Rubber (2010 film)
| Rubber | |
|---|---|
 French release poster |
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| Directed by | Quentin Dupieux |
| Produced by | Gregory Bernard Julien Berlan Kevos Van Der Meiren |
| Written by | Quentin Dupieux |
| Starring | Stephen Spinella Roxane Mesquida Jack Plotnick Haley Ramm Wings Hauser Ethan Cohn |
| Music by | Gaspard Augé Quentin Dupieux |
| Cinematography | Quentin Dupieux |
| Editing by | Quentin Dupieux |
| Studio | Canal+ |
| Distributed by | UFO Distribution (France) Magnet Releasing (US) |
| Release date(s) | 15 May 2010 (Cannes) 10 November 2010 (France) 25 February 2011 (US: VOD) |
| Running time | 82 minutes [1] |
| Country | France |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $500,000 |
| Box office | $100,370 |
Rubber is a 2010 French comedy film about a tire that comes to life and kills people with its psychic powers. It was directed and written by Quentin Dupieux. The film was shown at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
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[edit] Plot
In the California desert, a tire comes to life and embarks on a killing spree as an audience watches the events unfold through binoculars. The tire kills by vibrating intensely and psychokinetically causing people's heads to explode. Settling into an obscure, desert town, the tire finds a woman that he is interested in. Chad, a sheriff investigating the murders, is inside and outside the diegesis, sometimes participating in the narrative action and sometimes commenting on it.
Chad tries to end the movie early by poisoning the audience, but one of them, a man in a wheelchair, doesn't eat the poisoned turkey Chad's accountant gives them, and survives. When Chad witnesses the tire kill a man at the pool, he leads the cops on a search for the tire. Meanwhile, the accountant tries to poison the man in the wheelchair with more food, but ends up eating it himself.
Eventually the tire goes on a bigger killing spree, after seeing people collect tires and burn them. When the cops find the tire, Chad sets up a mannequin (resembling the woman the tire is interested in) with dynamite, intending for the tire to blow its head up, and in doing so, detonate the dynamite and destroy itself. However, when the tire destroys the mannequin's head the dynamite does not explode, so Chad shoots and kills it with a shotgun. After Chad leaves, the tire is reincarnated as a tricycle. After killing the man in the wheelchair, the tricycle recruits several tires and rolls to Hollywood, where the film concludes.
[edit] Cast
- Stephen Spinella as Lieutenant Chad
- Jack Plotnick as Accountant
- Roxane Mesquida as Sheila
- Wings Hauser as Man in Wheelchair
- Ethan Cohn as Movie Buff Ethan
- Charley Koontz as Movie Buff Charley
- Hayley Holmes as Cindy
- Haley Ramm as Fiona
- Daniel Quinn as Dad
- Devin Brochu as Son
- Tara Jean O'Brien as Martina the Cleaning Lady
- David Bowe as Mr. Hugues
- Remy Thorne as Zach
- Cecelia Antoinette as Woman
- Thomas F. Duffy as Deputy Xavier
- Blake Robbins as Deputy Luke
- Pete Dicecco as Deputy Pete
- Courtenay Taylor as Deputy Denise
- James Parks as Deputy Doug
- Gaspard Augé as Hitchhiker
- Pedro Winter as Tire Burner
- Robert the Tire as Tire
[edit] Release
The film was shown on May 15, 2010 at Cannes Critic's Week.[2] After the film was shown at Cannes, it was picked up for US distribution by Magnet Releases.[3] Rubber has its premiere outside of France on July 9, 2010 at the Fantasia Festival.[4]
Rubber was shown at the Sitges Film Festival where it had a positive reception.[5] The film was shown in Toronto at the After Dark Film Festival. Fangoria magazine stated the film "deeply split" the audience reaction saying that Rubber earned "huge laughs and applause as well as the only boos heard by Fango at the fest."[6]
The DVD and soundtrack were made available to purchase from March 14, 2011 from Ed Banger merchandise website coolcats.fr.[7] The DVD and Blu-ray were also made available to pre-order from other online retailers such as Amazon and released June 7, 2011.
Rubber has grossed $100,370 in domestic theaters on a limited release as of 12/4/2011.[clarification needed]
[edit] Reception
The film received mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it received more positive than negative reviews, currently holding a 68%. indieWire called the film "one of the more bizarre experiments with genre in quite some time." and that it "does begin to wear out its welcome around the sixty minute mark, but you can’t blame Dupieux for giving it a shot."[8] The Telegraph wrote a negative review of the film, saying "How could it not be brilliant? By, at 85 minutes, being an hour too long. By being arch rather than schlocky. And by wasting too much time on dull dialogue celebrating its "No Reason" philosophy."[9] Variety also gave a negative review, saying that Rubber is "Neither scary, funny, nor anywhere near as clever as it seems to think it is, pic offers auds few reasons to want to see it beyond its one-joke premise."[2]
Outside Cannes, the film received positive reception at other film festivals. Twitch Film gave the film a positive review saying it was "impeccably shot, scored, and designed" and "The film is intellectual wankery of the highest order in the sheepskin of a B-film of the lowest order".[10] The Huffington Post wrote that Quentin Dupieux "succeeds in creating an entertaining, sometimes even tense horror film with the very same footage he lightly mocks. The result is an uber-cerebral spoof that is at once silly and smart, populist like a mildly trashy B-movie yet high brow like absurdist theater."[11]
[edit] Soundtrack
[edit] References
- ^ "Rubber (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 2011-03-28. http://www.bbfc.co.uk/AFV276272/. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
- ^ a b Felperin, Leslie (May 16, 2010). "Rubber". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117942777.html?categoryid=31&cs=1. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
- ^ Mitchell, Wendy (May 20, 2010). "Magnet burns US deal for Rubber with Elle Driver". Screen Daily. http://www.screendaily.com/news/distribution/magnet-burns-us-deal-for-rubber-with-elle-driver/5014237.article. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
- ^ Laperrière, Simon. "Rubber: International Premiere". Fantasia Festival. http://fantasiafestival.com/2010/en/films/film_detail.php?id=308. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
- ^ Hopewell, John; Mayorga, Emilio (October 17, 2010). "'Neon,' 'Kidnapped' shine at Sitges". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118025497.html?categoryid=19&cs=1.
- ^ Parker, Trevor (August 24, 2010). "Toronto After Dark Report: "Rubber"". http://www.fangoria.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1812:toronto-after-dark-report-rubber&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=167. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
- ^ "Rubber - DVD + OST special pack". http://www.coolcats.fr/rubber-dvd-ost-special-pack.html.
- ^ Kohn, Eric (May 17, 2010). "Cannes Review : Bad Ideas In Close Up: Quentin Dupieux's "Rubber"". indieWire. http://www.indiewire.com/article/cannes_review_bad_ideas_in_close_up_quentin_dupieuxs_rubber/. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
- ^ Sukhdev, Sandhu (May 17, 2010). "Cannes Film Festival: Quentin Dupieux's Rubber, review". The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/cannes-film-festival/7733542/Cannes-Film-Festival-Quentin-Dupieuxs-Rubber-review.html. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
- ^ Halfyard, Kurt (July 10, 2010). "Fantasia 2010: Rubber Review". http://twitchfilm.net/reviews/2010/07/fantasia-2010-rubber-review-1.php. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
- ^ Zaman, Farihah (October 12, 2010). "2010 Fantastic Fest #2: Good Movies, Stupid Plots". http://www.huffingtonpost.com/farihah-zaman/2010-fantastic-fest-2-goo_b_759654.html. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
