Rubber
Directed by Quentin Dupieux
The wonder and magic of cinema is being able to tell stories that no one would otherwise had considered. The only limit is your imagination (and also budget, but even with meager budgets you can still produce something decent), and there's been countless unique films in history - from killer tomatoes to men in love with mannequins, to murderous cars and sentient pop machines. "Rubber" is just such a film - an anomaly that exists somewhat in legend, as several friends of mine never heard of the film, but heard that there was a movie about a killer tire, but didn't believe it. While the premise is outlandish, there's a tongue-in-cheek humor and a question that often goes unanswered - and mostly unasked as well.
Robert is a tire that suddenly gains sentient knowledge and rises from the Arizona desert, unsure of his surroundings or life itself. At first he wobbles around unable to roll without falling down, but soon learns his balance and heads off to parts unknown. Along the way he runs over a water bottle, and after discovering he can do this, begins running over other things like a scorpion. When he tries unsuccessfully to break a beer bottle by running over it, learns he can destroy it using psychokinetic energy, and soon he uses this mind power to destroy other things he finds in the desert.
Soon he sees Sheila (Roxane Mesquida) drive past him, and uses his powers on her, but only manages to stop her car. He's about to approach her when he's hit by another car, allowing Sheila's car to start again and drive off. Angered, Robert follows Sheila to a small motel where he watches her, and kills one of the hotel's maids, bringing in the law led by Lieutenant Chad (Stephen Spinella). As Robert's road of carnage increases, Chad relies on Sheila to try to draw Robert out and stop him for good - all the while being watched by a group of spectators led by the mysterious Accountant (Jack Plotnick).
The film opens uniquely with Lieutenant Chad arriving at a certain place in the trunk of a car, and approaching the camera to talk to its then unseen audience. He lists several famous movies and asks questions that really have no reason (such as why in "E.T." is the alien brown, or in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," why doesn't anyone go to the bathroom or wash their hands?), and goes on to explain that films exist for no reason, because in life there's no reason. He asks why we can't see the air? No reason. Why are we always thinking? No reason. Why do some people love sausages and other people hate sausages? No reason. This opening allows French director and musician Quentin Dupieux free reign to deliver a wholly unique film without rhyme or reason because...no reason. It's a not-so-subtle ploy to the audience that what we're about to see isn't supposed to make a lick of sense, and we're just supposed to sit back and enjoy the unnatural ride.
This ride comes from a sentient tire named Robert, who uses his mind to literally blow up anything he wants to. The tire is a plain old tire - no evil-soul possessed tire, no face, no voice, nothing...just a plain tire. Since this tire can't talk or emote any emotion, it's up to the human co-stars to offer some dialogue to keep the already short film moving, and this is done both by the "in-person" characters and the Greek chorus of viewers who are given binoculars to watch the events unfold from afar. Yet despite not being human, Dupieux manages to give Robert a life of its own, and actually become a believable character - even though he's a psychotic murderous machine. We see him learning how to roll, the childish innocence of running over a water bottle and enjoying it, leading to his first real murder, along with a reflective moment in front of a mirror where he relieves his life thus far. It's so odd how you can connect with a tire, but Dupieux manages to accomplish this.
"Rubber" is tongue-in-cheek in several ways, but none more humorous than the audience who watches the film from afar. These people were brought in by an Accountant (played with hilarious nervous energy by Jack Plotnick) to watch the film live, and the characters run the gambit of traditional moviegoing audiences - from a father and young son to two dimwit girls who have no clue what's happening, to two seasoned movie geeks and a boisterous middle-aged woman. As the audience begins to depart, the "actors" in the film think that the movie is over, unknowing that there's still one viewer left watching, and this supplies a unique question that most people never think of asking - when we finish watching a movie, does the characters go on? The answer is of course not, because the film lies in the confines of its runtime and doesn't have a life of its own, something that's mentioned in the film when Lieutenant Chad thinks everyone is gone, he tells his fellow officers that they can all go home now, despite a very dead body lying there (even though he tells them to just "slap her awake"). Of course movies don't have lives of their own, but its hilarious that they tackle this topic in such an off-kilter film like this.
What is it about "Rubber" that makes it a cult classic? Why has a small-budget film captured the thoughts and imaginations of viewers everywhere? No reason.
The Score: A-
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