Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

(12A) 2 hours
Director: Scott Cooper
Cast: Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham
Read the BBFC report here

Hey ho, rock ‘n’ roll, deliver me from nowhere: so sang Bruce Springsteen on Nebraska, the album released in 1982 at a pivotal point in his career. After years of touring, building a following, surviving a damaging fall out with his record company, he was finally on the cusp of worldwide stardom. 1980’s The River had brought a legion of new fans and his record company was keen to capitalise with more hits, more tours, more publicity.

But Springsteen wanted something entirely different. His need to confront his spiralling depression and childhood trauma caused by his relationship with his father (Adolescence’s Stephen Graham is a revelation as Springteen’s father in flashback scenes) takes priority, and he retreats to a house in rural New Jersey to begin to heal. The result is Nebraska, an album written and recorded in his bedroom on a four-track cassette recorder – considered by many to be his greatest album.

Eschewing the standard bio-pic format, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere examines a period in his career when, on the verge of crumbling, Bruce’s career took an unexpected turn. With great support from both Stephen Graham and Jeremy Strong, as Bruce’s friend and manager Jon Landau, Jeremy Allen White gives an excellent performance as Springsteen: beautifully capturing his mannerisms, fragility and depth.

“Jeremy Allen White is a convincingly tortured rock star in this smartly narrow and specific look at a particular chapter of music history”. The Guardian

“A bracing and moving antidote to beefed-up, heavily fictionalized rock biopics” The Wrap

“the real deal, an intelligent, deliberately paced journey into the soul of an artist.” Deadline Hollywood Daily

12A: contains moderate threat, violence, sex, mental health theme, strong language