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Marina Antunes [Film Festival 10.18.10] France movie review scifi horror comedy drama mystery

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Year: 2010
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Writer: Quentin Dupieux
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Marina Antunes
Rating: 7 out of 10

So everyone wants to know if the movie about the serial killing, telekinetic tire is any good. I guess it depends on your interpretation of good. If you’re looking for a wacky, ultimately silly story you’re in for a real treat whereas if serious, “meaningful” film is more your cup of tea, you might not want to hold your breath for Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber.

That’s not to say that the film doesn’t have a little something more going for it. I expect that in the coming year or two we’ll likely see a 2,000 word essay which explores and tries to explain the importance of the crowd watching the story unfold (I’m actually quite surprised that essay hasn’t turned up already) but as the end credits roll, deep thought is the farthest thing from anyone’s mind and instead, we’re wondering when we’re going to see a sequel which features a tricycle and an army of telekinetic tires (I can already see the studios snatching up that idea and spitting out a lame version of that premise next year).


Rubber opens in perfectly hilarious style with a car, swerving itself along a dirt path, no driver in sight, and stopping suddenly, allowing Deputy Xavier to jump out of the trunk, and continues its trip down comedy lane with each of the scenes that follow. From the tire’s realization that it can make stuff explode to the “audiences” realization that they’re not just there to watch a boring movie. The audience itself does make some pretty hilarious observations on the slow pacing of the film and how nothing is happening (at one point they’re staring out into the desert wondering when something is going to happen until someone excitedly points out that in the distance, something moved – undoubtedly a poke at the tediousness of some films) before they are eventually annihilated.

Aside from the hilarity of watching a tire hand out its own form of vengeance, Dupieux’s film features some spectacular cinematography from the director himself and an awesome 80s inspired soundtrack that adds a retro feel to the already timeless project and though it’s a whole lot of fun, Rubber is schlocky fun, a slice of narrative subversion that works on the level of comedy but fails in really telling any sort of story. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it also doesn’t mark that film as memorable beyond being known as “that movie about the serial killing tire.”

Sure to be a winner with b-movie fans and likely to sprout an immediate, and deserving, cult audience when it finally starts playing outside the festival circuit, Rubber is a wonderfully fun little slice of the absurd, a film that entertains from opening to closing and though the audience subplot suggests some larger message Dupieux was trying to get across (or perhaps he was just baiting the audience - I certainly wouldn't put that past him), it’s drowned out by the awesomeness of the violent action.

Rubber is definitely one to be seen, enjoyed and seen again.


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