Thunder Road

To be honest I never heard of Jim Cummings before, not as an actor nor as a writer, nor as a director, but after watching Thunder Road I will remember him in the future. This movie is a strange mixture of drama and comedy. You never completely know if it is sadness or laughter they were looking for and that's all credit to the excellent acting of Jim Cummings. I never saw a grown man crying so much in a movie and still be funny due to his facial expressions whilst crying. I truly enjoyed Thunder Road and I'm sure plenty of others will do also. An easy to watch story, with mixed emotions, but in the end better than I thought it would be.

Having seen Jim Cummings' The Wolf of Snow Hollow only recently which left me super impressed, I figured I might as well check out his breakthrough feature. And now that I've seen it, I have to say that he is undoubtedly one of the most exciting & promising talents working in the industry today. And Thunder Road is a brilliant showcase of his prowess as a writer, director & actor.

Written, directed, composed & co-edited by Cummings who also plays the lead in this picture, this feature film serves as an extension of his 2016 short of the same name and opens with an unbroken 12-mins long scene of a police officer giving a eulogy for his mother which immediately sets the mood & tone of the rest of the story which follows our protagonist as he suffers a personal meltdown.

The real highlight of this film is the way it balances & blends elements of flat-out comedy & poignant drama in the same setup, at times in the same exact moment. It's not an easy thing to pull off, for it looks rather absurd when it goes wrong but Cummings not only makes it all work perfectly, he truly revels in those scenes. His live wire input in front of the camera is just as impressive as his solid effort behind it.

Overall, Thunder Road is a sharp, slick & side-splitting indie that brims with heart & honesty, and makes for an awkward yet effective blend of heartbreak & hilarity. Led by Jim Cummings' superb direction, smart writing & spectacular performance and also assisted by its breezy pace, fluid camerawork & neat editing, the film is a roller-coaster ride that's simultaneously amusing & heartrending, and is one indie gem you should definitely check out.

I don't think I got an experience watching a movie like this one , it made me laugh , it made me sad , made me laugh while being sad , sad while laughing , and Jim Cummings great performance really helped make that happen . The timing of comedy yeah was weird and in other movies I would hate it but I don't know why but it wasn't a problem for me . Yeah some scenes felt pointless to the story overall but they were also enjoyable . Jim wanted to talk about many things in his movie but I think the main idea is the feeling of losing everything and everyone you love and acting like you are still in control and that everything is just fine . So I will be looking forward for more from him.

In Thunder Road, director Jim Cummings carves an almost perfect study of a character going through an emotional breakdown after the death of his mother. So much that together with Cummings's superb performance and a somber soundtrack that drives melancholy home, it is perhaps the very reason why the dark comedy drama is one of the best films to come out in 2018. There's so much to look and think about in Thunder Road, in some scenes, I just could not feel I had a bowl of popcorn in my hands. It's splendid and you need to watch it right now. TN.

Saw this a Hell's Half Mile Film fest in Bay City, Michigan and Jim Cummings wrote, directed and gave a stunning lead performance in this festival gem, which I believe is his first full feature after bouncing around doing short films and a little TV work. He has the acting chops to pull off his own written vision of this unstable police officer who can slip from calm, deranged and sorrowful multiple times within one scene. Impressive for he must do this most if not all of this 90 minute film carrying off this complicated character through losing his mother, wife in divorce, his job and every thing he holds dear as he sinks into despair. I hope this propels his movie making skills to new wide release films in the future.