Movie Review: Rubber

Hi everyone,

I was able to watch a few movies over the four day weekend (some from the movie theater, some from Netflix), so now I'll be able to review them for you guys! :'D

The first on my list of movies is Rubber, "a 2010 French comedy film about a tire that comes to life and kills people with its psychic powers" (summary taken from Wikipedia). If the word "kill" is making you uncomfortable, there's no need to worry as there's virtually no violence in the movie besides explosions (caused by the tire) and a gun scene near the end. Anyways, the first time I heard about the film was during Mr. Records' class, American Literature. I can't recall what the lesson was about, but I do remember Mr. Records talking about some tire that rolls around blowing people up. The idea of a rubber tire rolling around and causing explosions with its mind was hilarious to me, so I wanted to watch it. Remember, this film is a comedy, so despite all the gore and explosions, there will be funny moments.

*WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!*

Summary:

There's an accountant waiting in what seems to be the middle of a desert, surrounded by wooden chairs. A police car arrives and starts knocking the chairs down one by one. When all the chairs have fallen, the car stops, and a policeman gets out of the car to open the trunk. Another policeman, Chad, gets out of the trunk (I have no idea why he's in the trunk in the first place), looks straight into the camera, and starts delivering this speech about how many things in life happen for no particular reason. "No reason," he calls it. He talks about how scenes in movies happen for "no reason," life is full of "no reason," and that this film (not the actual movie you're watching; will be explained later on) "is homage to 'no reason.'" After he's finished, he gets back into the car trunk, and the camera moves around to show that Chad was actually addressing a crowd, and the crowd gathered to watch a film in the desert. Apparently, they are going to watch this "film" with binoculars, because the "film" is taking place far away. I'm not really sure why anyone would agree to watch films with binoculars, let alone go to the middle of a desert with a group of people to watch a movie, but this is comedy, so anything goes. The crowd is confused about what they're watching because all they see is the desert plains, but eventually, a tire comes to life and learns to roll around without falling down.

Believe or not, the tire has a name: Robert. Robert has just discovered that it is alive. It first starts crushing things with its own weight, but when it comes across a glass beer bottle, it can't crush it and it becomes frustrated. The tire starts to vibrate and eventually, the beer bottle explodes due Robert's psychokinetic powers. Robert then spends the entire day blowing up things it comes across with its mind. At the end of the day, Robert has tired itself out, and, like most of the movie watchers, falls asleep.

The next day starts with the audience watching on as Robert wakes up. The tire continues to roll around and blow things up. As it keeps rolling, it reaches a highway and has its first encounter with a human being. Due Robert's predictable nature, it's quite obvious that the tire wants to blow the person up.

I'm terrible at concluding things, so this will be another one of my summary's "unbearable" cliffhangers! ... OTL

What I liked about it:

I really liked the "no reason" bit in the beginning. It was that part that got me engaged in the movie. I also liked the random directions and twists the movie would take at times, like when Chad appears within the movie, which means that the tire is actually alive and is blowing up things with its mind in our world, or when Robert starts following a woman, hinting at the possibility that the tire is capable of feelings. This is pretty much all I liked about the movie, although the idea of tires blowing things up with their minds was so weird, that it sustained me throughout the movie.

What I disliked about it:

I didn't like the gore in the movie, and in my opinion the gore was the worst part of the movie because I cannot stomach stuff like that (the poor bunny! D:). That's just me though, so I guess the gore doesn't hinder the film that much.

The plot kind of got confusing in the middle when Chad repeatedly told the other officers to go home. At some point in the movie, Chad reveals that the whole film was a hoax and that all the "actors" could go home. The said "actors" don't understand what he means by "go home" because they believe that everything is real. Chad then tells one of the officers to shoot him, and when one of them shoots him, he's fine and says he doesn't feel a thing. So I was extremely confused; is the film real or not? Why is Chad okay? If Chad is telling the truth, why don't the other "actors" understand and just go home?

Besides the gore and the confusion, everything else was okay.

Overall:

Definitely an original piece of work, or at least, it is to me, because how often do you hear about tires that come to life and blow people up? Probably not often. If you do hear about stuff like this often, then... I guess you must have an interesting life.

I was led to believe that Robert is somewhat an antagonist because it kept blowing people up, but after rethinking it over, I guess it just blows people up because maybe it sees humans the way humans see tires (I hope that analogy was not badly phrased; I tend to do that); unimportant and void of life. I think the woman it kept following was an exception, but besides her, no one else stood out to the tire. My hypothesis is further proven by the fact that Robert seemed angry when it saw other tires being burned by humans. It sought to avenge the burned tires and killed all the people in revenge. As Robert has only started living just recently, it's reasonable to believe that the tire doesn't understand the meaning of life or it doesn't understand the full consequences of its actions. If the situations were reversed, I would probably go on a rampage and destroy all the tires in town because they killed people and I wanted to protect myself.

TLDR; my point is that the tire could be an anti-hero, it may not have understood the weight of a life, which is why it first started blowing people up, and it later went on a murderous rampage because it believed humans were a threat to tires and its existence.

- Melissa He, 12th Grade, Editor/Writer for Entertainment