In the California desert, a lone tire named Robert "awakens" one day and decides to go on a killing spree using psychokinesis to make random things, usually heads, explode. Meanwhile, an audience watches on...literally.
Before I start with my review, I can't help but go back to a simple quote Mr. Martin Thomas (aka Leon) of spill.com said several years ago; he simply said "Trailers lie." That couldn't have been more obvious with the case of the French/American film Rubber, which tries to be something that it clearly isn't. At first glance, you might be expecting a Troma-style gorefest. Well, you're partially right. The kills in this film are decent, but they aren't enough to make up for the rest of the film. This film, surprising as it is to say, is one of the most pretentious and flat out slow films you're likely to ever see. It speaks down to it's audience, immediately telling you in the opening monologue that sometimes, things just happen for "no reason." Sorry, but I believe everything happens for a reason, whether we KNOW the reason or not is something we discover over time.
One of the big distinguishable things about this film is the constant cutting to an "audience" observing Robert's antics and killings. I suppose this was supposed to satirize modern horror crowds being clueless or having too many absurd questions about something they should "just go with," but the way they're presented is just flat out annoying, and it feels condescending towards it's own audience, which largely IS the horror fanbase. Speaking of the "audience" in the film, they, along with pretty much everyone else in here, range from being linear to flat out nonexistent, poorly written characters.
I do NOT like films that speak down to their audience, and especially ones that essentially preach about us being "stupid for not "getting it." Sorry, Rubber, but there's nothing to get here and there's nothing salvageable about your film. It's not good at being a horror, it's not good at being a satire, it's not even good at being a comedy. It's snobby art-school students making a "meta" movie without liking any of the genres it's poking fun at.
Or, if you'd like me to put this a little more eloquently,
Fuck Rubber.
Tomorrow, I do a double dose of foreign flicks with Un Chien Andalou and Hisss.
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