that when learning about the pitch for the movie (bringing on Cooper and others), everything was done without consulting either Springsteen or Landou at first, which results in a fun story about how Cooper got the necessary approvals. “Act 2” brings the audience in further with aspects like Cooper explaining how the use of black and white footage is inspired by Springsteen’s own discussion of remembering his parents from black and white images, which leads to a confessional story from Springsteen about his and his sister’s initial experience seeing the film. With so much of the film centered on making Nebraska, this section finds Springsteen offering his remembrance of the work taken to transfer the cassette recording to vinyl (a particularly difficult task the film does cover). “Act 3” focuses on the casting of White as Bruce, as well as Cooper as director. Cooper was already thinking of White when it was brought to him by the producers and Springsteen was already aware of his work (via The Bear), so he already had an opinion on the actor and his abilities. Once White knew he had Springsteen’s blessing, it was easier to create the confidence to take on the role. There’s also discussion of the costuming of the film, including the guitar used by White (which was a gift to White from Springsteen). This portion also explores the work White undertook to learn to play the guitar, how he didn’t try to mimic Springsteen (opting to seek to inhabit his essence instead), preparing the aspect of vocal work for the songs, and other work done make the performance authentic. The interesting bit is hearing White discuss Springsteen’s own response to White’s singing of the songs and the way he hands off the meaning to him. The final portion, “Act 4,” brings the audience to Asbury, allowing us to see the locations they shot in, including moments with Springsteen himself. More than the other portions, this featurette centers the significant places in Springsteen’s life and the work the crew undertook to make the moments of the film feel as authentic to then as possible.
Though one doesn’t feel like they come away with a completely new outlook of Bruce Springsteen by the end of the film, one can at least glean a better understanding. This is someone who folks typical see when they buy a concert ticket or who hear when they spin his records, each experience conjuring an image of what they expect The Boss to be. What Cooper effectively does do is remind those who forget that all of us come from somewhere and we carry that with us regardless of whether we’re a music legend or Joe Schmoe trying to get by; that we all carry with us a burden of truth and that only by taking the courageous stand to do the work, to get better, can we ever made amends, even if it’s with ourselves. Between this thematic concept with over 30 minutes of bonus features that allow us a behind-the-music peek and audiences are able to discover what it means to be delivered from nowhere.
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere Special Features*:
- Act 1: From Book to Screen — See how Warren Zanes’ moving book inspired filmmakers to bring Bruce Springsteen’s most intimate chapter to life on screen. (9:04)
- Act 2: Beyond the Music — An intimate look at Bruce Springsteen’s raw and enduring masterpiece “Nebraska” — its sound, spirit, and powerful influence on the film’s tone and emotion. (6:04)
- Act 3: Becoming Bruce Springsteen — Jeremy Allen White dives deep into the mind and music of Bruce Springsteen, capturing the grit, grace, and humanity that define the icon’s artistry. (9:35)
- Act 4: Deep Authenticity — From vintage wardrobe to the Asbury Park boardwalk, experience how the filmmakers captured the raw soul of Bruce Springsteen’s New Jersey. (9:39)
*Available through select retailers on the 4K UHD Blu-ray and digital editions.
Available on digital December 23rd, 2025.
Available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray January 20th, 2026.
For more information, head to the official 20th Century Studio Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
Share this:
Categories: Home Video, Reviews, streaming
Leave a Reply