It’s interesting that 20th Century Fox has released two films within the last year each of which portrays one of Columbia/Sony Records’ biggest artists and only one of them has the artist’s name in the title. Is it because Bob Dylan is more historically  iconic than Bruce Springsteen that there was no need to call the former’s movie Dylan: A Complete Unknown? It probably has more to do with each artist’s approach to his art and audience. Aficionados of both Dylan and Springsteen will certainly be aware of the films, but how about everyone else? In Dylan’s case, I would think it probably doesn’t matter, even to Dylan, who has always been confident enough in his notoriety to ignore such concerns, which is why the movie itself feels almost as if it could be about anybody. It comes across less as a document about Dylan the man and more as a witty and compelling story about a new kind of entertainer. Ostensibly, both films are about specific “stars” at important junctures in their careers, but only the Springsteen movie seems intent on that approach. As a public person, Springsteen has always been the more self-conscious performer, and a great one, which may be the point. He wants to show the world with this movie that he’s also a troubled creative type, something Dylan would never cop to, at least not publicly. 

Like A Complete Unknown, Deliver Me from Nowhere covers a circumscribed period in its subject’s career, specifically the making of Springsteen’s sixth album, Nebraska, which was a complete departure from his previous work. Having finally established himself as someone who could not only sell out arenas but move substantial units after releasing his double-LP opus The River, Springsteeen (Jeremy Allen White) takes some well-deserved time off to reflect on his good fortune and think about the future, a prospect that doesn’t sit well with him due to certain inchoate feelings of inadequacy. He rents a house on a lake and spends much of his time alone with his acoustic guitar, venturing out once in a while to jam with a local band in a bar where, of course, everybody knows him. He starts a tentative romance with Faye (Odessa Young), a single mother and diner waitress who can only get so close owing to those inchoate feelings, which White telegraphs with all the distracted stares at his command. Meanwhile, he’s shielded from his record company’s ravenous demands for product “while the iron is hot” by his meticulously sympathetic manager (Jeremy Strong), who has his back, even when he decides to make that next album not the raver the company expects but a set of quiet demos he records in his bedroom about men living on the edge of their desperation. 

Director Scott Cooper honors the hushed tone of the album by making the movie overcast and claustrophobic, inserting B&W episodes from Springsteen’s childhood in which he has to confront the troubled father (Stephen Graham) who was a distant but palpable presence in his life. Though some screen time is devoted to the actual making of Nebraska, the movie is essentially a mood piece about finally addressing the demons that drive a person to create in the first place, and as such it feels heavy-handed. You miss Springsteen’s down-to-earth humor, his mischievousness. The reason Dylan didn’t get a biopic like this is because he never seemed like the kind of artist who takes himself that seriously. He doesn’t demand you understand him. In Deliver Me from Nowhere, Springsteen practically begs for it. 

Now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), 109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku (0570-060-109), Shinjuku Piccadilly (050-6861-3011), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2025 20th Century Studios