雷霆之路

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？首发在嘉影movie公众号

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》