In Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) focuses on a pivotal moment in the legendary singer/songwriter's journey: recording his influential 1982 album, Nebraska. After an exhausting tour with his previous album The River, Springsteen finds himself at a crossroads: feeling creatively stagnant and alienated from the working-class past that inspired so much of his music, he retreats to rural New Jersey to immerse himself in American heartland literature and film. Bruce's record label is pressuring him to create more bankable hit singles, but longtime friend and manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong, Succession) encourages him to pursue his unorthodox vision of a stripped-back approach to recording. Far removed from the glamour of rock stardom and arena tours, Springsteen turns inward to confront his troubled past and create something deeply personal.

Music biopics frequently make the mistake of trying to fit an artist's long and complicated life story into a two hour movie- in Deliver Me From Nowhere, Cooper wisely focuses in on a short but hugely important chapter. Even casual fans of the Boss know his explosive live performances (which make an appearance here as well, don't worry), but there's immense power in the lo-fi rawness of Nebraska that sets it apart from anything in major label releases of the 1980s. Jeremy Allen White inhabits Springsteen as a man struggling to reckon with the pain of his childhood, cracking under immense pressure to keep making hits and money, allowing himself brief moments of transcendence through music that means something.