Rubber
Directed by Quentin Dupieux
Distributed by Magnet Releasing
Have you ever seen an abandoned tire by the road and wondered if it would ever try to kill you?
Rubber, a wildly original genre experiment, is probably the only film where that’s an option.
Horror movies about cars are nothing new, but Rubber strips away everything but a lone homicidal tire, who becomes self-aware and learns he can blow things up with his mind.
The film begins with a philosophical cop addressing the audience and explaining the film the best he can: like in life, things happen for no reason.
As such, the film is less of a pure horror film as it’s billed and can be described more accurately as a surreal art film with a sense of humour and no shortage of extreme gore or suspense.
It functions as a commentary on fantasy and on narrative and cinematic conventions, as things appear out of nowhere and people can be shot and feel no effect.
This point of view is represented in the cop who opens the film and leaves the viewer to question if he is crazy or if he is the only one sane enough to see everything going on is ridiculous and unreal.
Within the film, there is also a group of spectators who gather to watch the tire’s awakening from a distance through binoculars and comment on it.
They voice the audience’s reactions to the film, commenting with puzzlement or excitement and act as theatergoers condemning piracy and people who talk during movies.
While the film’s fourth wall breaking approach is intriguing in its uniqueness, as the film progresses, it can feel odd and gets confusing at times as the cops interact with the spectators and make conclusions without reason.
However, despite its faults, the film is interesting to watch and its composition is beautiful and full of bright, wide-open scenery and sun-bleached landscapes.
The whimsical music of its soundtrack is fitting and makes the viewer more accepting of the film’s plot because it makes it feel less rooted in reality, but in a strange place in the desert where anything can happen.
Some scenes are hysterically funny as reality is deconstructed and the murders are less scary or horrific and are more like punchlines to the tire’s unspoken jokes.
In one scene, the tire brutally murders the maid after she finds him in the shower. In another, it watches men burning innocent tires and comes back with renewed fury from the genocide of its people.
As the tire doesn’t speak, its character and motivations are left unknown, which leaves a hole in the viewer’s understanding of the film.
As such, the parts that focus on the tire’s point of view can be oddly disorienting, as the viewer expects dialogue or breathing, but instead hears only the sounds of the tire rolling down the road or shaking furiously as it tries to kill something.
Rubber is an odd film, but that is part of its appeal. It does what it does and it does it well and with a unique style.
While it is thoroughly entertaining, parts do feel hollow, like the interesting idea it offered was not fully realized and something is missing.
