10 Amazing Movies Nobody Knows About

9. Thunder Road

Europa Report
Paname Distribution

Adapted from filmmaker Jim Cummings' own award-winning 2016 short of the same name, Thunder Road is an excellent dramedy about a grieving, rage-filled police officer, Jim Arnaud (Cummings), struggling to cope with both the death of his mother and recent divorce.

As director, writer, and star, Cummings proves himself a terrifically talented multi-hyphenate in his first major feature, bringing pathos and nuance to a prickly character who audiences might not be immediately compelled to sympathise with.

Cummings' razor-sharp performance as a man wrangling with his own masculinity is buffeted by some truly excellent filmmaking, especially Cummings' daring use of single takes for many of the grandstanding dramatic exchanges - a trick borrowed from his original short, which was shot in a single 13-minute take.

Though Thunder Road did at least put Cummings' name on the indie film map and allow him to produce two subsequent movies, The Wolf of Snow Hollow and The Beta Test, for as magnificently crafted as it is for its mere $200,000 budget it's not known by nearly enough film lovers.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.