Thunder Road

THUNDER ROAD is certainly one of the strongest debuts I've seen for an actor/writer/director.  I was not familiar with Jim Cummings prior, but will certainly seek out his other work now.  And look forward to what he does in the future.  His 2018 film was an expansion of a short from two years earlier, featuring a policeman eulogizing his mother by singing and dancing to her favorite Bruce Springsteen tune, which shares the film's title.  That scene opens THUNDER ROAD, and announces immediately that a new talent has emerged.  It  establishes the successful stride between the tragic and the comic that the entire film manages.  

Officer Jim Arnaud in fact can't get the CD player to work, and is unable to perform the tribute for his mom as planned.  Maybe this was true his entire life.  He stammers and stumbles at her funeral in a scene of great embarrassment.  It is our first glimpse at a highly troubled soul.  A decorated, dedicated cop, but also a volatile, prone to ferocious anger young man who loves his young daughter to pieces, but stumbles as a father.  He's estranged from his wife, and usually on the bad side of his police Captain.  It is clear that he needs professional help.  But as someone offers, "we all get emotional under these circumstances."

They are dire.  Jim's wife serves him divorce papers.  He has to sell his mother's old dance studio to pay for an attorney.  Then he pisses off the judge.  Gets into a fist fight with his best friend/co-worker.  His daughter's teacher informs him of her classroom disruptions, serious enough for him to recommend she be placed in a different homeroom.

It sounds grim, and it is, but Cummings (who did fleetingly remind me of Jim Carrey from ME, MYSELF, & IRENE) has somehow managed to make this story ring with both heart thumping emotion and hilarity.  Even some of the darkest moments are leavened skillfully with comedy.  The most notable is Jim's uber meltdown in a parking lot in front of his fellow officers.  A masterpiece of a scene, there.  But so is the parent/teacher conference, with indie favorite Macon Blair quite funny as the latter. 

THUNDER ROAD is quite the tour-de-force for Cummings.  He really swung for the fences with such a personal film, scoring in every department.  I was fascinated by the film's specific view of male angst.  Specific, but relatable to many, I would think.  The film's low budget is obvious, and the digital photography slightly hurts things cinematically, but Cummings' direction is just right for the material.  This is one of the best stories of familial love and discord I've seen lately.  Never once does the film step wrong, even during the finale, which will doubtless be controversial for some viewers, but is perfectly in line with how Jim Arnaud would handle things.