Bruce Springsteen’s journey crafting his 1982 album Nebraska, which emerged as he recorded Born in the USA with the E Street Band. Based on Warren Zanes’ book.

There’s been a ton of music biopics of late. Since Rami Malek got an Oscar for Bohemian Rhapsody (a great performance in a terrible movie), we’ve had music-filled docs on Elton John (Rocketman with Taron Egerton), Weird Al Yankovic (Weird with Daniel Radcliffe), Elvis (Austin Butler), Aretha Franklin (Respect with Cynthia Erivo), Whitney Houston (Whitney with Naomi Ackie), Billie Holiday (The United States vs. Billie Holiday), Amy Winehouse (Marisa Abela in Back to Black), Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet in last year’s A Complete Unknown) and finally Bruce Springsteen joins the ranks with Deliver Me From Nowhere (subtitled after Springsteen because faith was lost in marketing). The Boss is certainly worthy enough for the biopic treatment and the movie rightfully focuses on just a small aspect of his career – his struggle with success after “Hungry Heart” become his first top 10 single and making his follow-up album Nebraska.

Jeremy Allen White perfectly embodies Springsteen, and the movie chronicles the creative process in a way few others have done as successfully, but it doesn’t necessarily make for a great movie. It feels slow even when it’s not, and the music performances are mostly fleeting. There’s a relationship with a waitress thrown in (Odessa Young plays Faye, a character created for the movie) that isn’t given enough service to be engaging and only seems relevant to give Bruce something to ignore for his music.

Nowhere isn’t a bad movie, especially if you’re a Springsteen fan. It’s focus on depression and the weight of creativity is noble and, at least, interesting. But it’s much more suited for a casual home watch than a big-screen focus.

Jonathan’s grade – C+