Rock biopics should be a guaranteed hit if they're any way half decent - bringing ready made audiences into cinemas.
However they can also be formulaic and can look like obvious awards grabs by actors desperate to impress audiences with their impersonation of famous faces.
Scott Cooper's 'Springsteen - Deliver Me From Nowhere' stands out, though, from the pack with its focus on the influences that shaped Bruce Springsteen's most daring album 'Nebraska' and also because of its honest depiction of the star's mental health.
Jeremy Allen White plays the New Jersey rock icon - an interesting piece of casting because he looks nothing like Bruce.
However you quickly forget that as the star of 'The Bear' captures his distinctive gait, his rasping voice, his unique stance at a microphone, his onstage energy and even the way he tightens his jaw as he belts out songs.
Unlike Timothee Chalamet's recent foray into the genre as Bob Dylan in 'A Complete Unknown,' none of this feels like a vehicle for the actor to advance his career and hoover up awards.
White is too immersive an actor to do that and the film is all the better for it.
Instead what we get is a sombre deep dive into an artist battling demons from a difficult childhood and also resisting a music industry that just wants him to just churn our radio friendly hit after hit.
All of this could be delivered in a really hammy way but Cooper is too astute a filmmaker to do that.
What he delivers is a reflective movie that will deepen your appreciation of Springsteen's artistry whether you're a fan or not.
As the singer songwriter starts to pull together the tracks that will make the 'Nebraska' album such a haunting and daring solo venture, we also see his mental struggles coming off tour.
Amid the sombre sounds of 'Nebraska,' he also conjures up more commercial material that he will record with the E Street Band for the 'Born In The USA' album like the title track and 'I'm On Fire'.
As he navigates the demands of the industry, it also exerts pressures it exerts on a budding relationship with Odessa Young's single mother Faye Romano.
Fortunately, Bruce has a patient and understanding manager and record producer, Jeremy Strong's Jon Landau who genuinely frets about his charge's fragility and protects him from a record label that just cannot understand why he wants to record an introspective, folk album that draws inspiration from the Starkweather homicides and Terence Malick's movie 'Badlands.
They want him to churn out more hits like 'Hungry Heart'.
With Paul Walter Hauser's engineer Mike Batlan tasked with capturing the songs on an eight track, it's a big ask of the audience to remain invested in a movie that features many discussions about the quality of the recordings.
But invested they are, thanks to the excellent writing of Cooper, some shrewd direction (also referencing Charles Laughton's classic 'Night of the Hunter') and superb acting by the cast.
And while White's performance undoubtedly dominates the movie, its exploration of broken masculinity in the shape of Bruce's complex relationship with his heavy drinking father Stephen Graham's Douglas and his own struggle to maintain a relationship with Faye adds further layers of depth to the film.
Young, Strong, Hauser, Marc Maron as the producer Chuck Plotkin, Gaby Hoffman as Springsteen's mother Adele, David Krumholtz as the Columbia Records executive Al Teller and Harrison Gilbertson as a longtime friend Matt Delia all contribute significantly.
In an era of bombastic, attention seeking blockbusters, there's something heartening about a film that demands the complete attention of audiences and finally clicks the moment White belts out 'Born In The USA' in the recording studio.
This is a biopic that puts other biopics in the ha'penny place.
It's genuinely curious and insightful about an artist exorcising his demons and asserting his right to create the way he intended to, regardless of the commercial impact.
That's its greatest achievement - regardless of whether or not it bags Cooper or White the awards season attention they deserve.
('Springsteen - Deliver Me From Nowhere' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on October 24, 2025)
Sometimes an indie movie seems to pop out of the woodwork and seduce audiences with bucket loads of charm.
James Griffith's 'The Ballad of Wallis Island' is that sort of film.
Adapted by Tom Basden and Tim Key from their 2007 short film 'The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island,' which was shortlisted for a BAFTA, it's a charming low key tale about music fandom and creative tension.
Basden plays Chris Pinner, who goes by the stage name of Herb McGwyer and arrives off the Welsh coast in Wallis Island to play a gig.
Lured there with cash by Key's eccentric double lottery winner and widower Charles Heath, Chris/Herb is one half of a celebrated folk duo McGwyer Mortimer who split acrimoniously after he started to pursue a solo career as a pop star.
Charles is a bit of a superfan and gushes with excitement at having secured his idol with the promise of £500,000 in a suitcase which the singer intends to use to finance his next album.
However it soon becomes pretty clear to Chris/Herb that not everything is as it seems.
For starters, there's no professional sound stage - just a pallet on a stony beach - and he appears to be playing to an audience of just one.
The cash is presented to him in a suitcase and Charles peppers him obsessively about questions about his partnership with Carey Mulligan's Nell Mortimer who stepped away from the folk circuit after the act split up.
He's slightly miffed to say the least when Nell suddenly turns up with her American husband, Akemnji Ndifornyen's Michael who is excited to be on a remote island because he's an avid birdwatcher.
While Charles is delighted with himself for bringing the duo together, tensions boil over at the dinner table and Nell, who now makes chutney for a living in Portland, Oregon, is shocked to learn she is being paid £200,000 less by the millionaire for their private reunion gig.
Unhappy at being forced into a reunion, Chris/Herb threatens to leave but then thinks again because he needs the money.
Can he and Nell set aside their differences?
And will they rediscover the creative spark that made them such a beloved folk duo?
Griffiths, Basden and Key fashion an understated gem of a comic movie about artistic integrity, creative tension, fandom and loneliness.
The film is very gently executed by Griffiths and very quickly warms the soul with Basden, Key and Mulligan in harmony.
Key, in particular, impresses as a lonely man trying to fill a void in his life by throwing money at it.
Sian Clifford also delights as the island's postmistress and grocery shop owner, who lives with her teenage son, who Charles has a crush on.
'The Ballad of Wallis Island' is one of those British indie comedies in the tradition of 'Brian and Charles' - affectionate, quirky and adept at landing its gags.
It's 100 minutes well spent in the company of characters you quickly warm to and it will put a smile on your face.
And you know what? We could all benefit from that.
('The Ballad of Wallis Island' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on May 30, 2025 and was made available for streaming on August 19, 2025)
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