Who is Jim Cummings? An up-and-coming generalist (director, actor, scribe, composer and editor) emerging from US indie cinema, with already 4 features under his directorial belt. A golden boy blessed with tradition good looks and Waspish appeal, Cummings makes a splash with his second feature THUNDER ROAD in 2018, a wiggy comedy about grieve and parenting, expanded from his 2016 one-take short of the same name, which is followed by THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW (2020) and THE BETA TEST (2021), venturing into two vastly different genres: werewolf horror and digital-age conspiracy. After that he lends his presence in Francis Galluppi's debut feature THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY (2023), a high-concept neo-Western sneering at America's gun violence, countrified cupidity and lawlessness.
In THUNDER ROAD, Cummings plays police officer Jim Arnaud, who is whacked by a double whammy of his mother's passing and a nasty custody battle (although he isn't mean-spirited, aiming for a joint custody in spite of his lawyer's incredulity), whose career and personal paths veer to a cul-de-sac as his sober days are over and his anger issue escalates. Cummings kills the opening gambit, a re-enactment of his short but with a difference (without the titular Bruce Springsteen's song), which underlies a cracker-barrel kookiness that is both disarming and bewildering (you may start to question Jim's sanity). However, the about-face between teary-eyed and maintaining a strong face is too comical to register any deeper sympathy, a tic which Cummings seems to curb in his later projects.
Drollness aside, THUNDER ROAD commits steadfastly to canalize Jim's seething anxiety and rage via Cummings' farcical and somehow bumptious mannerism (a scene between Jim and Macon Blair, who plays the teacher of Jim's daughter, is quite a capper of losing-it). It lands on its feet as Jim ironically regains the custody of his daughter Crystal (Farr, balancing out Cummings' clodhopping attitudinizing with an air of natural nonchalance) when all seems lost, not to mention that unorthodox slap. Cummings gingerly treads the fine line between misogyny and trashing an unworthy mother.
Cummings' deputy sheriff John Marshall in SNOW HOLLOW is embroiled in a similar bind. A member of the sandwich generation, John juggles between heeding to his ailing father, Sheriff Hadley (Forster, in one of his last roles), who is beset with a death-dealing heart problem, and walking a tightrope with his college-ready daughter Jenna (East), as he endeavors to mend their frosty relation after his divorce. Meantime, the sleepy ski town is plagued by a series of grisly murders apparently at the hand of a werewolf. Actually, John is the one who roundly rebuffs such hogwash since the onset, even audience is tricked to believe so (the monster literally shows its beastly figure when dispatching the second victim). With the significant help from the punctilious Detective Julia Robson (Lindhome), John will catch the culprit after the cases are closed, the last-minute revelation is a time-honored trope Cummings has no intention to cast aside.
For all its genre conventions, SNOW HOLLOW is shy of a roller-coaster ride and spookiness. Like THUNDER ROAD, it pivots on its protagonist's pressurized anguish and the dreadful sense of everything is getting out of his hand. But Cummings appears to be treading water here. All the blood-splatting, snow-bound visual onrush only leaves a sweeping impression that the film, compared with THUNDER ROAD, is less praiseworthy,
THE BETA TEST, co-written, co-directed and co-starred with PJ McCabe, ditches the small-town insularity to the Hollywoodland infested with eroticism, spousing-icing menace and darknet sinisterness. Sleek and silver-tongued Jordan Hines (Cummings), a high-flying (seemingly so) Hollywood agent, is about to get hitched with Caroline Gaines (Newcomb). While trying futilely to woo a Chinese mogul (Wilky Lau, who cannot pose as an echt Chinese as his mandarin is very poor, by extension, the film's portrayal of Chinese is rather distasteful), Jordan caves in to an anonymous letter luring him to a tryst in a hotel room. He is further intrigued by the mysterious woman with whom he has an amazing sex in blindfold.
When the letter stops, Jordan's life begins to turn topsy-turvy as he goes off the deep end to scope out who is behind all the shenanigans. Only the explanation leaves much to be desired. Jordan is completely tongue-tied when the malefactor mouths off about the all-knowing infiniteness of internet and the culpability of unscrupulous ciphers like him who can remotely manipulate and extort others like nobody's business. Like Jordan, Cummings and McCabe's film is unable to retort, as though the script doesn't know how to lacerate such enormity, nor it sheds enough light on the practicalities of operating a scam so grand. When Jordan finally comes clean to Caroline, and vice versa, scarcely anything has changed in the lie of the land. Sad to say, THE BETA TEST winds up as a nonevent although one can begrudgingly acknowledge Cummings' endeavor to branch out.
THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY is a no-frill situation thriller. Waiting for a gas station's pumps to be refueled, a motley of characters are marooned in a diner abutting the station. Among others, there are two bank robbers, Travis and Beau (Logan and Brake), with the plunder still lying inside the trunk of their car, a kitchen knife salesman with no name (Cummings) and Charlotte (Donahue), the diner's sole employee. Random local customers including an unknowing police officer Gavin (a baby-faced Paolo), the gas station attendant Vernon (Love) and an Indian ranger Pete (Proudstar). "You will die for our rhubarb pie", that is an ominous catchphrase.
The tension eventually leads to a deadly Mexican standoff which involves 5 guns shooting among sundry parties, leaving the salesman the only survivor (not before he must put his knife into good use). Will he inform the police or abscond with the money? The film comes off as a telling exemplum of how easy avarice can corrupt even a decent soul (the salesman is again, a single father en route to see his young daughter). Think on his foot, the salesman is compelled to rub out two unfortunate passersby and avoids the pursuit of the grieving sheriff (Abbott Jr.), who is Charlotte's husband. Imagine, what good outcome could that brings? YUMA COUNTY is a lean, highly entertaining fare that suggests Galluppi might have a better place in the sun than Cummings apropos of manufacturing genre works.
Through the tetralogy, Cummings the actor has successfully established a unique persona: high-strung, angst-ridden, incoherently gabby when he is nervous, all grafted upon the substratum of a fairly ordinary human being. He is most magnetizing when he brazens himself out of an embarrassment. However, behind the camera, Cummings' craft has yet to be differentiable from other journeymen in the field. Although the jury is still out as it is far too early to predict Cummings’ futurity, one simply hope his final destination is not a jack of all trades and master of none.
referential entries: Lawrence Michael Levine's BLACK BEAR (2020, 6.2/10); Josephine Decker's SHIRLEY (2020, 7.6/10); Michael Sarnoski’s PIG (2021, 7.2/10); Emma Seligman’s SHIVA BABY (2020, 7.5/10); Carter Smith’s THE PASSENGER (2023, 6.8/10).
《雷霆之路》是一个功能首次亮相的独角戏。吉姆·卡明斯担任编剧、制片和导演，他在片中饰演一个精神和情感失常的小镇警察。这部电影的起源是一部获奖短片。
在影片中，同一个警察在他母亲的葬礼上发表了一篇漫无目的、语无伦次、泪流满面的演讲，随着电影标题中布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀的歌曲跳了一段超现实的舞蹈，达到了高潮。
这只是第一个场景。卡明斯对一个精神错乱的执法者的描绘延伸到长片，成为一种中西部的沃采克。这个人对那些无意中伤害他的无辜的人来说是个危险。他正在和他疏远的吸毒妻子交战。他娇惯，或者说过分娇惯他的小女儿。
他会暴跳如雷或大哭一场，但也会突然、干净利落地摆脱这些情绪。
卡明斯并没有把他的短片拍成长片，而是试图把几部短片放在一起。他给了我们一闪而过的古怪的、主要是一个人的肖像，而不是一个多角色的、不断发展的叙事。
但这部电影仍然让我们惊叹。这仍然是一部感人的杰作。
卡明斯在15天内拍摄完成，花了19万美元。听起来预算和日程都很搞笑。
By: Danny Leigh
看完整个电影，不是也别看懂，不知道导演想表达什么内容。影片开头就是，男主角在自己母亲葬礼上的致辞，越讲越情绪难以控制。然后就是男主角一系列，情绪更加崩溃的演绎，如被停职、失去孩子的共同抚养权等等！ 弄得特别狼狈不堪。但最终还是妻子吸毒过度致死，非常戏剧性的孩子回到了他的身边。这些事情。实在理解不了更深层次的含义。还是看看别人写的影片解析好了
《雷霆之路》
“我妈妈不相信这一点，”穿着警服的男子站在敞开的棺材前面说道。他的名字叫Jim Arnaud。即使他不是穿着工作服，你也会感觉到他是一个警察：拉姆罗德式姿势，阿尔法式侵略性礼貌，小胡子。他的母亲刚去世，他正在列出她的成就，感谢那些参加过她的葬礼的朋友和家人。然后他提到妈妈缺乏信心，在教堂周围做手势，这是第一个迹象表明事情变得奇怪。悼词开始走向一些奇怪的转折;关于她的慷慨的轶事变成了一个关于阅读障碍的切线。当他继续说下去的时候，摄像机慢慢地靠近他。感觉框架正在笼罩着他。强迫的笑容让位于愤怒的鬼脸，然后突如其来暴雪般的哭泣。他一直在摆弄一个小小的粉红色录音机，糟糕的状况让他濒临失控。
然后，当他正在极力控制情绪时，他将Bruce Springsteen的曲目命名为“Thunder Road”，妈妈喜欢这首歌，他说。当他睡觉时，她常常向他哼唱。现在，在所有这些人面前，吉姆将重新获得青睐。他走到录音机前，除了它不会播放。你担心他会赤手空拳地把它粉碎。相反，他开始做一个他编舞的解释性舞蹈，没有音乐。偶尔，他会提供评论（“它开头，还有一个口琴......”）但主要是他默默地做着爵士乐的手指，俯冲的手臂和百老汇的合唱线动作。最后，一个哭泣的吉姆抱着他的青春期女儿抱在怀里，最后他坐下来，瞪着他的孩子，哀悼者，这个世界。
《雷霆之路》的开篇镜头有12分钟，这是2015年的同名短片中的原剧本，进行了一次新的演绎和改编，但是在短片版本中录音机是正常播放了音乐的。之后的剧情帮你准备了80分钟左右的时间，因为语言并不能很好地解释这部短片。
这是编剧兼导演兼演员近十年来在微型独立电影边缘拍摄短片的产物，他的第二部作品让你觉得自己被一个奇特的声音绊倒了。或者，换言之，另一位作家在谈论他与该片主角的第一次邂逅时说：我看到了美国人文主义电影的未来，它的名字是吉姆·卡明斯。
这位31岁的演员赋予我们的是那种激发震惊感的电影（只要问问今年早些时候授予它最高奖项的SXSW电影节陪审团就知道了）。在那场葬礼之后，我们跟着阿诺和他的搭档内特（尼克·罗宾逊）见面，在一次与醉汉的冲突中失控；他甚至不应该上班，因为最近一次的会议上警长已经安排他休息一周。他的个人生活也是一团糟，尤其是当他与他的前妻分享女儿克里斯特（肯德尔·法尔）的监护权时。你可以看到他拼命想与照顾女儿，但是他失败了，他再也无法联系女儿了。每次遇到克里斯特的老师（梅肯·布莱尔），或是法官，或是一个在商场停车场与一些混混找乐子的青少年——他就是用那种老掉牙的硬汉词来形容的警察——他们的结局都倾向于糟糕。
在纸面上，《雷霆之路》听上去很卖座，所以我们应该同情一些神圣的“孤独者”类型的、未解决的愤怒问题，更不用说可能带有徽章的暴力问题了。但是卡明斯让你看到这个支离破碎的家伙，一个试图去理清错误转弯和情绪不稳定的遗留的人，是如何试图通过他所有的阴郁、混乱的感情来达到某种平静和清晰的。他不会低估或掩饰阿诺不那么积极的性格，但他也不想把他变成一个普通的坏蛋。你觉得这位下巴方正，左外野性勃勃的绅士正试图达到约翰·韦恩那种男子气概的理想（注意他如何在奇怪的时刻脱口而出牛仔的名字），并且无法把这种想法与他感觉的破碎调和。在紧张的喋喋不休和公开崩溃的背后，是一个人——悲伤、可怜、慈父、困惑、关心别人，并且值得第二次机会。卡明斯就是这样扮演他的。n
这部电影充满了不可预知的曲折，从阿诺德在搭档家举行的晚餐，阿诺德讲述了一个入室抢劫的故事，到和女儿玩的拍手游戏，最后是一刻出乎意料的，无拘无束的喜悦。（他还用一种安静而明亮的视觉噱头在场景间打上标点。）尴尬的时刻悄悄地溜到眼泪汪汪的时刻，接着是一些从愚蠢到边缘绞刑架幽默的喜剧片断。卡明斯在电影创作和表演方面有着真正的时间感，但他也不是一个善于表演的人。即便是精湛的单镜头开场白，也比不上让观众看到解体的实时发生。他的独立电影的味道既不是粗鄙的，也不是微不足道的，只是低调的发自内心的。
它有点熟悉，但仍然觉得是一个发现，换句话说-同样可以说他的电影。《雷霆大道》是否是2018年最佳影片之一，这是众所周知的问题，但我可以说这是我最喜欢的观影经历之一，那种90分钟后你走出剧院，感觉自己内心深处的东西已经有了些许的触动。它所能提供的一切救赎都在这个瑕疵英雄的肮脏帽子之下。最好的是，卡明斯的性格研究让你觉得这就是你从一个故事中真正需要的。n
TAHT'S GOOD
（回复“雷霆之路”一起欣赏好电影）
n
————往期精彩————n
看两个老爷子的传奇人生，雷德福的息影之作n
今年又一部高分反法西斯电影n
没有结果的纯影像作品n
从小弟到大佬的暴力文艺n
大象席地而坐，是因为它的腿断了
Who is Jim Cummings? An up-and-coming generalist (director, actor, scribe, composer and editor) emerging from US indie cinema, with already 4 features under his directorial belt. A golden boy blessed with tradition good looks and Waspish appeal, Cummings makes a splash with his second feature THUNDER ROAD in 2018, a wiggy comedy about grieve and parenting, expanded from his 2016 one-take short of the same name, which is followed by THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW (2020) and THE BETA TEST (2021), venturing into two vastly different genres: werewolf horror and digital-age conspiracy. After that he lends his presence in Francis Galluppi's debut feature THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY (2023), a high-concept neo-Western sneering at America's gun violence, countrified cupidity and lawlessness.
In THUNDER ROAD, Cummings plays police officer Jim Arnaud, who is whacked by a double whammy of his mother's passing and a nasty custody battle (although he isn't mean-spirited, aiming for a joint custody in spite of his lawyer's incredulity), whose career and personal paths veer to a cul-de-sac as his sober days are over and his anger issue escalates. Cummings kills the opening gambit, a re-enactment of his short but with a difference (without the titular Bruce Springsteen's song), which underlies a cracker-barrel kookiness that is both disarming and bewildering (you may start to question Jim's sanity). However, the about-face between teary-eyed and maintaining a strong face is too comical to register any deeper sympathy, a tic which Cummings seems to curb in his later projects.
Drollness aside, THUNDER ROAD commits steadfastly to canalize Jim's seething anxiety and rage via Cummings' farcical and somehow bumptious mannerism (a scene between Jim and Macon Blair, who plays the teacher of Jim's daughter, is quite a capper of losing-it). It lands on its feet as Jim ironically regains the custody of his daughter Crystal (Farr, balancing out Cummings' clodhopping attitudinizing with an air of natural nonchalance) when all seems lost, not to mention that unorthodox slap. Cummings gingerly treads the fine line between misogyny and trashing an unworthy mother.
Cummings' deputy sheriff John Marshall in SNOW HOLLOW is embroiled in a similar bind. A member of the sandwich generation, John juggles between heeding to his ailing father, Sheriff Hadley (Forster, in one of his last roles), who is beset with a death-dealing heart problem, and walking a tightrope with his college-ready daughter Jenna (East), as he endeavors to mend their frosty relation after his divorce. Meantime, the sleepy ski town is plagued by a series of grisly murders apparently at the hand of a werewolf. Actually, John is the one who roundly rebuffs such hogwash since the onset, even audience is tricked to believe so (the monster literally shows its beastly figure when dispatching the second victim). With the significant help from the punctilious Detective Julia Robson (Lindhome), John will catch the culprit after the cases are closed, the last-minute revelation is a time-honored trope Cummings has no intention to cast aside.
For all its genre conventions, SNOW HOLLOW is shy of a roller-coaster ride and spookiness. Like THUNDER ROAD, it pivots on its protagonist's pressurized anguish and the dreadful sense of everything is getting out of his hand. But Cummings appears to be treading water here. All the blood-splatting, snow-bound visual onrush only leaves a sweeping impression that the film, compared with THUNDER ROAD, is less praiseworthy,
THE BETA TEST, co-written, co-directed and co-starred with PJ McCabe, ditches the small-town insularity to the Hollywoodland infested with eroticism, spousing-icing menace and darknet sinisterness. Sleek and silver-tongued Jordan Hines (Cummings), a high-flying (seemingly so) Hollywood agent, is about to get hitched with Caroline Gaines (Newcomb). While trying futilely to woo a Chinese mogul (Wilky Lau, who cannot pose as an echt Chinese as his mandarin is very poor, by extension, the film's portrayal of Chinese is rather distasteful), Jordan caves in to an anonymous letter luring him to a tryst in a hotel room. He is further intrigued by the mysterious woman with whom he has an amazing sex in blindfold.
When the letter stops, Jordan's life begins to turn topsy-turvy as he goes off the deep end to scope out who is behind all the shenanigans. Only the explanation leaves much to be desired. Jordan is completely tongue-tied when the malefactor mouths off about the all-knowing infiniteness of internet and the culpability of unscrupulous ciphers like him who can remotely manipulate and extort others like nobody's business. Like Jordan, Cummings and McCabe's film is unable to retort, as though the script doesn't know how to lacerate such enormity, nor it sheds enough light on the practicalities of operating a scam so grand. When Jordan finally comes clean to Caroline, and vice versa, scarcely anything has changed in the lie of the land. Sad to say, THE BETA TEST winds up as a nonevent although one can begrudgingly acknowledge Cummings' endeavor to branch out.
THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY is a no-frill situation thriller. Waiting for a gas station's pumps to be refueled, a motley of characters are marooned in a diner abutting the station. Among others, there are two bank robbers, Travis and Beau (Logan and Brake), with the plunder still lying inside the trunk of their car, a kitchen knife salesman with no name (Cummings) and Charlotte (Donahue), the diner's sole employee. Random local customers including an unknowing police officer Gavin (a baby-faced Paolo), the gas station attendant Vernon (Love) and an Indian ranger Pete (Proudstar). "You will die for our rhubarb pie", that is an ominous catchphrase.
The tension eventually leads to a deadly Mexican standoff which involves 5 guns shooting among sundry parties, leaving the salesman the only survivor (not before he must put his knife into good use). Will he inform the police or abscond with the money? The film comes off as a telling exemplum of how easy avarice can corrupt even a decent soul (the salesman is again, a single father en route to see his young daughter). Think on his foot, the salesman is compelled to rub out two unfortunate passersby and avoids the pursuit of the grieving sheriff (Abbott Jr.), who is Charlotte's husband. Imagine, what good outcome could that brings? YUMA COUNTY is a lean, highly entertaining fare that suggests Galluppi might have a better place in the sun than Cummings apropos of manufacturing genre works.
Through the tetralogy, Cummings the actor has successfully established a unique persona: high-strung, angst-ridden, incoherently gabby when he is nervous, all grafted upon the substratum of a fairly ordinary human being. He is most magnetizing when he brazens himself out of an embarrassment. However, behind the camera, Cummings' craft has yet to be differentiable from other journeymen in the field. Although the jury is still out as it is far too early to predict Cummings’ futurity, one simply hope his final destination is not a jack of all trades and master of none.
referential entries: Lawrence Michael Levine's BLACK BEAR (2020, 6.2/10); Josephine Decker's SHIRLEY (2020, 7.6/10); Michael Sarnoski’s PIG (2021, 7.2/10); Emma Seligman’s SHIVA BABY (2020, 7.5/10); Carter Smith’s THE PASSENGER (2023, 6.8/10).
阿诺是一名警察，年纪不大，留着小胡子，理着不起眼的发型，两边的脸颊陷进去，看上去无比严肃，但嘴边偶尔流露的微笑又让你觉得他如此可亲。
他刚出场的时候，就在摆弄一个粉红色的录音机。他试着想要它发出声音，但录音机似乎一直不给他面子，气急败坏的他看上去无助又狼狈。
这是《雷霆之路》的开场。它由同名短片扩充而来，编导兼主演同样都是吉姆·卡明斯。他此前将短片用一镜到底的形式展现出来，惊艳圣丹斯还拿了大奖，被誉为“大师级的导演、编剧和表演”。
而他首次执导的长片不仅拥有短片的精巧凝练，更有“雷霆”一样的情感力量和人文反思。
孤独者的困境
当我们还为阿诺的开场狼狈唏嘘不已时，后面的场景彻底让我们骇然失色——电影用一个长达12分钟的单镜头来呈现阿诺在母亲葬礼上的种种怪异行为。
随着镜头的慢慢推进，景框范围的不断缩小，一种缓缓而来的压迫感在蹂躏这个台上讲话的男人，他的表情越来越不自然，词句出现停顿，混乱毫无逻辑，甚至还哭了起来。
但表情立马恢复原状，悲哀和平静这两个表情在他的脸上随意切换，就像是变脸一样，让人觉得不可思议。这让整个哀悼仪式显得非常诡异，它完全脱离了常规的套路，用一种反传统的方式再现当事人的真正感受。
它又不像激扬的演说，更像是神经般的喃喃自语。直到这种令人骇然的神经感在长镜头的末端达到高潮。阿诺竟然边唱边跳起了舞蹈，没有音乐，只是干巴巴的动作，滑稽又悲伤。
此时阿诺已经不再是一个丧母的儿子形象，而是一个被生活困住的孤独者。缓缓袭来的推镜头吞噬着他的空间，让他无处可逃。于是他在台上尽情的抒发自己的情感，甚至忘乎所以地跳那些可笑的舞蹈，堪称是一场走向自由，打破囚笼的荒诞预演。
耐人寻味的是，这个长镜头的焦点只是阿诺一个人，其他人被虚化，甚至处在景框之外，他们就像一个看客，观看台上的表演。
台下的冷漠让台上的阿诺更显悲情，因为此时的阿诺在他们眼里就是一个贴着“蠢货”的怪咖。他们不理解这种违反常规的自由，只是松松散散的坐在台下，举着手机肆无忌惮的拍着，用鄙视的眼光看待这一切。
就像《逍遥骑士》所说的那样：“你代表的是自由，他们害怕正是这个，一旦他们看到这样的个体，就会想方设法去打压摧毁。”
这段12分钟的长镜头完整再现了台上（自由）和台下（束缚）的对峙场面，酝酿着一种由内至外，不断浸入骨髓的情绪。这种情绪是一种暗含着无力和悲伤，矛盾而困惑，又极具反叛意识和人文思索的精神状态。
卡明斯将这种状态演绎的淋漓尽致，演活了一个可怜，可笑，又可爱的寻求自由的孤独者。
他将卓别林的滑稽，雅克塔蒂的童趣以及金凯瑞的神经融合在一起，让电影挥发出一种悲悯，迷幻，焦虑，酣畅淋漓又无比真诚的气味。
人文精神的绝境
开场12分的长镜头正是那部同名短片的全部内容，只不过短片里的录音机可以放出音乐，而长片里没有。
短片里只表现阿诺葬礼时的状态，长片则聚焦于葬礼后的阿诺对不如意生活的种种反抗，只不过他的每次反抗总能带来一定的悲剧性。
悲剧性正是来源于他面临的“中年危机”，从电影开场镜头就可以看出：摄影机由复古的钢琴摇到正在摆弄录音机的阿诺身上。
这暗含着角色身处的境遇：在理想和现实中徘徊。就像他本想用音乐伴舞来感染在场的人，结果成了一场闹剧。
这无疑是在道明一个无奈的事实：有时候我们所设想的美好事情并不会以你期待的那样出现，相反它也许会很糟糕。
丧母已经让他几近崩溃，接着他又丧失了孩子的抚养权，还和同事拔枪相见，丢掉了警察工作。他饱受着中年危机的痛苦，没有一件事让他快乐，他甚至差点丧失对生活的希望。
在《美国丽人》中，主人公为了缓解中年危机对自己的负面影响，就专门买了一辆红色轿车来寻回年轻时的激情。可阿诺呢，他什么也没有做，只是竭力扮演好父亲和警察的角色，但外方压力却始终袭击他。
他越是忍耐，就越是痛苦，刻意遮掩自己的困境，掩盖自己真实的一面，却又在心态崩溃中释放出自我。
所以我们往往对阿诺的行为动机十分愕然疑惑：他也许一开始非常安静，可突然就会情感大爆发。他看上去不是承受痛苦，更像是“享受”痛苦。一方面竭力的把这种负面情绪暗自消化掉，一方面又控制不住的自我咆哮。
他的这种挣扎不仅是中年危机的影响，更多的是个体精神在大时代下的被压迫和被约束。所以吉姆·卡明斯真正探讨的是人文精神在这个冷漠麻木的时代下所面临的绝境。
这种绝境被他时而癫狂，时而冷静，悲喜交加又雷霆万钧的表演所呈现出来，其表演堪称伟大，足以载入影史。
阿诺是这个时代的一个困兽，他既想在外人面前伪装成老好人角色，又想放飞真正的个性。
他的绝境，也是很多人现在所面临的绝境。
当我们对不如意的生活一再妥协时，你可否有真正的决心来打碎这一切？可否有足够的勇气来面对剩下的残局？又可否有足够的信心来迎接新的未来？
那么诸位，你们有吗？
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