Film Review: Rubber (2011)

Any plot description you've heard about Rubber is a lie. This is not a revenge movie about a rubber tire with psychic powers killing people. This is a meta-theatrical parody about people watching real life as a film where other people are unintentionally in a film about a rubber tire with psychic powers. There's a big difference.

Writer/director Quentin Dupieux has created a seemingly-interminable parody of Grindhouse revenge films. If you look at just the parts about the tire, he hits all the revenge film beats with a dry absurdest wit. Of course a tire can't actually show emotion or act for the camera; it's a tire. The idea that a tire would track someone down and kill them for rolling it down the street is pointless.

That is Dupieux's point. The revenge film as a construct is absurd on face value. Normal people you would root for do not go out seeking revenge like this. It is entirely a fabrication of the entertainment industry that a sane person would do this kind of thing. Real life revenge cases are committed by people who-from illness or rage-are not of their right mind. Glorifying anyone who takes justice into their own hands with a lot of blood is as ridiculous as believing a tire can develop psychic powers and go on a rampage.

The problem is that Dupieux does not actually set his sights on the revenge film. Most of the running time deals with the actors in the film who are watching the real life film of the other actors who do not know they are actors in the film. Does that sound needlessly confusing? It's not. It's just stupid.

The tourists paid money to see a one of a kind film. They stand back and comment on action we do not get to see. They comment on piracy, Hollywood tropes, movie theater etiquette, the plausibility of psychic powers and film physics, and all sorts of entertainment concerns that mean nothing outside of the screening of a film. It's unnecessary navel-gazing that goes off the deep end about halfway through the film. A twist is supposed to end the film early but doesn't. This sets the actors in the live film that don't know they're actors into a tailspin of repetitive action.

Not that the action was repetitive before. The first time we see the tire, it does the same exact thing three times in a row before any variation happens. It approaches an obstacle, weighs its strengths, and runs it over. The third time, it has to use its psychic powers to finish the job afterwards. This means the tire shakes for a few seconds before its target explodes. This exact action is repeated every single time something happens during the rest of the film.

This is not the fault of the actors-they're fine. Nor is it the technical filmmaking. The picture is clear, the soundtrack is appropriate, and the design and effects are competent. Rubber is just a bad picture because the writer/director really missed in creating some grand social statement and had nothing of interest to fall back on.