"Thunder Road" had been sitting on my Netflix queue for quite a while. Then I saw that it was one of the options on a flight from Phoenix to Chicago. I didn't end up having time to watch the whole thing, but I just wanted to see what kind of movie it was, so I watched the first few minutes. Anyone who's seen the film knows what those first 10 minutes or so are like, and probably wouldn't be surprised to learn that I immediately moved it to the top of my queue so that I could see the whole thing.
"Thunder Road" may seem simple; it's practically a one-man show. But it is quietly astonishing in the way it's written and especially acted by Jim Cummings. He plays a man at a crisis point in his life, trying to hang on to a daughter during a nasty divorce while watching his career as a police officer crumble due to his unhinged behavior. He's a man who means well and wants to do right by himself and those around him, but can't control himself from messing up in both small and major ways. The film is hilarious, but it always walks that knife edge between funny and uncomfortable. This kind of dark humor is a tight rope act to pull off, but Cummings is expert at it, and I was absolutely fascinated by him and his performance. I didn't really want the movie to end, because I wanted to keep on spending time with this guy, even though he's exhausting to be with. That's the sign of a truly gifted actor.
You know, lately there has been so much complaining about white males and how everything has always been told through a white male perspective and that now it's time for women and people of color to take the stage and tell their stories. I embrace all stories and love seeing the world through the point of view of people who are very different from me. But "Thunder Road" is an example of how stories about and told by white men can still be interesting too, and we'd be making a mistake as a culture to just outright decide that white men's stories are no longer worth listening to just because we've been hearing them for so long.
Grade: A+
"Thunder Road" may seem simple; it's practically a one-man show. But it is quietly astonishing in the way it's written and especially acted by Jim Cummings. He plays a man at a crisis point in his life, trying to hang on to a daughter during a nasty divorce while watching his career as a police officer crumble due to his unhinged behavior. He's a man who means well and wants to do right by himself and those around him, but can't control himself from messing up in both small and major ways. The film is hilarious, but it always walks that knife edge between funny and uncomfortable. This kind of dark humor is a tight rope act to pull off, but Cummings is expert at it, and I was absolutely fascinated by him and his performance. I didn't really want the movie to end, because I wanted to keep on spending time with this guy, even though he's exhausting to be with. That's the sign of a truly gifted actor.
You know, lately there has been so much complaining about white males and how everything has always been told through a white male perspective and that now it's time for women and people of color to take the stage and tell their stories. I embrace all stories and love seeing the world through the point of view of people who are very different from me. But "Thunder Road" is an example of how stories about and told by white men can still be interesting too, and we'd be making a mistake as a culture to just outright decide that white men's stories are no longer worth listening to just because we've been hearing them for so long.
Grade: A+