Robert isn’t your garden-variety movie serial killer. Sure, he has the characteristic impulse to kill nearly everyone who crosses his path. And, yes, other movie maniacs have used their telekinetic powers to dispatch their victims. But, unless my memory is failing me, I can’t recall any other mad killer being made of an elastic polymer.
You see, Robert is a tire – a tire that inexplicably comes to life in the middle of a desert. And as he rolls across the dusty landscape, he discovers he has the ability to use his thoughts to destroy living creatures. At first, Robert is content to kill the birds and rabbits he encounters, but he soon turns his attention to humans, whose heads he causes to explode in a gory mess.
Welcome to “Rubber.”
The writer and director of this surrealistic detour, Quentin Dupieux, doesn’t explain how Robert sprung to life, or how he acquired telekinetic powers. Instead, he uses the irrational nature of those events to argue that most of the things that take place in a movie happen for no reason whatsoever.
“Rubber” begins with a cop climbing out of the trunk of a car and delivering a monologue, directly to the camera, on the lack of reason in movies. Why was E.T. brown? No reason. Why did the family in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” never use the bathroom? No reason. And why did the musician in “The Pianist” have to hide from the Nazis? No reason.
The cop is actually addressing two audiences: the people watching “Rubber” and a group of spectators that have gathered to watch, through binoculars, the strange story of Robert unfold. Along with us, they see the tire learn to roll without falling over, watch as it discovers its deadly powers, and observe its behavior as it begins to stalk a female traveler.
At this point, you’ve probably decided one of two things: either “Rubber” sounds too weird for your taste, or you’re going to see the movie as soon as you can. For those of you who fall into the second group, “Rubber” is currently available On Demand.
While I admire “Rubber,” I wouldn’t recommend it to the average moviegoer. True, it has a crisp, realistic visual style. I was also impressed with how well Dupieux masked whatever technology there was behind Robert’s movements. The tire doesn’t look animated, but it’ll stop, turn, roll, go around an obstacle, fall down, get up, and start rolling again, all in a single shot.
That said, the exploding heads look really, really fake, and none of the human characters rise above crude caricature. What’s more, the killings are devoid of surprise or suspense. Perhaps Dupieux thought it would be pointless to ask us to care about someone he was planning to turn into the splatter shock equivalent of a Jackson Pollock painting.
Even though Dupieux argues that most of the things that happen in a movie have no rationality behind them, there has to be a point to “Rubber.” Otherwise, it really is about a killer tire. To me, the movie isn’t about a killer tire, but about how people are willing to watch a movie about a killer tire.
Early in “Rubber,” a man tosses a poisoned cooked turkey at the spectators, who descend on it like zombies on a warm brain. Everyone except one man eats the bird and dies. At that point, the cop believes he can quit acting and go home, since his audience is dead, but the presence of one surviving viewer requires him to continue performing.
Is Dupieux asking people to have higher standards, and to demand truly original movies? Perhaps. And he does provide the very thing he believes viewers are missing.
But Dupieux doesn’t stop there. Near the end of “Rubber,” when the cop tries to make an illegal move in a game of chess, his opponent says, “You can’t do that. Well, you can, but it’s against the rules.” In response, the confused cop asks, “So, can I, or can’t I?” The cop is Dupieux, railing against the artifice in movies and the rules that keep it in place. Somehow, Dupieux exposes the cheap ploys of mainstream moviemakers – serial killers on the loose, police procedurals, and so on – by employing those very tactics in his absurd story.
Maybe I’m overthinking the movie. Maybe “Rubber” is just another schlocky, low budget exploitation movie, and Dupieux is hoping to make a decent buck off its bizarre premise. Why would I review a movie like that? No reason.
Rated R for violent images, language, and nudity. Two stars out of four. Next week: “Fast Five.” Email David Laprad at dlaprad@hamiltoncountyherald.com.