Early on in 'Rubber,' the Sheriff offers a lengthy monologue directly to the camera about how so many movies include issues that just have no reason to them. 'Why was ET brown?' 'Why did the two leads in 'Love Story' love each other?' 'Why did some stranger shoot Kennedy in 'JFK'?' Okay, the Sheriff's logic is faulty in the third instance, but his point is that the audience should not expect any reason for what is to follow -- being a tire lying in a heap of garbage in the desert waking up and starting to roll. Add to this unreasonable situation a group of about dozen people standing a safe distance away from the exploring tire watching him with binoculars like a modern day Greek chorus. There is also no reason for this or, actually, for the tire's actions that follow or the fate of the observers -- who in many respects seem to be waiting for Godot.
Being told up front that the film is an absurdist exercise frees us to watch and enjoy without belaboring WHY. There is no why. We simply watch, like our binoculared brethren, as Robert the tire, responds to spider, scorpion, plastic bottle, glass bottle, rabbit, black bird and eventually humans. His consciousness may be expanding as his experience does, but we are offered little as to his motivations or feelings -- except of course, anger. Don't get Robert mad!
Shot on a Canon 5D digital camera, the film, amazingly, has a very finished, professional and beautiful look to it. Also, It's hard to believe Robert was not actually alive, but with remote control mechanisms and a little magic, it didn't look at all corny and one could suspend one's disbelief -- a bit.
Rubber
Filmmaker: Quentin Dupieux
Cast: Stephen Spinella, Jack Plotnick, Wings Hauser, Roxane Mesquida, Ethan Cohn, Charley Koontz, Daniel Quinn
Time: 85 min.
Opening April 1 at the Lumiere in San Francisco
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