Just as A Complete Unknown escaped the dreary conventionality of cradle-to-grave music biopics by surveying the nascent period in the stardom of its unknowable subject, Bob Dylan, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere makes affecting gains by focusing on the Artist as a Depressed Young Man. Which is not to say Scott Cooper’s Bruce Springsteen portrait is a downer. If you’re looking to celebrate the anthemic hits of blue-collar New Jersey’s favorite son, this highly personal movie might not meet your requirements. But serious fans — particularly those who admire the lo-fi 1982 album Nebraska — should connect with the intimate drama.

Just as A Complete Unknown escaped the dreary conventionality of cradle-to-grave music biopics by surveying the nascent period in the stardom of

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