Written, directed and starring Jim Cummings (no – not that Jim Cummings, I thought that too, like the voice of Winnie the Pooh has suddenly decided to do his own film??) Thunder Road is a brutal, honest telling of a middle aged man going through different stages of his life whilst dealing with mental health issues. 

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The film opens with Jim’s mothers funeral where he is the only one of his three siblings to attend, he is left to do the eulogy despite his own anguish. During the service he suffers an emotional breakdown and starts going off on a tangent about how his mother used to play him Bruce Springsteens Thunder Road to help him get to sleep. It’s uncomfortable to watch and relative for anyone dealing with loss, filmed completely in one take and running for approx 7/8 minutes it’s a powerful opening to the film.

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This scene was taken from the short film of the same name, again written, directed and starring Cummings. 

Throughout the film Jim deals with more loss, stress, depression and the struggles of parenthood.

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Incredibly strong performance from Cummings, amazing use of monologues and pure concentration on his character and how all the events of the plot effect him. Could be seen as quite self indulgent and will definitely be a love it/hate it film but for me it was really gripping and at times had me on the edge of my seat. Cummings should be incredibly proud of his creation. 

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Safe to say this was unexpected excellence.