Based on the coming-of-age story of Springsteen super-fan Sarfraz Manzoor (played by breakout star Viveik Kalra), Gurinder Chadha’s big-hearted period dramedy was a massive hit when it premiered at Sundance earlier this year. It’s a crowd-pleasing love letter to The Boss’ music, one steeped in the intrinsic relatability of his hard-luck jams (it’s set in 1987 Britain, a tough time that Kalra’s Javed feels is perfectly encapsulated by Springsteen’s songs about similarly blue collar concerns in America).

A canny combination of other Springsteen obsessions, the film (also known as “Born to Kill”) is yet another Monte Hellman picture starring Warren Oates that chronicles American anti-heroes. As the titular fighter, Oates is joined by Harry Dean Stanton in a loose adaptation of Charles Willeford’s novel of the same name (the author also wrote the script, and made a number of changes on his own accord), and follows Oates’ mute Frank Mansfield as he endeavors to become Cockfighter of the Year.

Springsteen also named Michael Miller’s American exploitation thriller as a favorite. Starring Yvette Mimieux, Tommy Lee Jones, and Robert Carradine, the film combines road movie tropes, revenge thrills, and one hell of a “gorgeous lady in prison” theme into a wild stew of drama and bad deeds.And, yes, it’s another Tarantino favorite, too. Perhaps QT’s next film can be a fictionalized spin on The Boss’ life?

One pick: John Flynn’s “Rolling Thunder,” based on a story by fellow filmmaker Paul Schrader. The film stars William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Haynes, James Best, Dabney Coleman, and Luke Askew and follows Devane’s character as he struggles to readjust to life back in San Antonio after a wrenching stint as a POW in Hanoi.

A rich woman and a calculating insurance agent plot to kill her unsuspecting husband after he signs a double indemnity policy. Against a backdrop of distinctly Californian settings, the partners in crime plan the perfect murder to collect the insurance, which pays double if the death is accidental.

A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband.

At the Tribeca chat, Springsteen also singled out John Ford’s 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s seminal American novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.” The singer and songwriter’s affection for the film started early, and he said, “I think the first thing I remembered was John Ford’s ‘Grapes of Wrath.’ The humanism in that was something that touched me deeply, deeply. And I thought, I want some of that in my music.”

While he didn’t explicitly name any “B-hotrod pictures,” he was likely thinking of Monte Hellman’s road-tripping”Two-Lane Blacktop,” starring fellow rockers like James Taylor, Warren Oates, and Dennis Wilson. Springsteen has referred to the film as one of his all-time favorites, and even called it out during a Musicares event honoring Taylor himself.

Beyond “Blinded by the Light,” Springsteen has always professed a huge appreciation for grittier dramas. In 2017, Springsteen sat down with “Philadelphia” star Tom Hanks at the Tribeca Film Festival to chat about a wide range of subjects, including some of his favorite films. No surprise here: he named Robert Mitchum’s “Thunder Road,” which inspired the title of a Springsteen song of the same name, as one of the formative pictures of his life.