RUBBER:
A had seen this movie listed on Netflix’s recently watched category for several months, and every time I scrolled past it, it caught my attention in a bizarre way. I never took it seriously of course, but an odd curiosity always held my mind’s attention at least for a fraction of a second. One day I finally gave in to this insane curiosity and read the bio. If I was skeptical before, the description of the movie insured my doubts: this movie was the most ridiculous idea that I had ever heard of. But I watched it, and was treated with a movie experience that I have never had before.
Plot:
The plot of Rubber is simple. A tire wakes up from its ‘slumber’ and kills everything that stands in the way of its goal with its psychokinetic powers while a group of human viewers watch through binoculars. The tire begins the movie innocently rolling and turning through the desert, until it comes across a plastic bottle. Unable to crush it under its weight, the tire loses its temper--not for the last time--and blows it to pieces. From there on out, the destruction crescendos to rodents, birds, and finally humans. While the destruction carries on, several customers have apparently paid a sheriff to watch the tire like a theatre audience would. They stand miles off and gaze through their binoculars, catching every detail of the tire’s adventure. The sheriff and his partner then systematically attempt to murder the members of the audience by food poison in hopes to cut the film short. When one old man confined to a wheelchair refuses to eat, the show must continue, but the tire’s murdering spree is quickly racking up points, forcing the sheriff and his men to try to put a stop to the chaos.
Why You Passed It Up:
You, like me, saw this movie listed and immediately dumped it into the steaming pile of Netflix streaming trash. The movie’s premise sounded completely moronic and a complete waste of an hour and a half of your time. You are justified in this thinking, many obscure movies on Netflix end up being nothing more than a regrettable one to two hours, but in this rare instance you have been passing up on an original piece of cinematic gold.
Fever Rating (100-105): 103.5
Rubber earned a solid 103.5 degrees on my personal rating scale, and here’s why:
The entire story behind this movie is ridiculous, stupid, and pointless. But in the movies first five minutes, you learn that these adjectives are the very theses of the movie. An opening monologue from the sheriff to the audience informs them that life is full of “No reasons.” In summary, the sheriff claims that life, movies, books, and stories are full of events, big or small, that happen for absolute no reason. The mystique of art is marred by nitpicking and over-analyzation by critics and viewers searching for meaning in minute ambiguities. Rubber challenges us to put the flashlight down, lay the codebook aside, and accept that some things happen simply because. Why is the tire killing? Because.The opening sequences personify a baby learning to walk as the tire takes its first revolutions over the wispy sand, immediately garnering an odd, but sincere, human quality. The journey of the tire grows more and more sentimental as you discover the tires sense of humor, adventure, and even sexuality. It's a coming of age tale that every adolescent experiences, and incredibly the director of Rubber captured those emotions exceedingly well. I found myself shaking my head trying to snap myself back into reality when at times I actually sympathized with this piece of auto-mechanic crap. Rubber draws the viewer in through the tire's life story in a unique manner that has never been accomplished on film, and that my friends is reason enough to give this movie a chance. Even if you find yourself hating every second of the film, you'll appreciate the originality, a quality that has sadly disappeared from Hollywood movies in the 21st Century.
