Rubber (15) Director: Quentin Dupieux
Cast: Stephen Spinella, Roxane Mesquida, Wings Hausner
Robert is a tyre with telepathic powers; powers he uses to destroy people, small mammals and, in one particularly upsetting scene, a plastic bottle. Robert sets his sights on a small desert town, leaving a trail of destruction and exploded heads in his…um…tread (sorry).
While on the surface, the set-up sounds like – and should have been - a farcical, meta-textual parody of schlock horror, the reality is that Rubber is too self-conscious to be thoroughly enjoyable. The fourth wall-breaking subtext of a film within a film feels strained and unnecessary, while the tyre itself has more charisma than most of the cast.
Technically, Robert is a success, teetering and swaying in early life, gradually gaining a confidence and personality of it’s/his own. However, the opening scene, stating that the film is a homage to ‘no reason’, sums it up - interesting, quirky, but ultimately meaningless.
Rating: 2/5
