Rubber

2010 killer tire movie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: An abandoned automobile tire rolls around the desert and uses its telepathic powers to destroy any trash, bunnies, or people who get in its way. A crowd of people is given binoculars to watch the proceedings.

Like Christine or Maximum Overdrive or Duel but with only a tire. Or like your typical 50's monster movie except instead of a guy in a rubber suit causing mayhem, you just get the rubber. From a technical standpoint, I enjoyed trying to figure out how the tire was brought to life. It may be a much easier special effect than I think it is, and it certainly wasn't a special effect you'd describe as flashy. Most of this movie is the tire rolling around, only stopping to quiver and make a loud noise and make something explode, or people sitting around watching the tire, a meta-cular cinematic joke that's the sort of thing Soderbergh might put together in his spare time between Oceans 19 and Oceans 20. We're told at the beginning that this film is an "homage to the most powerful element of style" in movies--a lack of reason. It frequently falls into annoying cutesy-clever territories, turning into the kind of indie production that you want to take out back and slap around a bit. But was I entertained? Heck, yeah! It's a tire rolling around making bunnies explode! How could I not be entertained? Funniest bit involves a cop taking a tire off a car and saying, "This is what our killer looks like." No, the funniest bit is probably where they set a trap with an explosive dummy. I also can appreciate any movie that has a scene implying that a tire has jerked off while watching an exercise video. I'll give director Quentin Dupieux credit for seeing this ridiculous idea to its end, but his message about movies comes across like a film school student trying to impress his professor who rambles on and on about arthouse cinema every class.

I'll probably lose any chance at a Father of the Year Award for admitting this, but I was watching this with a couple of my children until the moment when heads started exploding and I told them to go upstairs. They didn't enjoy the bunny explosions at all and were probably disappointed that their father laughed at it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i rather liked this. i will say 14 as well. metafiction. post modernist. and other useless terms. stylistically this was actually pretty strong. i just wish i was smart enough to understand the subtext. actually reminded me of jodorwsky and svankmeyer at times. violence in movies or something... i dont know. and i like nothing more than exploding bunnies.

Shane said...

Everything this guy (Quentin Dupieux) does is worth the time...I think he's hilarious. He's Mr. Oizo, by the way. remember him?

Anonymous said...

i know wrong cops is on netflix didnt check the rest. my mom and i did a BMC last night with rubber but it wasnt bad it was just surreal and artsy.

Shane said...

And 'Wrong'...or it used to be. No, 'Rubber' isn't BMC material at all even though I keep seeing it on "worst movies ever" lists when I'm doing BMC research. I think people miss that it's something that's really stupid yet pretty smart at the same time.

I saw the trailer for his newest one--'Reality'--but although imdb says it came out in 2014 and it has a rating, it doesn't seem like anybody's actually seen it. No comments/reviews/nuthin'. Trailer looked great though!