Scott Cooper
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Writer-director Scott Cooper is confident enough to reference Ford’s work — such as framing a doorway in a manner reminiscent of “The Searchers” (1956) — while delivering a tale of racism and redemption that stands on its own.
Grave and somber, Scott Cooper ’s “Hostiles” opens with a scene that recalls John Ford ’s “ The Searchers .”
It's an ambitious film that will remind its fans of John Ford's 1955 classic "The Searchers," and its critics of Michael Cimino's bloated 1980 box-office flop "Heaven's Gate."
With Takayanagi’s help, Cooper recalls the best of John Ford’s The Searchers , and with Bale’s help he rectifies its worst.
Working from an unpublished manuscript by the late Donald Stewart, the filmmaker echoes The Searchers – John Ford's 1956 classic starring John Wayne as a vengeful cowboy – in tackling the way racism and violence seem to be hardwired into the American character.
Dozens more will be butchered to appease the themes of director Scott Cooper’s script: the sin and apparent redemption of the American myth, complete with visual quotations from The Searchers .
Comparisons to the films of Martin Scorsese are inevitable (and apparently obligatory), but while Goodfellas and Casino evoke a time and a place through their characters and events Cooper’s latest evokes nothing more than a reminder that Depp is a fantastic actor when he wants to be.
Black Mass is more The Departed than Goodfellas — Jack Nicholson’s mobster in the former actually was inspired by Bulger.
Without revealing too much, let’s just say that his sinister, is-he-kidding-or-isn’t-he demeanor immediately recalls Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.
Based on Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill's book, Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance between the FBI and the Irish Mob, the film borrows heavily from Scorsese's Goodfellas and The Departed, though Scott Cooper's film definitely has its moments.
Trying to match up against Goodfellas , Casino or The Departed isn’t the smartest move if you can’t at least match those all-time classics and Black Mass comes up way short.
There is a sensuality in his evilness, like that of a vampire, and even a theatricality not unlike Joe Pesci’s gangster in “Goodfellas.”
Badlands (1973)
Directed by Terrence Malick
influenced Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Visuals Themes
A chance late-night TV viewing of Terence Malick’s Badlands (1973) sends him on a songwriting streak…
He reads Flannery O’Connor, watches 1973’s “Badlands,” and finds himself constantly ruminating on his turbulent childhood…
Cooper weaves into the story some of Nebraska’s legendary influences — including Terrence Malick’s 1973 debut Badlands, which obsessed Springsteen — but Deliver Me From Nowhere posits that it was the songwriter’s frayed relationship with his father that most shaped the album.
…his songwriting is taking creative inputs from darker sources, including the heartland crime movie Badlands…
Based on novelist Flannery O’Connor’s stories, Terrence Malick’s Badlands (1973), and serial killer Charles Starkweather, Nebraska is a dark record about despair, isolation, and the seedy underbelly of America.
Terrence Malick’s Badlands and the real-life murder spree it was based on…
A Complete Unknown (2024)
Directed by James Mangold
influenced Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Themes Visuals
Bob Dylan (James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown)…
2024 gave us Timothée Chalamet's safe but enjoyable Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown,"…
Just last year we had A Complete Unknown, which saw Timothée Chalamet portray Bob Dylan to great acclaim.
James Mangold and Timothėe Chalamet set a high bar for contemporary musical biography with last year’s “A Complete Unknown,” and Scott Cooper and Jeremy Allen White fall far short of it with “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.”
(I had this same issue with A Complete Unknown.)
…it just didn’t hit me the way James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown did…
It’s the type of exhaustive story that demands Martin Scorsese’s stylistic eye and William Monahan’s economical storytelling, but those two only paid spiritual homage to Bulger when they carved out 2006’s The Departed .
Black Mass is more The Departed than Goodfellas — Jack Nicholson’s mobster in the former actually was inspired by Bulger.
(He didn’t actually give them any real info and basically played them all for dopes; Jack Nicholson’s character in The Departed is inspired by Bulger, too.)
Bulger inspired Jack Nicholson’s gangster in “The Departed” (2006), so comparisons between “Black Mass” and Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winner are inevitable.
Based on the true story of James “Whitey” Bulger, the South Boston hood who inspired Jack Nicholson’s character in The Departed , it chronicles how Bulger (Johnny Depp) was able to stay out of prison because the FBI, led by Agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), uses him as an informant to help take down the Italian mafia out of North Boston.
Fictionalized depictions of murderous crime bosses have a little rope to play with; the distance from true-life means a filmmaker doesn’t have to be squirrelly about exploring the man inside the monster of a Michael Corleone or The Departed’s Frank Costello (reportedly inspired by Bulger).
Comparisons to the films of Martin Scorsese are inevitable (and apparently obligatory), but while Goodfellas and Casino evoke a time and a place through their characters and events Cooper’s latest evokes nothing more than a reminder that Depp is a fantastic actor when he wants to be.
Trying to match up against Goodfellas , Casino or The Departed isn’t the smartest move if you can’t at least match those all-time classics and Black Mass comes up way short.
It doesn’t help that Scott Cooper’s Black Mass must follow in the footsteps of more dynamic pictures like Brian De Palma’s Carlito’s Way ; Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas , Casino , and The Departed (in which Jack Nicholson played a character inspired by Bulger); and Mike Newell’s Donnie Brasco , which starred Depp as an undercover FBI agent.
It’s no small compliment when I tell you that I believe Scott Cooper’s Black Mass can run with Scorsese’s mob trilogy of Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed.
Screenwriters Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth concoct a strange film, because it’s tonally myopic rather than bringing you fun, or sadistic laughs like Goodfellas or Casino.
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Directed by Bryan Singer
influenced Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Themes
…particularly a recent slew devoted to icons like Freddie Mercury (Bryan Singer and Dexter Fletcher’s Bohemian Rhapsody)…
…especially since the dreadful Bohemian Rhapsody earned nearly $1 billion worldwide and won four Oscars…
No es 'Bohemian Rhapsody', ni lo pretende.
The recent efforts have ranged from quite good (Rocketman, Elvis) to rather bad (Bohemian Rhapsody, Back to Black), with most efforts falling somewhere in the middle (One Love, Respect).
Though it didn’t garner as many awards (and box office) as BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY in 2018, it still racked up lots of critical raves (and even a Sag Best Actor for its star Timothee Chalomet).
Deliver Me From Nowhere hits UK and US theatres on October 24, hoping to follow in the footsteps of other recent music biopics such as Bohemian Rhapsody ($911m worldwide) and A Complete Unknown ($141m).
But Cooper might have benefited from borrowing some of the sheer sense of fun and shameless fascination del Toro brings to telling fantastical, frightening tales such as "Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Devil's Backbone."
We see a bit less of the wendigo than we’ve seen of some other creatures in del Toro films — you’ll likely remember him as a mess of horns moving through shadows, not in the detailed way one recalls the Faun or the Pale Man of Pan’s Labyrinth — and in important ways the beast is scariest before it sprouts those horns: Scott Haze, playing Lucas’ father before he has fully transformed, is monstrous and pathetic but still capable of commanding his son’s loyalty.
Films like The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth similarly used ghosts and fantastical creatures to examine concepts such as abandonment and war.
Well shot in dreary, small town muteness by Florian Hoffmeister ( A Quiet Passion , 2016) and just the right kind of brooding score from Javier Navarrete ( Pan’s Labyrinth , 2006) allow for a properly set stage, but ultimately both the title and so-so denouement make Antlers feel like something we would have seen in the “Masters of Horror” series from the mid-2000s (especially since John Landis had an entry in the series called “Deer Woman”).
Produced by monster fetishist Guillermo del Toro ( Pan’s Labyrinth , The Shape of Wate r) but directed by Scott Cooper ( Crazy Heart ), the mood is overly gloomy and lacking del Toro’s signature sparkle.
The Oscar-nominated Spanish composer who provided aural chills for Guillermo del Toro’s “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth” does it again, setting the mood for the dark thriller.
Cooper has a pleasant twang when he sings, projecting a melancholy, afternoon-y vibe that brings to mind Crazy Heart.
His past-his-prime alcoholic singer is channeling Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart for sure, which isn’t a bad thing.
I get the comparison, but a twenty years younger version of Jeff Bridgescharacter in Crazy Heart (while his career was still booming despite an approaching decline) is probably more apt.
(If you never saw “Crazy Heart,” or how forgot how good it is, catch up.
As in Crazy Heart, a similarly excellent movie starring Jeff Bridges, it starts with quiet menace lurking in the wings and ends in a display of humiliation so sharp you can’t help but cringe from it.
Cooper sings decently enough to be convincing, but his performance overall feels rather like a reboot of Jeff Bridges’ turn as Bad Blake in “Crazy Heart” (or even his Rooster Cogburn, to tell the truth).
Writer-director Scott Cooper ("Black Mass") based the concept on a manuscript by the late Donald Stewart, who wrote movies like "The Hunt For Red October" before his death in 1999.
He’s a man of few words, as per Bale’s masterful underplaying and Cooper’s lean adaptation of an unpublished manuscript by Donald Stewart, the screenwriter behind Missing and The Hunt for Red October.
Cooper’s screenplay, based on a manuscript given him by the widow of the late Donald Stewart ( Missing , The Hunt for Red October ), strives to make a statement about the American way of life, the genocide of the Native American people, the inescapable savagery of war, and the tenaciousness of trauma.
(Director Cooper based his screenplay on a “manuscript” by Donald E. Stewart, writer of such films as 1982’s Missing and The Hunt for Red October .
He can't manage the same with his attempt at a western, mostly because the script, based on a manuscript by deceased screenwriter Donald E. Stewart (Missing, The Hunt for Red October), is too awful to salvage.
The manuscript was originally written by the late Academy Award-winning screenwriter Donald E. Stewart, who wrote Missing and The Hunt for Red October , who died almost twenty years ago.
Elvis (2022)
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
influenced Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Themes Visuals
Elvis (Baz Luhrmann’s… umm… Elvis)…
The recent efforts have ranged from quite good (Rocketman, Elvis) to rather bad (Bohemian Rhapsody, Back to Black), with most efforts falling somewhere in the middle (One Love, Respect).
Deliver Me From Nowhere is the anti-Elvis, the Baz Luhrmann maximalist epic about Springsteen’s boyhood musical hero that covered all the major beats of the King’s life, but rarely slowed down long enough to let the audience just sit with Elvis and truly get to know him.
Better Man (2024)
Directed by Michael Gracey
influenced Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Themes
While there’s always the occasional film like Better Man that finds creativity within standard templates…
“Better Man” is a flawed movie, but it at least took visual and thematic chances in its depiction of Robbie Williams’ struggles so as to feel fresh, even as it retread the familiar rock star problems.
The decision to tie Bruce’s struggles with fame and creativity to his childhood trauma recalls another recent biopic, Michael Gracey’s Better Man, which explores the rise, fall, and rebirth of Robbie Williams alongside the star’s complicated relationship with his dad.
An inescapable itchiness starts to creep into virtually every scene around the second act, a restless sensation that cannot be alleviated by gnarly nods to genre classics like My Bloody Valentine (1981), The Thing (1982), and Hellraiser (1987).
Springsteen on Broadway (2018)
Directed by Thom Zimny
influenced Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Themes
There was genuine intimacy and urgency in “Springsteen on Broadway,” the 2017 one-man show in which the Boss took a deep dive into his turbulent life and times in music.
…it’s been a while since I watched Springsteen on Broadway in an effort to lift myself out of a depressive spell…
The endangered children in “Antlers” will remind many of the sisters in Andy Muschietti’s 2013 entry “Mama,” another supernatural-based film produced by del Toro.
Similar in tone and nature to Andy Muschietti’s 2013 supernatural scarer Mama , another painting with the del Toro stroke, this film largely avoids cheap jump scares and flowing blood in favour of something more psychological; that’s not to say this doesn’t have its share of violent moments, it just doesn’t rely on them to maintain its horrific personality.
Bob Marley: One Love (2024)
Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green
influenced Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Themes
Tyhe movie takes a less conventional approach compared to other recent musical biopics about artists like Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknown, or Bob Marley One Love.
Like Bob Marley: One Love did for one small part of Marley’s life, this film zeroes in on the lesser-known period between the albums Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A.
Song Sung Blue (2025)
Directed by Craig Brewer
influenced by Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Themes
…it’s not as simple as someone being a Bruce Springsteen fan and automatically adoring Scott Cooper’s Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere…
Unlike “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” (2025), audience members will not need any clues as to what they were supposed to take away from the film.
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Directed by Charles Laughton
influenced Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Visuals
Charles Laughton’s 1955 psychological thriller The Night of the Hunter (which Dutch Springsteen takes young Bruce to see in Deliver Me from Nowhere)…
…with explicit nods to Terrence Malick’s “Badlands” and Charles Laughton’s “The Night of the Hunter.”
Oh, and there’s a lot of Walter Hill cooped up in there, as in his 1970s street-boxing tale, “Hard Times.”
A River Runs Through It (1992)
Directed by Robert Redford
influenced Out of the Furnace (2013), Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Characters
…perhaps typified by works like Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It (1992)…
He’s not as out there as Edward Norton in Rounders or Brad Pitt in A River Runs Through It where it’s like, come on, you’re just asking for trouble.