Scott Cooper’s 2025 film “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” is a typical biography drama film which merely doles out those familiar conventions and clichés of its genre. While there are some nice moments of somber sensitivity during its first half, the movie eventually becomes another superficial tale of artistic/personal struggle, and that is a big letdown – especially considering the legendary status of its real-life musician hero.

That figure in question is Bruce Springsteen. I must confess that I do not know much about his life and career beyond his several notable songs including “Born in the U.S.A.” and that Oscar-winning song for “Philadelphia” (1993), so I began to watch the film with some expectation, but I only ended up being rather dissatisfied without getting to know more about his life or artistry.

The story begins with the end of Springsteen’s the River Tour in 1981, which was concurrently started along with the release of his album “The River”. While quite exhausted to say the least, Springsteen, played by Jeremy Allen White of American TV drama series “The Bear”, now has to prepare for his next album to be released sooner or later besides recharging himself to some degree, and his loyal manager/record producer Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) assures that he can take his time as much as he wants.

After going back to his hometown in New Jersey, Springsteen spends some time alone by himself in a big house purchased in advance, and it becomes more apparent to us that something has been troubling him for a while. His mind cannot help but get haunted by the old child memories associated with his abusive father, but he does not know what to do about that, while also having no clear idea on the overall artistic direction on his next album.

Nevertheless, Springsteen’s artistic impulse gradually returns as he casually spends his own time day by day. Accidentally inspired by the works of Flannery O’Connor as well as Terrence Malick’s 1973 film “Badlands”, he begins to compose one particular song for a start, and then there soon come several other songs to be included in the album.

And he also has some ideas on how to prepare for the upcoming recording sessions, and that is the most interesting part of the film. Using a rather cheap recording device, Springsteen makes a demo cassette tape containing his several new songs to be improved in one way or another during the recording session, and he is particularly attentive to how one of these songs should sound in the final recording.

What follows next is a series of amusing struggles for Springsteen and several others including Landau as they try to find any possible way to make the song sound exactly as he wants. His recording engineers go through one trial after another trial without much satisfaction for a while, but then, to our little amusement, they eventually come upon an unlikely method for getting their mission accomplished in the end.

Meanwhile, things become a bit messier for Springsteen’s personal life. His father, who is incidentally still alive just like his mother, goes through another troubling time, and that makes Springsteen more reluctant to face his own personal demons. He has been in a close relationship with a young single mother named Faye Romano (Odessa Young), but he chooses to focus more on his music instead of getting closer to Faye and her young daughter, and that certainly frustrates her a lot.

It goes without saying that Springsteen eventually manages to pull himself together a bit while making and then releasing his next album on his own terms, but the screenplay by Copper, which is based on Warren Zanes’s 2023 book “Deliver Me from Nowhere” and some elements from Springsteen’s 2016 autobiography book “Born to Run”, often spells out its hero’s issues too blatantly. For example, after listening to Springsteen’s demo tape, Landau muses a lot on that in front of his wife later, but this supposedly personal moment between them feels more like an obligatory moment of exposition just for us instead. In addition, the subplot between Springsteen and his girlfriend also feels quite trite and perfunctory at times – especially when they have a little honest conversation on how much he has disappointed her.

In case of White, who has recently been expanding the range of his acting in movies as shown from Sean Durkin’s “The Iron Claw” (2023), he is fairly solid in his diligent embodiment of Springsteen’s spirit and personality despite being often stuck with subpar dialogues just like most of the other cast members including Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham, Odessa Young, Gaby Hoffmann, and Marc Maron. Looking less intense compared to his recent Oscar-nominated supporting turn in Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice” (2024), Strong imbues his character with genuine loyalty and dedication, and Graham, who has emerged as one of the most dependable character actors during last several years just like Strong, somehow overcomes his thankless part.

Overall, “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” is not a total failure thanks to the admirable efforts from White and several other main cast members, but it still feels deficient and hollow on the whole in addition to being less satisfying compared to Cooper’s several better films such as “Crazy Heart” (2009), which incidentally garnered a belated Oscar for Jeff Bridges. To be frank with you, Thom Zimny’s recent documentary film “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band” (2024) is relatively more interesting and insightful than this, and maybe you should check that out instead.