DVD Review - Thunder Road

Jim Cummings is a filmmaker and actor. He wrote, directed and starred in a short film in 2016 called Thunder Road. It was 12 minutes. It consists of one, continuous take. It follows a police officer at his mother's funeral who eulogizes her and has a supreme breakdown. While eulogizing her, he dances to the Bruce Springsteen song of the same name. That short film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Cummings immediately had a feature-length script based on the short film ready to go. He got a Kickstarter campaign and was able to finance this feature. He again wrote, directed and starred in the feature. He also edited the piece, which is set in Austin, Texas. It premiered at the 2018 South by Southwest Film Festival where it again won the Grand Jury Prize. It played in limited release later that year. It even got nominated for a Spirit Award.

Cummings plays James Arnaud, a police officer who is in mourning and suffering extreme grief due to his mother's recent death. The opening 12-minutes of this feature is a re-creation of the entire short film, which is James performing this eulogy, which is very awkward and anxious for him. He comes up with a musical tribute and dance that he wants to do at the front of the church and in front of the coffin, but his efforts fail, mainly because he rambles and stumbles over the whole thing until he eventually gives up and sits down, seeing how his daughter is being sadly affected and the whole thing not being as cathartic as he hoped or intended.

It's obvious that Cummings has made a comedy. This opening scene is meant to be comedic. It's unclear though what the joke is. There's a sentiment that there's no one way to mourn, but the joke does seem to be on how James chooses to mourn in that moment. It's certainly unusual in traditional, American funerals, but not out of nowhere. Perhaps, the joke is that he didn't stage it well or properly prepare or inform anyone that he was going to dance to Springsteen at his mother's funeral. Since it's all one take on James, a slow zoom to his face, with no cutaways, there's no way to gauge what the audience's reactions are. Cummings' performance sells that the whole thing is just a mess.

This is how the movie progresses. James' life is a mess that only gets messier. The chief concern is his relationship with his daughter and ex-wife. He doesn't get along with his ex-wife. He shares custody with his daughter, though his daughter is becoming increasingly distant and unresponsive to him. This causes him stress. His job as a cop is also causing him stress. Some incidents at work are either bizarre, weird or just plain tough. It also becomes apparent that James might have anger management issues or else he has trouble managing his emotions in general.

It's one thing to have a breakdown at a funeral, but it seems as if he has breakdowns in subsequent situations where it might be more inappropriate. He's not a bad guy. He's always apologetic, but he'll have wild mood swings. One moment he's fine. The next he's red-hot mad. Then suddenly he's a blubbering baby and it's all real quick. It speaks to Cummings as an actor to make those quick and strong emotional shifts work as well as they do, but it gets to be a little bit over-the-top. It's almost to the point where you'd think he has some kind of mental illness or mental health problem. Yet, the writing doesn't support that otherwise. It walks a fine line where it could almost be perceived as bad acting.

Nican Robinson plays Nate Lewis, a fellow police officer and best friend to James. It's interesting to watch his relationship with James. Nate is very supportive, even when James loses his temper and explodes. Nate doesn't have the family troubles that James has. Nate is married and has a great thing with his wife. He has kids who aren't distant or unresponsive. He engages with them and they engage back. His life is far from a mess. Nate's life is almost perfect. He's there as a definite contrast or foil to how James is handling things and is living his life.

The film, however, sets up a dilemma that James gets into another custody battle with his ex-wife. The dispute provides the opportunity for James to self-reflect and see how his actions might be hurting him. The way that dilemma is resolved felt super unsatisfying. It's an easy solution that didn't seem to address the underlying issues that James might have had.

Not Rated but contains language, brief nudity, drinking and violent references.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 30 mins.

Thunder Road from Jim Cummings on Vimeo.