ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

jeremy strong

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.

Read more
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.

Read more
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.

Read more
Reviews 

THE APPRENTICE – Review by T.J. Callahan

T. J. Callahan , , , , , , ,

Long before real estate mogul Donald Trump hired wannabe business executives to be his protégés on a reality television show, there was a rude and remorseless, pompous and pandering New York lawyer named Roy Cohn who brought a young Trump into his legal laboratory and groomed him in his image. This transformation is the basis of the biographical film The Apprentice.

Read more
Reviews 

THE APPRENTICE – Review by Liz Braun

Liz Braun , , , , , , , ,

What we talk about when we talk about The Apprentice is Jeremy Strong in the role of Roy Cohn, a performance of such ferocity and richness that a viewer is left slack-jawed in wonder. But The Apprentice is essentially a film about how Trump became Trump; besides Roy Cohn’s influence, the movie covers the 1970s and ‘80s version of Trump — his marriage to Ivana (Maria Bakalova), his failed casinos in Atlantic City, what looks like a growing reliance on amphetamines, and so on. It’s an often amusing tale, but essentially tragic. Director Ali Abbasi shows the long-gone crumbs of humanity in Donald Trump; the notion of Trump starting out as an inept, easily impressed young man is an interesting take. Expect heated viewer arguments after every screening — always a good sign.

Read more
Reviews 

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger 0 Comments , , , , , , , , ,

Best known for his sharp, perceptive dialogue, peppered with succinct soliloquies, writer/director Aaron Sorkin has crafted a timely, yet talky tale, utilizing flashbacks and newsreel footage. Free speech and demonstration are interpreted as lawless rioting with the government and its supporters expressing complete faith in the police. Perhaps Sasha Baron-Cohen’s Abbie Hoffman puts it best: “The institutions of government are wonderful things, but right now are populated by some terrible people.”

Read more