Roughly 40 years after first hearing Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” album in the dishroom at Lock, Stock & Barrel restaurant in Bardonia, NY (Yes, New Jersey, I’m a BENNY), I continue to struggle with that collection of songs. I have been trying and trying to wrap my arms and my brain around “Nebraska.” I’m getting there, but I’m also still working at it.
I really enjoyed my first job washing dishes, earning $3.50 an hour when the New York State minimum wage was $3.35. I remember a close friend poking fun at me, earning 15 cents above what most of our peers were making, and singing David Lee Roth’s hit song at the time—“He’s just a gigolo” while pointing at me.
Fast forward to October 2025.
Two weeks after seeing the new Springsteen biopic, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” I continue to struggle as I work to find the right words to capture how I felt about the film. So, yeah, the album, “Nebraska,” the film about “Nebraska,” I’m working hard to grasp it all and won’t give up until I isolate some answers.
I am Gen X and grew up with an older sister who was a Springsteen fan. The album covers for “Born to Run” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town” were iconic images from my childhood home. And I was coming of age into my rock and roll-self as a teenager when the “Born in the U.S.A.” album was released. That downbeat in the title track, those six notes, that frustration, that despair, that helplessness—all of that made sense.
But “Nebraska?” I was still working to figure out that album two weeks ago when the movie came out.
Here are my quick hits on the film:
I enjoyed this movie. I was incredibly uneasy about Jeremy Allen White (Jeremy Number one) portraying Bruce. (He’s all Chicago—“The Bear,” right? Not so much New Jersey?)
But he nailed it. Bravo! Yeah, there was a good bit of Hollywood in this movie set on the Jersey Shore. But it’s a movie and movies come from Hollywood, so OK, they get a pass.
Go see this movie.
While Bruce had nothing to do with the mechanics of the film or the story, he was on set for filming often, and he surely saw what was going down. This is a movie about vulnerable Bruce, human Bruce, flawed Bruce, get back in the batter’s box Bruce, genius Bruce, Jersey guy neighbor Bruce. And to quote those oh-so-irritable taglines at the end of political commercials, I think I can be so bold as to say, “He’s Bruce Springsteen, and he endorses the story, the characters, the actors cast in the roles and the message of this movie.”
And bravo, bravo, bravo to musician and author Warren Zanes, who wrote the book, “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” upon which the film is based. And bravo to Bruce and his manager, Jon Landau, portrayed by Jeremy Strong (Jeremy Number Two!) in the movie, for supporting this project.
So, back to “Nebraska” the album.
Let’s work our way back from “Nebraska” for a moment. The album, “The River,” preceded “Nebraska;” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town” preceded “The River;” with “Born to Run” arriving between “The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle” and “Nebraska.”
Now, “Darkness on the Edge of Town” is not a “sunny-side-of-the-street album title.” And the album cover for “The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle” features a photo of Bruce that radiates in my heart suspicion, regret, worry and just a general uncertainty and uneasiness.
So, yeah, Bruce is known far and wide for optimistic and empowering and rocking songs like “Born to Run” and “Rosalita” and “Glory Days” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.” But man, oh man, this dude has a streak that is dark and bleak.
Or does he?
Bruce Springsteen/Photo courtesy of Shore Fire Media
I’ve really thought a lot about this. And the conclusion that I’ve come to is that it’s not Bruce who is dark and bleak.
America can be—can be, mind you, can be, and often is, for that matter—dark and bleak, and scary, and triumphant, and righteous. As I like to say, this nation is a wobbly wagon wheel on a wobbly wagon that carries as passengers folks who are optimistic, resilient, visionaries, practical, able to laugh at the absurd, don’t take themselves too seriously and find the humor in life’s lemons.
THESE are the people Bruce sings of. THIS is the nation Bruce sings of. Yeah, there’s a lot of fun with these folks, and a lot of laughs. But man, there is a lot that is bleak and dark and unforgiving and thankless. And man, oh man, ain’t that showbiz?
So what’s there to do? Well, we just keep showing up. And that includes Bruce.
As a wise man once said to me, you gotta give 100 percent of your 50 percent and let the universe meet you on that other 50 percent. If either you or the universe overstep that 50 percent, there’s going to be a ripple in the Matrix. And trust me, we don’t want a ripple in the Matrix.
And now, back to the movie.
Disney owns 20th Century Studios, which released “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.” And according to 20th Century Studios, the film:
“…Chronicles the making of Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 “Nebraska” album when he was a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggling to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past. Recorded on a four-track recorder in Springsteen’s New Jersey bedroom, the album marked a pivotal time in his life and is considered one of his most enduring works— a raw, haunted acoustic record populated by lost souls searching for a reason to believe.”
Springsteen during the making of “Nebraska” suffered from depression. The New Jersey rocker has long been transparent and public about the strength he rallies to regulate his mental health, which is surely beyond affirming for the nation’s 36 million people who suffer from depression.
And Springsteen’s mental health greatly informs “Nebraska” the album; and “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.” His transparency about it all also informs both, and it certainly informs the music he makes, the songs he writes and the never-ending pursuit that he joins us in, for truth, justice and the American Way—whatever your definition of America is.
Yeah. Ok. Truth, justice and the American Way—whatever your definition of America is. THAT, my friends, is my understanding of “Nebraska” the album and “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” the film.
And now, I’d like to share my picks for the 2026 Academy Awards:
Best Picture: “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”
Best Director: Scott Cooper, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Jeremy Allen White, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Odessa Young, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”
Best Supporting Actor: Stephen Graham, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”
Best Supporting Actress: Gaby Hoffman, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”
Best Original Screenplay: Scott Cooper and Warren Zanes, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”
Best Original Score: Jeremiah Fraites, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”
Some more on “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowwhere:”
When I heard Jeremy Allen White was cast at The Boss, I let out a good ol’ Bronx Cheer. Need I demonstrate? I think Jeremy Number One, as we’ll call him, does a bang up job on Hulu’s “The Bear.” But man, oh man, that character is always nervous. And that makes me always nervous when I’m watching him be nervous all the time. My wife and I finally finished watching “The Bear” and now he’s back to haunt me, being nervous and all? No thanks, I thought.
But bravo, Jeremy Number One! This guy stole the show. And I don’t know if it was AI or CGI or what but there were a few scenes in “Deliver Me From Nowhere” where I saw modern-day Bruce in Jeremy Number One’s face—the facial bone structure, in particular. I couldn’t believe it. Well done, team!
And now on to Jeremy Number Two—Jeremy Strong, from HBO’s “Succession,” who portrayed Springsteen’s longtime manager, Jon Landau. I love this guy. I love him on television. I loved him on Broadway in “An Enemy of the People.” Jeremy Number Two, just like Jeremy Number One, was great. A+.
I was thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to see how often we got glimpses of that Maxell cassette tape Bruce used for the recording of “Nebraska.” Be still my heart. Yes, I still have boxes of them from decades ago, mostly with live recordings of Grateful Dead concerts.
I was also thrilled to hear White and Strong give a big shout-out to WPIX, the New York City television channel (Channel 11! Home of the New York Yankees!) They were reminiscing about eating take-out and watching “The Honeymooners.”
But my heart truly skipped a beat during the scenes shot at Frank’s Deli in Asbury Park, where my wife and I have eaten more than once, and enjoyed very hearty subs. Frank’s is not far from the Asbury boardwalk, and the convention center, and Paramount Theatre, and the Grand Concourse that runs between the two. All of these things, in some shape or manner, made electrifying cameos in “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.”
My wife, our two dogs and I visit Asbury often, and let the pups run on the dog beach, and stroll through the Grand Arcade, and enjoy every freakin’ minute of it. So to see Jeremy Number One; Bruce’s love interest, Faye Romano, played by Odessa Young; and Faye’s daughter, Hayley, played by Vienna and Vivienne Barus bust out of the Grand Arcade doors and onto the boardwalk north of the Convention Center was, well, extremely right on.
Just seeing Jeremy Allen White standing on the beach, gazing out on MY Jersey Shore, I was all, yes! These mugs got it right!
I gotta wrap this up, because I’ll be here all night. Stephen Graham as Bruce’s father, Gaby Hoffman as his mother, they all rocked.
I must admit, however, that I wasn’t thrilled with the opening scene, where Jeremy Number One as Bruce, leading actors portraying the E Street Band, performs “Born to Run” for a crowd inside an arena. Jeremy really needed to throw some ice on it. The facial contortion, the body contortions, it all left me feeling, like um, No.
But Jeremy got another bite at the apple during the filming of a scene when the song “Born in the U.S.A.” was recorded at the Power Station in New York City. Jeremy nailed it—the facial contortion, the body language, the vocal inflections. “Born in the U.S.A.” is my Bruce Springsteen era, and Jeremy Number One nailed it and he nailed it hard.
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