Happy Friday everyone! It’s time for another film
review this week, but to be honest this is probably the strangest I have ever
reviewed.
This week I have been watching Quentin Dupieux’s
2010 box office flop, Rubber. So what’s the premise you ask? It’s about a tyre
that kills people. Seriously. This tyre comes to life and kills people by using
its psychic powers. Now you’re probably wondering why any studio ever agreed to
make such a film. The answer? I have absolutely no idea. They must have been
smoking something illegal.
But as strange as it sounds, it is not actually a
bad film. Now before you think I’ve been smoking something too, I’ll explain
why. The film opens with a sheriff climbing out of the boot of a car and addressing
the camera. In this introduction, actor Stephen Spinella explains that cinema
history is filled with examples of things that happened for no reason, for
example, like why ET was brown coloured - there’s no reason for this. He explains
that Rubber is a homage to these random moments in cinema history. With that
set-up, the killer tyre’s rampage begins.
Rubber is obviously not a film to be taken seriously
but at the same time it’s not hilarious either. I thought it would have gone
further to make fun of other classic film moments or genres, but it fails to
capitalise on these. That’s very disappointing after the “get out of jail card”
it gave itself at the beginning.
There’s also a strange subplot going on where the
sheriff tells other characters half way the film that none of what they are
doing is real. There is also a group of people “outside the film” as it were,
though on site, watching the movie through binoculars at a distance. The film
cuts regularly to these people, but as to the ultimate purpose of both ideas, the
movie offers no answers. It’s not funny, it’s just confusing.
Rubber was interesting. I would not say good but nor
would I say it was bad either. If it had been funnier then I think it would
have been much more positively received.
It gets 4/10.
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