Meet Robert, The Killer Tire In RUBBER

This years bizarre award goes to Quentin Dupieux otherwise known as Mr. Oizo.  When Oizo's Flat Beat came into the underground techno world there was a shift that occured with club kids, this shift came in the form of intelligent music.  Oizo's music is not only good to bob the head to, but creates an atmosphere you can slip into.  So it is no surprise that years later that when Dupieux put his mind to creating 90 minutes of pleasure cinema - he does so successfully.


The film begins with Lieutenant Chad delivering a monologue that breaks the fourth wall and describes to his audience and us about his theory of "no reason" in great cinema.  In an interview with Speakeasy, Dupieux describes the writing process of Rubber, "I am writing a lot stuff and I realized my best ideas were related to the “no reason” [concept]. Each time I am trying to be too smart or too clever, I think I am not too good of a writer, but when I have stupid, no reason ideas, I think I’m good. “No reason” has been with me for a few years now, and I don’t know how to explain it, but I just realized that my mind likes “no reason.”  Whether you call it "no reason," "absurd," or "surrealist" cinema it works to juxtapose different ideas and metaphors to wake up the normal mainstream film goer. Rubber is not brilliant, even the director believes aspects of it run on too long, but it doesn't matter.  The overall affect of the film lingers on in the viewer, because we are witness to something completely new.  Each aspect of the film taken one by one may not be considered new concepts but placing them together provides something altogether different.


On one hand this film is a comment about artistic creation and the viewers that give it life, and on the other hand we have a semi-supernatural film about a tire stalking and killing his way through a desert town.  Dupieux takes the seriousness out of it to refrain from a sense of overindulgence and in the end finds a balance between all of these elements.


The beginning of the film provides us guidelines on how to view the film.  With the 'no reason' monologue followed by an audience searching with binoculars for a film to start we gain entry into the life of Robert the tire.  We watch, along with the built in audience, and witness Robert's birth.  It is like watching a child learn to walk, and once he learns to roll he learns to destroy.  Rolling over cans and bottles and each time he meets a larger foe he figures out how to destroy it.  He finally realizes he has the power to make them explode and from here on there is no end to his telekinetic bloodshed.  The only way to stop Robert is if the audience stops watching him and there's no way the viewers are going to look away.


So, when you get a chance to see Rubber don't turn away, or else Robert will no longer exist - and that would be an absolute shame.


RATING: V/V