Sometimes, things happen in a film for no reason. No reason at all.
The introduction of Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber goes to great lengths in stressing this fact. Why IS the alien in ET brown? That’s right, no reason. No reason. “No f*****g reason at all.”
So to question the point of a story that centres around a killer tyre would be an exercise in, well, pointlessness. To question why the events take place in the manner that they do, would be useless.
No one questions David Lynch when Bill Pullman randomly turns into Balthazar Getty, do they? No one questions Werner Herzog when he cuts to imaginary iguanas and ‘Please Release Me’ starts blaring. No one questions…ah hell, they probably do. But these guys can get away with it, because they have established a career in the bizarre.
The art house world can get away with pulling the ‘no reason’ angle, but can the horror genre?
Rubber stands as proof that, yes, it can! Explicitly explained as paying homage to the tradition of ‘No Reason’, the film is ridiculously fun. To explain too much of the introductory premise would be to ruin a great idea, so I’ll head straight for the main cog in a machine full of odd – the tyre that miraculously springs to life in the middle of the desert.
Initially content to roll about crushing plastic bottles and scorpions, when he – yes, I realize I am calling an inanimate object ‘he’, this fact hasn’t escaped me – encounters the more sturdy frame of a beer bottle, Robert – yes, according to the web that IS his name – starts to get angry.
And when Robert gets angry, he unleashes a force of telekinetic energy and explodes the hell out of anything that stands in his way! Rabbits, crows, humans – you name it. Nothing is safe from the psychopathic mind power of our Robert. A murderous rampage ensues from the what could possibly be the most unlikely killer in cinematic history.
Well shot, and with a great little soundtrack, Rubber is a quirky oddity of a film, that will win you over with an unforgettable villain. While it may become a little absurd, as long as you keep in mind that concept of ‘No Reason’, you’ll enjoy it for what it is: a completely original idea, pulled off in a comical fashion.
