A scene from twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’. Photograph courtesy of twentieth Century Studios. © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen in twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’. Photograph courtesy of twentieth Century Studios. © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Opening in theaters October 24 is ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere,’ written for the display screen and directed by Scott Cooper and starring Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Robust, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham, Odessa Younger, Gaby Hoffman, Marc Maron, and David Krumholtz.
“Everybody is aware of his music. However nobody is aware of the second every thing modified.”
Launch Date: Oct 24, 2025
Run Time: 2 hr
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Preliminary Ideas
Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen in twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’. Photograph by Macall Polay. © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
There are such a lot of biopics – musical and in any other case –flying round lately that it’s arduous for any single one to face out from the pack. Scott Cooper’s ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’ – in regards to the making of the Boss’ immersive, bleak 1982 lo-fi masterpiece ‘Nebraska’ – manages to make its mark for about half its two-hour working time.
The half that chronicles Bruce Springsteen’s artistic course of, in addition to the battle for his supervisor, his engineers, his label, and eventually a depressed Bruce himself to grasp what he’s doing, is fascinating and even highly effective. The opposite half of the movie – a few pointless romance with a single mother and the now-overdone cliches in regards to the protagonist coming to phrases with an abusive, non-loving father – are painful to slog by, particularly since they attempt to fail to tie themselves to the extra profitable narrative in regards to the album.
Story and Course
Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen in twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’. Photograph courtesy of twentieth Century Studios. © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
The film opens in black and white, at Bruce’s childhood residence in Freehold, New Jersey in 1957, the place we be taught in fast succession that his mother and pop combat (which, it’s implied, will get bodily), that his dad is a drunk, and that these flashbacks are reappear like industrial breaks. It’s a smash minimize from there to the stage of Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum in 1981, the place the now-adult Bruce (Jeremy Allen White) finishes off his newest large tour. Afterward, supervisor Jon Landau (Jeremy Robust) tells Bruce – and us, within the first of many heavy-handed lumps of expository dialogue that Scott Cooper dumps in Robust’s lap – that they need to begin fascinated with what’s subsequent.
And Bruce does simply that, shifting right into a secluded home deep within the woods of Colt’s Neck, New Jersey to start engaged on new songs. His influences go far and huge – every thing from motion pictures like ‘Badlands’ and ‘The Night time of the Hunter’ to the tales of Flannery O’Connor to his real-life glimpses of exhausted, dead-eyed working folks sitting in diners (Cooper does seize the worn-down milieu of South Jersey within the ‘80s fairly properly) – and shortly coalesce into a set of haunting, sparse folks songs in regards to the darkish underside of American life that ultimately turns into ‘Nebraska.’
That story, in addition to the tough gauntlet that Bruce runs to finally persuade his supervisor and his internal circle that he desires to launch the songs – recorded on a four-track machine in his bed room – as is, with out the involvement of the E Avenue Band and with out releasing any singles, is essentially the most attention-grabbing and vigorous a part of a typically somber film. However quite a lot of time is spent on the unresolved, cliched father-son battle that Cooper tries to staple to the content material of ‘Nebraska’ (which stands up fairly properly with out it) and which we’ve seen so many instances earlier than that it’s now entered eye-rolling territory (which isn’t to make mild of abusive fathers with substance abuse issues; it’s simply that the film doesn’t do something new with it).
(L to R) Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen and Odessa Younger as Faye in twentieth Century Studios’ Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’. Photograph courtesy of twentieth Century Studios. © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Additionally losing our time is the romance with a neighborhood Asbury Park waitress (Odessa Younger), who tells us – in one other instance of unhealthy, trite writing – that she is aware of what she’s stepping into with a sulky rock star who tends to vanish for weeks on finish after which undermines that by behaving prefer it’s not what she anticipated. It’s a thankless character and storyline made much more insulting by the truth that it was made up for the film, as a result of any individual felt that Springsteen wanted a love story.
The artistic and enterprise features of the movie – Bruce writing the songs (a groanworthy second or two apart, like when he writes ‘Mansion on the Hill’ after flashing again to his dad taking him to see…guess what), Landau reacting to the songs, Landau politely telling the pinnacle of the report label to get stuffed if he has an issue with what Bruce is serving up, and the battle to grasp the report in order that it sounds precisely because the Boss desires it – are quietly terrific. The remainder, together with a 10-minute tacked-on coda after the actual ending that delves into remedy and borders on ridiculous, just isn’t actually worthy of this artist or the masterful album round which the movie is constructed.
Solid and Performances
(L to R) Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen and Jeremy Robust as Jon Landau in twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’. Photograph courtesy of twentieth Century Studios. © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
He doesn’t actually appear to be the Boss, however Jeremy Allen White does seize one thing of his essence – and when the sunshine or digicam captures him a sure method, he virtually resembles the person himself. But when he’s a bit of too broody from time to time, White’s rasp/whisper and physique language nonetheless inform rather a lot in regards to the internal turmoil and melancholy that each hinder and drive the artist. It’s an understated, nuanced efficiency that avoids the showiness of so many biopic marquee roles.
Equally efficient is Jeremy Robust as Jon Landau. Though he’s cursed with among the film’s clunkiest dialogue, Robust channels the restrained resolve of one among rock’s most well-known managers – gently pushing his consumer towards what must be finished to proceed their success, however realizing when to drag again and by no means displaying something however devotion to his consumer’s must the surface world. His heat and love for Springsteen shine by as properly, making their relationship one of many film’s pillars. It’s additionally a pleasant change of tempo for Robust after enjoying the vile Roy Cohn in ‘The Apprentice.’
The remainder of the forged don’t have a lot to work with however do in addition to they’ll. Odessa Younger is excellent however her character quantities to little as the girl who have to be sacrificed on the altar of artwork, whereas Stephen Graham grunts and trudges his method by an primarily one-note character. The most effective of the supporting forged is Paul Walter Hauser as Bruce’s engineer, Mike Batlan, bringing some much-needed levity to a somber piece.
Remaining Ideas
Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen in twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’. Photograph by Macall Polay. © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
It’s attention-grabbing to match ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’ to final yr’s sensible Bob Dylan biopic ‘A Full Unknown.’ The latter captures Dylan because the symbolic chief of a sea change in tradition and music, whereas remaining an enigma. The previous tries to color Springsteen as a thriller too, however with the concentrate on him and never the best way he alters the world round him, its affect just isn’t almost as highly effective – particularly when Scott Cooper brings extra shopworn plot units into the narrative.
Cringy dialogue like Bruce saying ‘That makes one among us,’ when a automobile salesman whispers conspiratorially, ‘I do know who you’re’ solely steers this portrait of the Boss dangerously near self-serving, performative mopiness, though White fortunately pulls it again with the sincerity of his work. If solely extra of ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’ had been as honest.
‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’ receives a rating of 60 out of 100.
Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen in twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’. Photograph by Macall Polay. © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
What’s the plot of ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’?
Bruce Springsteen, a younger musician on the cusp of world superstardom, struggles to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his previous as he makes a uncooked, haunted acoustic album titled ‘Nebraska.’
Who’s within the forged of ‘Springsteen: Ship Me From Nowhere’?
- Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen
- Jeremy Robust as Jon Landau
- Paul Walter Hauser as Mike Batlan
- Stephen Graham as Douglas Springsteen
- Odessa Younger as Faye Romano
- Gaby Hoffmann as Adele Springsteen
- Marc Maron as Chuck Plotkin
- David Krumholtz as Al Teller
- Johnny Cannizzaro as Steven Van Zandt
- Matthew Pellicano Jr. as younger Bruce Springsteen