Rubber

Rubber (2010)

How do I describe this movie? Well you see there is a sentient tire that suddenly “wakes” up one day. We see it sit up and learn how to roll along the road. Eventually it encounters some obstacles like a plastic water bottle and a scorpion. It learns that what it can’t roll over it can explode with telekinetic powers. Eventually the tire (we find out later in the credits that it’s name was Robert) runs into some people. Sadly for both the people and the tire Robert decides that it would be okay to start exploding their heads. The police get involved and well it just doesn’t work out well for anyone.

This movie isn’t what I was expecting at all. When I saw the trailer for a movie about a killer tire I expected something silly. Maybe a parody like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. But that isn’t what we get with Rubber at all. Instead this is more of an experimental movie that plays with the expectations of the audience as well as what the format of a “normal” movie is. If you have followed my reviews here at the site you will realize that this sort of thing annoys the heck out of me and I find it very annoying. But I actually kind of liked this one.

Rubber is a pretty short movie, clocking in around 80 minutes. This is a good thing because when you are telling a movie with a nontraditional narrative like this you have to keep things tight. I’ve seen too many movies like this where the director falls in love with the reality that he is creating and goes on and on. So much so that they lose the audience and to me that defeats the purpose of making a film in the 1st place. Here the director, Quentin Dupieux, keeps the audience involved and makes his movie quirky and different. This must be a difficult thing to do because in my experience it doesn’t happen that often.

I also rather enjoyed how the movie let us in on the rules of the reality that Rubber is taking place in. The first sequence has one of the main characters break the 4th wall and talk to us about other movies. The point of this is to explain that in some movies things happen for no reason. This is cool because you sort of know right away that what is going to happen on screen isn’t going to be explained and that you should just go with it. I liked that and it put me in the correct frame of mind to watch the rest of the movie. Then we are introduced to the audience. See part of the movie is a group of people in the desert watching the movie with us as it happens. I know this sounds strange, but it reminded me of reading Shakespeare plays in High School. The Bard used a chorus in many of his plays to set the mood or fill in some blanks on what we were going to see. Here the audience in Rubber serves the same purpose.

All in all I thought that Rubber was a different and creative movie. I tend to watch a lot of flicks for both the site and just for fun (it is my hobby you know). So when I see something that is so out of the norm, but yet still fun to watch I appreciate it a lot. This is one of those movies. So if you are looking for a change of pace then you should check out Rubber.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer