UNDISCOVERED GEMS: Rubber

“In the Steven Spielberg movie E.T., why is the alien brown? No reason. In Love Story, why do the two characters fall madly in love with each other? No reason. In Oliver Stone’s JFK, why is the President suddenly assassinated by some stranger? No reason. In the excellent Texas Chainsaw Massacre by Tobe Hooper, why don’t we ever see the characters go to the bathroom or wash their hands like people do in real life? Absolutely no reason”

Why should you watch Rubber? No reason.

In 2010 something amazing happened, and way too many people missed it. No not the iPad, we all got that memo, a French Techno musician by the name of Quentin Dupieux (also known as Mr. Oizo) made a film called Rubber. If you’re looking for a horror flick about condoms this isn’t it, that’s The Killer Condoms (1996) and yes it is glorious, this is a film about a homicidal car tyre with psionic powers.Staring Stephen Spinella, French beauty Roxane Mesquida, and Wings Hauser, Rubber is about an abandoned tyre on the side of the road that slowly comes to life after spending some time rolling along a highway crushing things. “He” discovers he can explode things with the power of his mind, starting with smaller animals, rabbits, and crows. Robert, yes the tyre has a name even though it is never mentioned in the film, moves on to exploding the heads of humans all for the amusement of a crowd of spectators.You have to tread lightly while watching Rubber, it is very meta like Christopher Nolan’s Inception, and just like Deadpool it breaks the 4th wall. I think it was as far ahead of its time as the likes of Dazed And Confused (for transparency’s sake, I am being facetious and hopefully that was about as subtle as Sam Worthington’s Aussie drawl in Geoffrey Wright’s Macbeth).

Be warned though, this movie has all the tropes of a horror; tons of violence with heads exploding into a cloud of brain and blood, swearing from opening to close, and of course gratuitous nudity with Robert engaging in a steamy shower scene completely naked. Production was valued at $800,000 and you can see every cent, the tyre was basically a puppet with CGI only used so as not to see the man working it with two fingers offscreen. For the rolling shots, they did this high tech thing where they rolled a tyre down a road. Amazing.It’s a bizarre road trip, that makes absolutely no sense, and the best thing about it is it doesn’t matter you can take what ever you want from it, or if you prefer nothing at all, and Quentin Dupieux doesn’t care. If you have the stamina I also recommend his two previous films, 2007’s Steak and his first experimental film Nonfilm (2002), both of which clearly heavily influenced how Rubber came about. Take it with a grain of salt and remember that this movie was made and celebrates “No reason” (just like I told you from the beginning). It is an incredible nonsense flick and I highly recommend watching it at least once, although this article may make the powers-that-be ask me to re-tyre.

Have you seen Rubber? Tell us your thoughts below in the comments or on Facebook!

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