Bruce Springsteen movie: Is Deliver Me From Nowhere true to the real story?

This article is part of Portrait Mode , a Slate pop-up series about biopics.

It seems that a new rite of passage for millennial leading men is portraying rock icons of their grandfather’s—or even great-grandfather’s—generation. So to the roster of Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, Austin Butler as Elvis, Taron Egerton as Elton John, and, of course, Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, we must now add Jeremy Allen White in Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere .

But while these other actors are called on to evoke the musical talent and stage charisma of the artists they are portraying through filmic performances of a few greatest hits, the Springsteen film is short on this kind of fan service. There’s a bit of White-as-Bruce performing “Born to Run” in an arena, and a storming version of “