Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, the upcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic starring Jeremy Allen White, is set to be released later this year. But on Friday, the film was premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, resulting in the first critic reviews of the highly-anticipated release.
Most of the reviews can be described as positive, with plenty of praise for White’s portrayal of an artist struggling with both his personal identity and his creative plight. The film is based on the 2023 book Deliver Me From Nowhere, written by Warren Zanes, the same author behind the best-selling Petty: The Biography. Unlike other biopics, this one focuses on the specific period in Springsteen’s life in which he wrote and recorded his deeply intimate, lo-fi 1982 album, Nebraska. Fans of the Boss know: Nebraska is not like Springsteen’s other albums, and yet it’s often considered his best.
Film critics are pointing this out.
“If some fans go in expecting the equivalent of a greatest hits package, think again,” Pete Hammond of Deadline wrote. “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is the real deal, an intelligent, deliberately paced journey into the soul of an artist.”
The “real deal” is achieved, Deadline emphasizes, largely in thanks to White, who studied for months with a vocal and guitar coach despite having no prior musical experience: “He is utterly convincing on every count, but this is no mere SNL-style imitation. White gets to the essence of the man without copying him, but the transformation is nothing less than stunning, reminding me of what Sissy Spacek was able to accomplish playing Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter, even as, like White, the legend she was playing was very much alive and watching. No pressure there at all, right?”
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Zooming in on this one moment in Springsteen’s career has its disadvantages though. As Peter Debruge wrote in Variety, the film “doesn’t do nearly enough to contextualize” the breakthrough that was how Nebraska was made: one songwriter, alone in his bedroom with a four-track recording machine. By 2025 standards, that may not seem all that impressive — lots of artists make albums at home these days — but in the early ’80s, this wasn’t the norm.
“It’s hard to imagine the under-30 set recognizing the significance of a star of Springsteen’s stature making an album in his bedroom — not his first, but his sixth, which made it all the more radical — effectively paving the way for the DIY indie-rock sound that followed,” Debruge wrote. “But without that background, it’s a fairly dull story.”
Watch the Trailer for ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’
The music, of course, is important and speaks for itself, even if Nebraska is an acoustic album.
“The good-looking production delivers notably in terms of sound,” David Rooney wrote in The Hollywood Reporter. “A Power Station scene in which the E Street Band takes a first run at ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ is a roof-raiser, though the music in general is less prominent than might be expected. At times, the bio-drama feels emotionally underpowered, but there’s melancholy beauty in the fact that Springsteen felt the need to put aside surefire hits like ‘Born in the U.S.A.,’ ‘Glory Days’ and ‘I’m on Fire’ until he got Nebraska out of his system.”
Deliver Me From Nowhere will be released in theaters on Oct. 24.
Upcoming Rock Biopics and Films
There’s been a lot of production movement post-pandemic.
Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp
