“Springsteen” film: Why Jeremy Allen White perfectly embodies the Boss

This car is awfully fitting for a rock star, the car salesman tells Bruce Springsteen, who is still hesitant about buying the black Chevy Camaro with the 305 V8 engine. "I know who you are," the man adds. "Then at least one of us knows," the musician says. And that's the story.

The story of a man who just had a hit ("Hungry Heart") from a rock 'n' roll album ("The River") that unanimously raved about the music critics in 1980. Now, after a triumphant 18-month tour with his E Street Band, everything could continue in the same rut. The record company demands more chart material, as record companies have always done, leading many artists and bands to confusion, identity, and failure.

But the thought of repeating the same thing gnaws a "no" into the musician's heart. "Trott" comes from "trottel" (trot), and he'll never be in a rut again in the 43 years since "Nebraska." In 1982, he asks himself: Who am I, who do I want to be? And sets out to find himself. "Save me from nothing" is the film's title in German—a line from the "Nebraska" song "Open All Night."

Scott Cooper has experience with music films; his debut was "Crazy Heart" (2009), in which Jeff Bridges played a country musician on a downward spiral of success. And after Timothée Chalamet played a charmingly difficult Bob Dylan in "Like a Complete Unknown" (2024), Jeremy Allen White is pretty perfect as the depressed, doubting Springsteen.

No, Jeremy Allen White doesn't look all that much like a young Bruce Springsteen. But what a lookalike lineup can lead to has been demonstrated over the decades by many Beatles tribute bands. The drummer might resemble Paul McCartney a bit, but the bassist has eyes and a nose like Ringo Starr, but when they play "A Hard Day's Night," it becomes "A Day's Hard Night" for the listeners.

White looks like the chef from the TV series "The Bear," but he rocks the film. He captures Springsteen's spirit and soul and delivers a credible portrait of a sensitive artist who loves music too much to trust the future superstar within himself.

And in which the past dances, the difficult conflict with his father, Douglas – superb as always: Stephen Graham, who reveals psychological ferment in black-and-white flashbacks. The father, alcoholic and aggressive, finds no connection to his son Bruce (Matthew Anthony Pellicano Jr.); the son, irritated, hurt, unsure of what is expected of him, suffers from speechlessness, and, despite having a father, becomes fatherless.

The film also serves as a recommendation for Springsteen's arguably most narratively haunting songbook, "Nebraska." It shows how these black-and-white thrillers and dramas came to be, how Springsteen feverishly puts the gritty nightmares that speak of American losers, decline, and mortality onto paper. This is the man to whom strangers open the door to his childhood home in "My Father's House," and the criminal who, in the feverish "State Trooper," begs the police car not to stop him, lest he kill the officer.

There's the "Highway Patrolman" who lets his criminal brother escape across the Canadian border because "a man who turns his back on his family is no good." And "I just think there's a meanness in the world," sings the serial killer who, in the title song, waits for the shock in the electric chair.

White also sings Springsteen's songs himself; his hoarseness at times seems a bit forced. But it's a must-see to see how the musician struggles to get the spartan lo-fi music of his "Nebraska" demos accepted by the record company with the help of his manager Jon Landau (a very good Jeremy Strong), while simultaneously losing his inner balance in the knowledge of the headwinds and the risks. Also how love—Odessa Young plays the waitress Faye, a character combined from Springsteen's various relationships—doesn't play a part in Bruce's rescue.

His journey through the USA to California becomes one of collapse. He sees the new, white America sitting only loosely atop the old America—like a temporary solution, ready to be blown away by the wind.

When the film was made, Springsteen wasn't yet the most ardent rock 'n' roll resistance fighter, taking a stand against a US president who sows hatred at home, hunts people, and tears democracy apart. The film isn't a heroic song, nor a monument, but rather—even if there are moments that border on kitsch—a moving coming-of-artist story.

A film – for Springsteen, Springsteen fans, for America, and artistic freedom. Without "Nebraska," as the credits suggest, the music of this great storyteller and rocker would have become increasingly similar and less powerful.

“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”, directed by Scott Cooper, with Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham, 120 minutes, grade 12