Review: 'Springsteen' is more character study than biopic

Writer-director Scott Cooper doesn’t want to make a music biopic. At least not the kind of music biopic you expect. Instead, in “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” he offers a character study as biopic, riding a similar groove as his Oscar-winning 2009 directorial debut “Crazy Heart.”

“Deliver Me From Nowhere” doesn’t try to tell the entire life story of New Jersey’s beloved rock bard, Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen — in fact, it doesn’t even really cover his biggest hits. Instead, “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” which Cooper based on the Warren Zanes book of the same name, focuses on a contemplative period in Springsteen’s life and career, a time when the musician dug deep to exorcise his own demons, producing the songs for his 1982 acoustic album “Nebraska.”