Review of Rubber (2010) by Ilhm — 01 Feb 2013

"And now for something completely different!" RUBBER follows Robert the tire as he takes off on a deadly rampage through the desert, crushing everything in his path and using his powers of pyrokinesis to destroy anything he cannot kill through conventional means.

Meanwhile, a group of spectators watch from afar, occasionally commenting on the carnage. The point? To have no point. To be completely without reason. And RUBBER proves its point very well. In fact, it may even be the most pointless film ever made! The silly premise is much better suited for the short film format, where its punch line would go off without a hitch instead of dragging it on to feature length.

It provides only momentary satisfaction when Robert inquisitively inspects his surroundings and blows the heads off of innocent desert creatures in a fit of gory rage. Quentin Dupieux opens the film with a pretentious monologue about the pointlessness of cinema that immediately establishes his sense of self-importance.

In other words, he is telling the audience they are not intelligent enough to understand that this is satire, so he spells it out for them. That does not make RUBBER any less clever or entertaining in small doses, however.

RUBBER is unique enough in concept to warrant a view.