I don’t normally like to compare movies to one another; I don’t think it’s fair to do that. However, as I was watching Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere last night, the music biopic which hits the 2025 movie schedule this weekend, I kept thinking about last year’s A Complete Unknown. On the surface, the comparisons are natural; both are biopics about musicians, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, and both are mostly about one specific moment in each one’s career. It goes deeper than that, though, because of how different those moments were for the artists.
A quick warning, there are some very light spoilers for both movies ahead, but nothing that would ruin the experience of either.
Deliver Me From Nowhere Finds Springsteen In A Moment Of Doubt
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere opens with Bruce Springsteen, played wonderfully by Jeremy Allen White, wrapping up the very successful tour supporting his 1980 album The River. He has his first top-five hit (“Hungry Heart”) and he’s on the verge of music superstardom. Internally, though, Springsteen is a mess. He’s questioning his career and his art, wondering what to do next.
As happened in real life, he retreats to a rented house in the woods in New Jersey and faces some difficult internal questions. He isn’t sure who he is as a person or as an artist. His past inspirations aren’t working for him, and he doesn’t know where to go with his life or his music. The result, famously, is the iconic album Nebraska, but it took months of soul searching to find his artistic voice again.
A Complete Unknown Is The Complete Opposite
In 2024’s A Complete Unknown, available now with a Hulu subscription, Timothée Chalamet plays Bob Dylan in a moment of total artistic confidence. He never doubts for a moment that his decision to “go electric” is exactly the next step he needs to take as an artist. Those around Dylan might not be confident in the decision, but he is. It’s the opposite of Springsteen’s artistic doubt in Deliver Me From Nowhere.
Dylan doesn’t have to convince himself; he has to convince everyone else. Springsteen has the full support of everyone around him, including his legendary manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong), but he has no confidence in himself. The contrast between these moments in their careers and in the two movies is something I kept coming back to as I watched the new film.
Both movies are a fascinating and wonderful look into watershed moments in both songwriters’ careers, but they couldn’t be more different. Even the albums that resulted from these moments, the acoustic Nebraska from Springsteen, and the electric Bringing It All Back Home from Dylan, are opposites of what they had previously been famous for.
These two movies could be companion pieces exploring the artistic development of music legends. It’s a double feature I want to try next time I have the opportunity to see Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.
