RUBBER DVD Review
Rubber concerns Robert; an inanimate tire that has inexplicably comes to life. As Robert roams the desert he discovers a power that gives him the ability to destroy anything he wills by focusing on it. His attention turns to a car where a beautiful and mysterious woman (Roxane Mesquida) crosses his path. To make matters stranger, there is also a live audience watching all of this unfold.
The audience is here, you can start now. Is someone reading this? They are? I better continue with my review then. Rubber starts with a desert road and chairs, and then a car purposely drives into each chair before halting to a stop; I was thinking, that's what I would do too. A policeman (Stephen Spinella) jumps out of the boot of the car and addresses the 'audience', a metaphysical concept as he is addressing us, but also 'them', actors representative of us. The audience consists of teenagers, middle aged women, a father and son, a man in a wheelchair and two film buffs. The policeman begins a rant about no reason, why did x and y result in z? No reason, but in fact most of his examples indeed have very valid reasons, but his reason for saying they have no reason is in fact for no reason an homage to the 'no reason'.
The third window has been
decimated; this film world and the rules governing what a film should be, plot
and acting are all stretched and bent. The 'film' starts as the audience
observes, this is the golden rule, for as long as there is an audience, there
is a film. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it. So
the film progresses, an overture plays as the antagonist Robert comes to life;
a rubber tire who wanders the desert and is quickly revealed to be a psychopath
who only knows destruction and voyeurism. Speaking of voyeurism, the audience
continues to comment on Robert's misadventures, destroying scorpions, plastic
bottles and birds with his 'mind'.
Rubber is
in fact two films (concepts) that merge messily into one. On one hand we have
Robert and his killing spree, on the other the people watching him and the
aforementioned lackey who reports to his boss and eventually desperately tries
to end the film, by attempting (poorly) to eliminate the audience. First he
poisons their food, a live turkey that is cooked overnight and laced by the
lackey. His plans are thwarted by one member of the crowd who is obsessed with
Robert and stubbornly refuses to eat. It is this man's fault that Rubber is
still going, and this review, for if he died at this point, I could probably,
albeit awkwardly end my review here.
The telekinetic powers
Robert abuses grow thin as animals and humans explode and he makes his way into
a motel where the mysterious girl is staying. Robert the vengeful, lustful tire
causes further havoc and his actions are witnessed by a young boy Zack (Remy
Throne) who nobody believes (and rightly so). Back to the second part of the
film, Rubber explores the elements
of when a film stops being so, literally. The policeman makes a return,
investigating the extremely bizarre sudden deaths and is given word the
audience is dead (they are not, as we are now represented by the stubborn man),
he informs the others at the inn that they can all go home now, tries to
convince them that none of this is real and even takes a few bullets to prove
his point, as they do not hurt him. The lackey returns and embarrassingly
whispers to him that they are not all dead, and then the film resumes, as a
'film'.
So what is the purpose of Rubber at this point, as a film, with
plot; the elimination of Robert. The policeman, the woman and the kid come up
with a terrible idea to thwart Robert and it works, only with surprising and
hilarious results.
Rubber is
an absolutely insane film; it is an experiment that pays tribute to randomness.
The end of the film ties up some loose ends, even the remaining audience member,
but the ending is more revelatory and intelligent than the film lets on. It is
blunt and forced but the final scene is a powerful image that perfectly
captures the director's intentions; a total attack on the normalcy of the
popular film industry, better known as
Speaking frankly, Rubber would fail as an experiment and
a cult film if it did not focus on the third window aspect. Because it does,
this concept of a murderous tire is well paced and not a pretentious bore, that
it could have been, so do I recommend Rubber?
Sure, sure I do, why not, go out and buy it and watch it, or do not; it
actually does exist regardless.
There are no extras on the DVD of note, for no reason.
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