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Released by: Magnolia Home Entertainment
Released on: 6/7/2011
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Cast: Stephen Spinella, Jack Plotnick, Roxane Mesquida, Wings Hauser
Year: 2010
Purchase from Amazon
The Movie:
Watch this trailer, please.
Those who love “B†flicks, “Z†flicks, and midnight movies will probably look at that trailer and get a woody. Those same people might also be somewhat disappointed in what actually plays out.
Rubber is a movie within a movie. That is not a spoiler, as the first few minutes of the film explain what is going on. There is a group of spectators in some sort of experiment or exercise, who are given binoculars and told to watch what goes on through said binoculars. They are in essence watching a movie. The movie they are watching is what is shown in the trailer.
Also explained in the opening monologue is the fact that things happen in movies for “no reasonâ€. Such as, why is the alien E.T. brown? No reason. So you can forget asking yourself “why does the cop car have two cops then one without one of them exiting the car†because apparently there is no reason. The movie is filled with tons of “no reasons†because as the monologue explains, life is made up of a bunch of no reason events.
That's all you're going to get for any story synopsis here. The tire (whose name, apparently, is Robert) is actually kind of cute as the story progresses and the director does a really good job at making the audience have feelings for the inanimate object. Of course none of the human characters are likable so that helps give the tire personality. It watches television; it drinks water. At one point it rolls itself into a pool and sits at the bottom a la The Graduate, and you might find yourself hoping he'll somehow get out of the pool and not drown. For the filmmaker to bring an audience to that point is a pretty neat accomplishment. The tire does murder people and there's plenty of blood and guts to behold, but the tire isn't the real story of the movie. The real story, from what this writer understands at least, is not even a story; it's a statement. It's a statement from the director about typical movie audiences and even typical Hollywood movies. His portrayal of the spectators as moviegoers has all kinds of underlying commentary that's thinly veiled.
The acting is great, from the top-billed people to the second bananas, and there are some nice pieces of dark humor sprinkled about. Even some good one-liners to evoke some chuckles. The music is interesting (composed in part by Mr. Oizo, a pseudonym for the director), and fits really well with the mood of the show. The photography is beautiful, with lots of long static shots of desert landscape, and the frame composition is very appealing. Dupieux has a wonderful style, at least in this film, and his movie is paced and pieced together with satisfying results. The only real complaint here is the misleading trailer and movie description on the disc case. It is not what either source would lead one to believe and that may leave a sour taste in the mouths of some. So be forewarned, and of course form your own opinion.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The film is displayed on Blu-ray with a 1080p high definition, AVC encoded image, in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. It looks stunning. It was shot on digital video so there is no grain and the picture is clear as a bell. The setting is in the drab desert and everything looks dirty and grimy, but the colors shown really jump out. The skin tones are perfect, the blacks levels are nice and deep. It is simply an excellent picture. The audio is on the same platform as the video presentation. It's an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track and good use is made of all the speakers and the subwoofer (like when the tire goes into killing mode). There are some very quiet moments and the natural sounds seem as though they are in the room. There is a great balance between the music, the sounds effects, the dialogue, and long moments of quiet. No disc authoring problems to report with either the video or the audio.
The supplemental material is primarily interviews, totaling about 25 minutes or so, with the director and the three main actors. The director is interviewed by a male blow-up doll and when the director talks it sounds like French in reverse (with subtitles). There is about a minute-long “Rubber Teaser Camera Testâ€, a five-minute “HDNet: A Look At Rubberâ€, and the theatrical trailer. Decent stuff, but a making-of would have been very welcomed.
The Final Word:
This is not an awful movie by any stretch. It's well made, well constructed, and well acted. It's the marketing that makes it a bit disappointing. Do not expect to see an hour and a half story about a killer rubber tire and perhaps you'll come away better for it.
Plus it has an older Wings Hauser, albeit in a small role, and that alone makes it worth checking out.
And the ET example was direct from the movie.