ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

jeremy allen white

Reviews 

SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE – Review by Diane Carson

Diane Carson , , , , , ,

Among the most difficult, daunting challenges for a biopic amending the image of an iconic musical artist is that the film must clear a very high bar. Performances, script, cinematography, and, certainly, music and sound must impressively capture the star’s persona while also convincingly exploring a previously unmapped landscape. Insights into creative strategies, battles with still sensitive traumas, and struggles to cope: all qualify as meritorious subject matter. Moreover, such a film must provide some truths that fans have not fully recognized or scrutinized. Kudos, then, to director Scott Cooper for Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere which remarkably meets all these criteria with his immersion in the life of the celebrated Bruce Springsteen.

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Reviews 

SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE (Middleburg FF 2025) – Review by Leslie Combemale

Leslie Combemale , , , , , , , ,

Nebraska was an exorcism. Everyone who has heard the album, everyone knows the story of its making, the fact that Bruce Springsteen went off and recorded it on one lone cassette, which got transferred exactly as recorded, knows that. It’s in every line, every sound, every breath you can hear on the sparse, emotionally raw songs. There are two camps of Springsteen fans, those who swear by Nebraska as his best album, and those who accept it as the artistic catharsis it is, and play it only on rainy days or dark times.

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Reviews 

SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE – Review by T.J. Callahan

T. J. Callahan , , , , ,

Let’s cut to the chase…Deliver Me from Nowhere is NOT a Springsteen concert film. It’s NOT how Bruce becomes The Boss. It’s NOT Top 40 Bruce. What this film is, is deep cuts Bruce. Really deep. Deliver Me from Nowhere is just like the title alludes to, a young Springsteen, who’s starting to achieve some success, wrestling with the ghosts of his past while trying to find something real in all the noise.

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Reviews 

THE BEAR Season 3 – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger , , , , , , , , , ,

During its first two seasons, The Bear captivated fans and critics alike with its endearing rough-around-the-edges cast, led by Jeremy Allen White’s Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto. Following Carmy’s ongoing uphill battle to revive and totally reinvent his Italian family’s failing Chicago beef sandwich shop, Season 3 focuses on the dysfunctional restaurant kitchen crew as they anxiously await a Chicago Tribune review that could determine the restaurant’s future.

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Reviews 

THE IRON CLAW – Review by Pam Grady

Pam Grady , , , , , , , , ,

As a title, The Iron Claw is both literal and a metaphor. It is the signature move of wrestler Fritz Von Erich when he is about to decimate an opponent in the ring. It also symbolizes the tight grip he holds on the sons who have no real choice except to follow him as the next generation of battling Von Erichs. Writer/director Sean Durkin’s first film since 2020’s The Nest is all at once a sports drama, a family’s biopic, and one of the best depictions of the effects of toxic masculinity ever committed to the screen and a haunting evocation of family dysfunction.

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Reviews 

FINGERNAILS – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger , , , , ,

As a critic, I’ve seen wretched sci-fi romantic dramedies – but few as ludicrous and repugnant as Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou’s Fingernails. The premise is simple: What if technology could determine whether you and your partner are perfectly matched and in love? Would it matter to you if that simple test involved ripping out one of your fingernails – without anesthesia?

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Reviews 

THE BEAR: Season 2 – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger , , , , , , , ,

Have you been watching FX’s Emmy-nominated series The Bear? The first season introduced a prodigal Manhattan chef, Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who returns home to Chicago after his drug-addicted older brother commits suicide and leaves him the local family sandwich shop. Of the second season’s 10 frenetic episodes, two are outstanding.

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Reviews 

THE BEAR – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger , , , , ,

Interest in food shows and chef’s stories has grown exponentially, but they primarily focus on haute cuisine. Not The Bear. The first season of this intense FX series on Hulu revolves around the noisy kitchen in a renowned neighborhood restaurant in downtown Chicago. Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) is a James Beard Award-winning young chef, earning Michelin stars for some of the finest restaurants, including Noma and the French Laundry; he was named a Food and Wine ‘Best New Chef’ before he turned 21. But when his older brother Michael commits suicide, he returns home to run his family’s sandwich shop.

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