Thunder Road

Dass der Kassettenrekorder mit Bruce Springsteens „Thunder Road“ auf der Beerdigung seiner Mutter nicht funktioniert, ist noch sein geringstes Problem – einen Rückschlag nach dem anderen erlebt der Polizist Jimmy Arnaud in einer Kleinstadt irgendwo im Mittleren Westen. Geschultert werden die emotionalen Extrem-Turbulenzen von Jim Cummings, der diesmal – THUNDER ROAD basiert auf seinem gleichnamigen Kurzfilm von 2016 – nicht nur für Regie und Drehbuch verantwortlich zeichnet. Zornig, hilflos, bewegend spielt er sich auch in der Hauptrolle durch das Auf und Ab dieser aufgebrachten Charakterstudie, in die er bis zum finalen Hoffnungsstreif immer wieder (teils unbehaglich) komische Momente injiziert. (Sascha Rettig)

In Anwesenheit von Zack Parker.

Jim Cummings stars, directs and wrote the screenplay for this film, one of the year’s most stunning indie curios, which in its uncanny, offbeat energy comes closest to TONI ERDMANN. If THUNDER ROAD is hard to categorize, it’s also impossible to forget. Officer Jim Arnaud can’t do anything right and has felt worthless since childhood. His premonition that he’ll blurt out something stupid, or botch things up, comes true when, at his mother’s funeral, he tries to dance his mother’s favorite song, “Thunder Road,” by Bruce Springsteen. The ordeal is captured on a cell phone, and shortly rumors, bad faith, and family and work troubles all befall Jim, finding him at his most vulnerable. Cummings dexterously walks the line between melodrama and pastiche, with an exquisite sense of timing. His deadpan dialogues and acting make Jim hard to read, and poignantly convey the oddities of manhood: A decorated officer, Jim nevertheless feels that, sometimes, being manly is just too darn hard. His nine-year-old girl Crystal, who suffers from her own pained uncoolness, tests Jim’s overbearing love, as he slowly learns that sometimes even the damned get a lucky strike. (Ela Bittencourt)

In the presence of Zack Parker.