Tag: Gaby Hoffmann

September 29, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”

Directed by Scott Cooper

Culture Representation: Taking place from December 1981 to September 1982 (with flashbacks to 1957) in New Jersey, New York, and California, the dramatic film “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” (based on real events and the non-fiction book “Deliver Me From Nowhere”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Bruce Springsteen writes and records his deliberately non-commercial 1982 album “Nebraska,” as he struggles with depression and comes to terms with how his father’s alcoholism affected his childhood.

Culture Audience: “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of Springsteen, the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Scott Cooper, and thoughtfully made movies about celebrities and coping with past trauma.

This well-acted drama has a riveting portrayal of Bruce Springsteen when he made his 1982 album “Nebraska” while he battled depression and traumatic memories. It’s somber, introspective, and hopeful, but doesn’t look entirely candid about unflattering info. In this memorable movie, which can’t avoid some “hero worship” tendencies, Springsteen is portrayed as a little too “squeaky clean” to be completely believable as someone who was a rock star for several years at this point in his life.

Written and directed by Scott Cooper (who is also one of the producers of the movie), “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” is adapted from Warren Zanes’ 2023 non-fiction book “Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.” The movie “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” had its world premiere at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival and its New York premiere at the 2025 New York Film Festival, where the real Springsteen did a short, surprise performance at the premiere event. For the purposes of this review, the real Bruce Springsteen will be referred to by his last name, while the character of Bruce Springsteen in the movie will be referred to by his first name.

“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” portrays two versions of Bruce Springsteen: The main version is 32-year-old bachelor Bruce (played by Jeremy Allen White), during the period of December 1981 to September 1982. The other version is 8-year-old Bruce (played by Matthew Pellicano Jr.) in flashback scenes that take place in 1957. Most of the movie takes place in Bruce’s home state of New Jersey, but some scenes take place in New York and California. “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” was filmed partially at Steiner Studios in New York City.

“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” begins with one of these flashback scenes, by showing boyhood Bruce riding his bicycle on a street in his hometown of Freehold, New Jersey. It starts out looking like a carefree scene, but then the truth about Bruce’s childhood is soon revealed: His father was an abusive alcoholic, while his mother was a co-dependent who stayed in the marriage.

Bruce’s mother Adele Springsteen (played by Gaby Hoffmann) drives Bruce to a local bar, where his father Douglas “Doug” Springsteen (played by Stephen Graham) has apparently been for hours. Adele tells Bruce to go inside the bar in a way that indicates this isn’t the first time Bruce is going to do what he’s about to do. Bruce approaches his inebriated father and says, “Daddy, mom says it’s time to come home.” When the family members are at home, Bruce looks frightened and sad while he sits on his bed and hears his parents loudly arguing behind closed doors.

This troubling scene then abruptly cuts to 1981, when a sweat-drenched Bruce is on stage performing his 1975 signature breakthrough song “Born to Run” to a cheering and packed arena audience. It’s the end of his successful tour for his multiplatinum 1980 album “The River” (his fifth studio album), which is best known for the hit single “Hungry Heart.” To the outside world, Bruce has what most rock musicians want: fame, adulation, industry respect, hit albums and lucrative tours.

But on the inside, Bruce is dealing with emotionally crippling memories of his childhood, shown in flashbacks throughout the movie. His unresolved trauma is affecting every aspect of his life, including how he sleeps, what songs he writes, and how he handles personal relationships. For Bruce, his greatest love is music, but even that isn’t enough to soothe the type of emotional pain that he is experiencing.

The movie portrays Bruce as someone who hangs out with the members his E Street Band only when he’s working with them. Therefore, don’t expect the movie to have any insights into the band members’ personalities. The band members are only in the movie to be backup musicians in certain scenes of Bruce performing on stage and working in the recording studio. In addition to being a singer and a guitarist, Bruce is the only songwriter for almost all of the songs that he records. Marc Maron has a small role as music producer Chuck Plotkin.

Bruce is barely shown having conversations with the E Street Band members depicted in the movie: guitarist Steve Van Zandt (played by Johnny Cannizzaro), saxophonist Clarence Clemons (played by Judah L. Sealy), keyboardist Roy Bittan (played by Charlie Savage), drummer Max Weinberg (played by Brian Chase), bass guitarist Garry Tallent (played by Mike Chiavaro), and organist/ accordionist Danny Federici (played by Andrew Fisher). Patti Scialfa, who would become Springsteen’s second wife, joined the E Street Band as a backup vocalist in 1984, and is therefore not depicted in this movie.

The Bruce shown in “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” is a loner who wants to record demo tracks for the album that would become “Nebraska” in his bedroom, with only one engineer—Mike “Mikey” Batlan (played by Paul Walter Hauser)—in attendance for any technical issues. The character of Mike is in the movie for less than 15 minutes, but he’s shown as the person who introduced Bruce to the portable recording equipment that Bruce uses to record these demos. Bruce has already made up his mind that he wants “Nebraska” to be a no-frills, stripped-down album that doesn’t have songs that sound like pop hits.

When Bruce does venture outside, it’s usually to hang out in a low-key, non-celebrity way at local diners. This is in an era when there are no smartphones, no Internet and no social media to obsessively document what famous people do in their free time. Paparazzi photographers do not hang out where Bruce likes to go. And in case you didn’t know it was 1981, the movie reminds viewers with cued soundtrack songs, such as Foreigner’s “Urgent” and Santana’s “Winning.”

How much of a “regular guy” is Bruce in this movie? Even though he’s been a rock star for at least six years since his “Born to Run” breakthrough, there’s a scene where he’s shown buying a black Chevy 305 at a car lot, and Bruce comments to the car salesman (played by T. Ryder Smith) that this is the first time he’s ever owned a new car. The salesman compliments Bruce by calling him a “handsome-devil rock star” and says, “I know who you are.” Bruce replies, “That makes one of us.”

“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” also has some subtle and not-so-subtle indications that at this point in his life, Bruce is famous but he isn’t rich. It’s mentioned that his net profit from “The River” tour was only $20,000. He lives in a modest house in New Jersey. And if it’s taken him this long to buy a new car, then it’s probably because he had to be careful with his money.

Bruce has generated millions of dollars in revenue by 1981, but where did all that money go? It’s indicative of bad contracts that artists often sign when they’re desperate to get a big break. This type of exploitation entails a whole other set of issues that the movie does not address at all, probably because it would interfere with the almost saintly way that Bruce’s manager Jon Landau (played by Jeremy Strong) is depicted in the movie. Artist exploitation is one of several noticeable things that the movie glosses over or ignores when it comes to realities in the music business for an artist like Springsteen.

Bruce can’t stay away from performing for too long when he’s not on tour. He goes back to the Stone Pony nightclub, a venue in Asbury Park, New Jersey, which is famous for being the place that regularly booked Springsteen before he was famous. There are multiple electrifying scenes where Bruce performs at the Stone Pony with a local band called Cats on a Smooth Surface. Real-life musicians portray the unnamed members of Cats on a Smooth Surface, such as Rival Sons lead singer Jay Buchanan, Greta Van Fleet lead guitarist Jake Kiszka, Greta Van Fleet bass guitarist Sam F. Kiszka, drummer Aksel Coe and keyboardist Henry Hey.

In the movie, Bruce is first seen performing at the Stone Pony with Cats on a Smooth Surface when they do a rousing version of Little Richard’s “Lucille.” After this show, a fan named Joey Romano (played by Jeff Adler), who is a former high school classmate of Bruce’s, approaches Bruce to say hello. Joey introduces Bruce to Joey’s younger sister Faye Romano (played by Odessa Young), who is also a fan but trying to play it cool.

Bruce remembers Joey from high school because they were classmates, but he doesn’t remember Faye, because she was a few years behind them in school. Joey is obviously trying to play matchmaker and leaves the conversation so Bruce and Faye can talk alone. Bruce tells Faye that he’s “kind of seeing someone,” but she gives her phone number to Bruce anyway, in case he wants to casually hang out with her. He ends up taking her up on her offer.

Faye is a single mother to a daughter named Haley (played by twins Vienna Barrus and Vivienne Barrus), who’s about 4 or 5 years old. Before Faye and Bruce have their first official date, Faye mentions she has a habit of choosing the wrong men as intimate partners. And when Bruce asks where Haley’s father is, it should come as no surprise that Faye describes him as a deadbeat dad who doesn’t want to be in contact with them. Faye says that she and Haley are better off without Haley’s father.

The romance between Bruce and Faye is sweet, but people with enough life experience already know what is mostly likely to happen to this relationship. The movie all but telegraphs it when Bruce becomes more absorbed with writing and recording the album that would become “Nebraska.” Faye learns the hard way that brilliant and talented artists often put their art above everything else, so it’s difficult for her to deal with feeling that Bruce isn’t paying enough attention to her after they become lovers.

Jon is depicted as Bruce’s loyal protector, who never second-guesses Bruce’s decisions. Jon staunchly defends Bruce when skeptical Columbia Records executives such as Al Teller (played by David Krumholtz) hear the “Nebraska” demos and are frustrated that none of the songs sounds like a hit single. Jon is also adamant when he tells Columbia that Bruce has decided that there will be no singles, no touring and no press for “Nebraska.”

In real life, this would be a major fight behind the scenes for artists to have this type of control, but there’s hardly any debate about it in the movie. Jon just “lays down the law,” and executives at Columbia just agree to it, with almost no pushback. No one even curses in discussions about this radical marketing strategy for an album. They have fairly civil conversations about it.

Get real. This is the music business, where an artist like Springsteen is responsible for making millions of dollars for many people. There’s no way that in real life that Jon Landau, Columbia executives, attorneys, and many other necessary people didn’t get into protracted disputes about Springsteen’s refusal to tour, release singles or do press for the “Nebraska” album. Instead, the movie unrealistically makes it look like Landau was able to easily persuade Columbia to do what Bruce wanted.

Similarly, when it comes to any “sex, drugs and rock and roll” depicted in “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” the movie makes Bruce look almost like a choir boy. There’s no mention of Bruce ever indulging in drugs, alcohol, sex with groupies, or even smoking cigarettes. The sex scene that Bruce and Faye have is very tame, with no nudity. His lifestyle in the movie looks too sanitary to be believed. “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” needed more realistic grit to make it look more honest.

Despite these shortcomings, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” has terrific portrayals of Bruce as a creative artist, thanks to White’s committed performance. White does his own singing on the Springsteen songs “Born to Run,” “Nebraska,” “Atlantic City,” “Mansion on a Hill,” “I’m on Fire,” “State Trooper,” “Reason to Believe,” “Highway Patrolman,” “Born in the U.S.A.” and “My Father’s House.” Although he doesn’t physically resemble the real Springsteen, White admirably captures the spirit and swagger of a man trying to hold his life together when he feels like he’s falling apart inside.

Strong’s portrayal of manager Jon is not as a flamboyant, larger-than-life personality who wants to be famous too, which is a stereotype of many real-life managers of music superstars. Instead, Jon comes across as a fan who is happy to carry out Bruce’s wishes. (Landau’s background as a former music journalist is not mentioned in the movie.) Jon, who gives compassionate and helpful advice to Bruce, is not quite a “yes man” enabler who will agree with bad decisions, simply because the movie makes it look like Bruce’s instincts and decisions are always right when it comes to his music and career. It’s just all too good to be entirely true.

The person who gives the best supporting actor performance in the movie is Graham as Bruce’s troubled father Doug, who is (depending on the situation) a bully, a pathetic lost soul and/or someone who tries (but often fails) to be a good father. Doug thinks getting in fist fights is the way to resolve certain problems. When Bruce was a child, Doug put pressure on Bruce to learn how to box when Bruce clearly didn’t want to do it. Bruce’s mother Adele, who is loving and compassionate, stays with Doug during their volatile marriage, but lets it be known to Doug that she will choose to protact Bruce over Doug if necessary.

The movie hints but doesn’t explicitly show that there was domestic violence in the Springsteen household. At the very least, Doug’s alcoholism caused him to be verbally abusive. When Bruce is an adult, Doug’s alcoholism is worse and leads to some harrowing incidents after Adele and Doug moved to California. Graham’s portrayal of Doug shows Doug to be heinous at times and heartbreaking at other times but always realistically human. A big tearjerker moment in the movie is a scene of Doug and adult Bruce backstage after one of Bruce concerts.

Young and Hoffmann do quite well in their roles as Faye and Adele, the two women with the most screen time and most dialogue for women in the movie. However, Adele and Faye mostly exist in the movie to portray “good mothers.” Almost everything they do is in reaction to what the men in their lives are doing. Bruce Springsteen’s real-life sister Pamela is depicted briefly as a child named Virginia Springsteen (played by Arrabella Olivia Clarke), in a scene where Doug takes Bruce and Virginia to play in an open field near a stranger’s mansion. Other than that scene, Pamela or any acknowledgement that Springsteen has a sibling is erased from this story.

Bruce’s songwriting and recording sessions are entertaining and fascinating in the movie but don’t reveal much that would be considered new information to die-hard Springsteen fans. As shown in the movie, some of the songs that he wrote in isolation in Colts Neck, New Jersey (such as “Born in the U.S.A.” and “I’m on Fire”), would end up on his 1984 blockbuster album “Born in the U.S.A.” Bruce and his longtime friend Toby Scott (played by Bartley Booz) take a road trip to California after Bruce decides to move to the Los Angeles area to finish “Nebraska.” But that trip is rushed into the movie, when it could’ve been better used as an opportunity to show Bruce in situations that don’t revolve around him making music. The completion of “Nebraska” is breezed over with a fast-forward that takes place 10 months later.

“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” is a glimpse into a short but impactful time in Springsteen’s life. The movie offers some trivia information that many fans might already know, such as Springsteen being influenced by the 1973 movie “Badlands,” by writing a song also titled “Badlands.” “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” also has a scene where Jon tells Bruce that screenwriter/director Paul Schrader (who’s not seen in the movie) wants Robert De Niro and Bruce to co-star in Schrader’s “Born in the U.S.A.” movie, which later became the 1987 movie “Light of Day,” starring Michael J. Fox in the role that was originally conceived for Springsteen.

As expected, the musical selections in “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” are satisfying and placed very well in each scene. Aside from being a better-than-average movie about a music legend, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” has a lot of merit for giving a responsible depiction of coping with mental health issues. The movie might not tell all about the “man behind the myth,” but it shows enough humanity for people to see some of the real-life struggles behind the sheen of a celebrity image.

20th Century Studios will release “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” in U.S. cinemas on October 24, 2025. The movie will be released on digital on December 23, 2025. “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” will be released on 4K Blu-ray on January 20, 2026.