Showcasing a wide variety of story and style, the sundance film festival short film tour is a 95minute theatrical program of eight short films from the 2016 edition of the january festival utah community events. A smalltown police officer struggles with the death of his mother, an impending divorce and custody battle, and his own clueless antics, in this awardwinning offbeat characterdriven film that blends cringeworthy humor with deep emotion. An expanded version of the short film with the same title awarded at sundance in 2016, thunder road is the surprising feature debut of jim cummings, born in 1986. A police officer faces a personal meltdown following a divorce and the death of his mother. We have no idea who you are, said sundance judge keeganmichael key presenting the grand jury prize for short film to real discovery. Its a classic bootstraps tale of american independent film ingenuity. There is no question that jim, a boyish police officer, loves his mom. Its a funny, inventive, and thoughtprovoking film, one that makes you. Over the course of this hour long interview, jim shares his creative process at length, touching on every key aspect development, screenwriting, directing, performance, editorial, and even.
Thunder road is an expanded version of the awardwinning dramatic short that cummings made in 2016, and the movie is liberated from the clanking machinery of threeact arcs. Jim won sundance in 2016 with his short version of thunder road, and went on to win sxsw in 2018 with his full length feature adaptation of the film. How you see thunder road says a lot about the movie. This was earmarked for the cost of selfdistribution, while also. Shot in one take, the film depicts a police officer giving a eulogy for his mother. A veteran comes home from the korean war to the mountains and takes over the family moonshining business. Writerdirector jim cummings thunder road took the top honor as the sundance institute unveiled the jury prizes in short filmmaking at the sundance film festival in park city. When it played the festival circuit in 2016 winning jury prizes at sundance and practically everywhere else, jim cummings minute short thunder road was hard to forget a deeply strange.
Thunder road started out as a 12minute sundance festival short and has morphed into an hourandahalf character study of this squarejawed policeman singing, dancing and weeping his way through his mothers eulogy any film that opens with an uncut 12minute scene is taking a risk but this risk pays off. This movie kinda had to be one shot, if it had been edited it would have just been a weird movie about a dude at a funeral. Thunder road is a 2018 american comedydrama microbudget film directed, written by, and starring jim cummings, based on his 2016 short film of the same name. This single shot, which opens thunder road, runs unbroken for almost 12 mins. Thunder road was awarded the short film grand jury prize at the 2016 sundance film festival on tuesday. It also makes up the short film of the same name that earned kudos. The movie has scene after scene that depicts this inside knowledge. It premiered at the 2016 sundance film festival, where it received positive. Thunder road is widely considered the best movie about moonshine bootleggers, and its climatic car chase is one of the finest ever captured on film. Thunder road is a 2018 american comedydrama microbudget film directed, written by, and. It won the short film grand jury prize at sundance, and was named by indiewire as one of the best short films ever made. Thunder road is a singletake, 12minute movie of a man giving a eulogy for his mother through the words of bruce springsteen. A tragicomic portrait of a failing authority figure in the american south, the film will have you laughing and crying, often at the same time.
How you see thunder road says a lot about the movie business. A tragicomic portrait of a flailing american authority figure, the film will. Sundance awards short film thunder road grand jury prize. Thunder road trailer discover movie trailers on the web.
Based on the sundancewinning short film, thunder road follows a southern police officer jim cummings on his journey to raise his young daughter as a. Writtendirectedperformed by jim cummings now on youtube, amazon, itunes. The film was directedand writtenby jim cummings, who also stars alongsidemelissa papel. Dramatic swiss army man waldo salt screenwriting award. Robert mitchums 1958 film thunder road created a bigger footprint on pop culture consciousness than its box office success suggests. Thunder road caught on as a sundance film festival awardwinning short. Jim arnaud jim cummings, a texas cop in his early 30s with a handsome face and a tragicomic pornstache, is delivering his mothers eulogy. From the sundancewinning short film, thunder road follows officer arnaud on a journey to raise his young daughter as a love letter to his late mom. Thunder road is the quintessential bootlegger movie.
With jim cummings, kendal farr, nican robinson, jocelyn deboer. Now you can watch full thunder road in best video format with duration 92 min and was published in 19580510 with mpaa rating is 3 original title. Stay warm and look cool with the the thunder road sweatshirt. The film was directed and written by jim cummings, who also stars alongside melissa. Based on the sundancewinning short film, thunder road follows a southern police officer jim cummings on his journey to raise his young daughter as a love letter to his late mom. Cummings also served as coeditor, composer and visual effects artist. In the opening of thunder road, the main character, jim arnaud, tries to deliver a funeral eulogy for his mother. Heartwarming and hilarious, jim struggles to cope with everyday life. This year at sundance, however, we saw a different jim shine this time as the writer, director, and star of his own short, thunder road.
Heres how it went from an alcoholinduced idea to grand jury prize. Its hard to get stronger festival validation than what thunder road has received, and sotw will not present a contrarian positionthe film is fantastic, and we. The road trip movie may be a film festival staple, but boundaries could be proof that this subgenre has run out of gas. The 2018 south by southwest winning feature film, based on the sundance winning short. But overall i would recommend this movie for those who are suckers for an indie dramedy. Inside the heartbreaking short film that won sundance. Cummings, who also wrote and acted in the movie, is stunning in his ability to shift from grotesque comedy to melodrama while directing. The ballad of thunder road, a 1957 song cowritten and performed by robert mitchum for the 1958 film thunder road song, a 1975 song by bruce springsteen thunder road, a 1980s canadian band led by david thompson thunder road, a 2001 song by judas priest from point of entry.
Thunder road 2018 tvma 1h 30m comedies in the south, a struggling cop juggles divorce and the loss of his mother while trying to connect with his daughter and prevent a downward spiral. Dramatic special jury award for breakthrough performance spa night. It started as a minute, oneman film that came out of nowhere and won the short film grand jury prize at sundance in 2016. Thunder road was awarded theshort film grand jury prize at the 2016 sundance film festival on tuesday. Jim cummings v jim cummings is a producer and director, known for thunder road 2018, thunder road 2016 and the robbery 2017. Listen to doug fabrizios recent radiowest interview with director jim cummings. For years, weve seen his name fly under the producer credit line for many of our favorite staff pick films from the film collective ornana. Thunder road takes top prize for short films at sundance. Luke robert mitchum, dining with brother robin mitchums son james, whos knocked clean out of his chair by mother francis koon, then off to visit bootlegger father trevor bardette, early in thunder road, 1958 view the tcmdb entry for thunder road 1958. Based on the sundancewinning short film, thunder road follows a texan police officer who loses his mother, custody of his daughter, and eventually his job. Certainly, in the last quarter of the 20th century the name thunder road was associated with bruce springsteen, who appropriated the title for his 1975 epic, but the bootlegger saga was popular in the south for years, playing driveins and midnight movies into.
Thunder road, a drama about a police officer from middle america trying to raise his young daughter as he copes with his disintegrating marriage and imploding career, won the top prize at. Cummings submitted thunder road, a tragicomic 12andahalfminute short, to the sundance film festival just past deadline. The best example is when mitchums character delivers a load of shine. Brian tallerico he is also the editor of magills cinema annual, a writer for the new york times, vulture, the av club, and rolling stone, and the president of the chicago film critics association. After sundance thunder road won the special jury award at the sxsw film festival, followed by awards at the rainier independent film. Thunder road won the grand jury prize at the 2016 sundance film festival. Thunder road is a short comedydrama film written, directed by, and starring jim cummings. A t the sundance film festival in january 2016, multitasking forceofnature jim cummings unveiled a brilliantly excruciating. From the sundancewinning short film, thunder road follows officer jim arnaud jim cummings on his journey to raise his young daughter as a love letter to his late mom. He has to battle bigcity gangsters who are trying to take over the business and the police who are trying to put him in prison. With robert mitchum, gene barry, jacques aubuchon, keely smith.
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