Rubber

Rubber (2010)
Dir:Quentin Dupieux

Okay, So ever so often a movie comes along that makes you ask what the fuck were these people thinking? So the film opens up with some chairs randomly sitting on a dirt road as a car comes around the bend slowly hitting each one and a Sheriff climbs out of the trunk to provide an opening narrative.The dialog explains how so many things in film happen for o reason and how this entire film is an homage to those moments,okay. After the sheriff climbs back into the trunk  and drives off we see a group of people randomly standing in this dirt road and are provided binoculars for a "Show" by a strange usher I guess?  the crowd stares off into the open land acting as if they are watching a film in the distance, and we then see a tire digging itself out of the dirt road and begins to roll itself down the road after falling a few times.

As the tire rolls down a deserted road it comes across a plastic bottle and runs it over crushing it, Apparently enjoying that experience the tire continues down the road rolling over several other things smashing whatever is in it's way until it comes upon a glass bottle which the tire cannot pick up enough momentum to smash. At this point the tire begins shaking and magically blasts the bottle into pieces without touching it. The spectators are in awe of the tires apparent psychokinesis powers and continue to watch as the tire rolls on to blow up animals and anything else in it's way.

After rolling for what appears to be an entire night as the spectators have camped out to watch the tires travels. the tire spots a young woman driving down the road. The tire seems to take a liking to the girl and decides to cause her car to break down so it can approach, While on it's way a truck runs the tire down allowing The woman's car to break free of the tires spell and she drives off to a nearby motel. The tire now angered , tracks the truck driver down at a gas station and the tire pulls a scanners move a causes the mans head to explode. Actually showcasing some very nice effects here.

So the tire makes it's way to the womans motel room and stalks her as she showers and swims, and manages to take in his own room next to her to keep close watch. The following morning a young boy see's the tire roll itself into a room after being tossed out by a angry maid. The boy tries to inform his father who laughs it off as boredom and sends the boy to town for pizza. Meanwhile back at the room The maid is killed and found once the child returns and inspects the room he saw the tire go into. Once the sheriff arrives he questions the motel owner and abruptly stops once his watch goes off. This apparently signals that the spectators are all dead due to being poisoned by the usher , leading the killing to end. The sheriff tels his officers that they need not continue investigating since the whole thing was a movie....? The officers think he is crazy until he demands one of them shoot him. The sheriff is shot and survives the fatal wounds without a pause, until the usher shows up on the scene to inform him that one of the spectators is still alive and the show must go on.

The sheriff is informed that the killer is a tire and after witnessing the motel owner having his head blown up right near him is forced to believe it. The police now are on the hunt for the lone tire.The usher returns to the viewing spot and tries to get the last remaining spectator to eat in order  to poison him but he will not and after time he moronically eats the food himself. Then we flash forward to 3 days later and see several dead bodies spread through the town. A few officers find the tire locked up in a victims house and plan to lure it into a trap by using a mannequin and some TNT, and forcing the woman being stalked to read into a Mic so the tire believes the prop is her. After several failed attempts the sheriff just shoots the tire with a shotgun for an anticlimactic ending which upsets the last remaining spectator. Then surprisingly a tricycle rolls out of the house and kills the last viewer. Before the credits roll there is a ten minute scene of just the tricycle rolling around town aimlessly until a army of tires begin to follow into Hollywood.making for a truly bizarre end to a really strange piece of film.

I have to say as ridiculous as this movies premise is and how stupid it may sound while reading this review, I must say the film itself is pretty damn entertaining. The gore effects are all very well done and it is just hard to turn away from such an oddity. I never thought I would ever in my life see a horror film about such a random object, I mean dolls,and haunted houses using household items as props I guess make sense so why not a tire? This film is obviously not meant to be taken seriously as even the opening monologue tells you that right off the bat but however the cinematography and head blasting effects make it quite the visual treat.I gotta say I have seen some strange films in my day but none have been so strangely off the wall and out of nowhere as this one. If you like indie films you will dig this one for the camera shots and angles and effect fans will enjoy this not only for the gore pieces but for the unusual ways they manage to make the tire actually appear to have a life of it's own. Definitely not for everyone but I would recommend it for fans of odd cinema for sure because you can't get much stranger than this ........I do however have a real odd one for my next review so we will put that theory to test very soon.

Gore:7 ( Lots of head exploding goodness that would make scanners proud)
Nudity:2 ( just one nude scene and not much to be seen although the lead actress is cute)
Story:6 ( I wasn't even sure what to rate this one since nothing makes sense but I guess thats how it was meant to be)
Characters:5 ( With a tire as a lead can;t rate this one too high although the Sheriff was hilarious)
Overall: 6 out of 10