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Rubber (2010 film)

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Rubber
French release poster
Directed byQuentin Dupieux
Written byQuentin Dupieux
Produced byGregory Bernard
Julien Berlan
Kevos Van Der Meiren
StarringStephen Spinella
Roxane Mesquida
Jack Plotnick
Haley Ramm
Wings Hauser
Ethan Cohn
CinematographyQuentin Dupieux
Edited byQuentin Dupieux
Music byGaspard Augé
Mr. Oizo
Production
companies
Realitism Films
Canal+
Arte
Distributed byUFO Distribution
Release dates
  • 15 May 2010 (2010-05-15) (Cannes)
  • 10 November 2010 (2010-11-10) (France)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageEnglish
Budget$800,000[1]
Box office$680,914[2]

Rubber is a 2010 English-language French independent absurdist horror comedy film written and directed by Quentin Dupieux. The film is about a tire that comes to life and uses psychokinetic powers to kill people.

The film was produced by Realitism Films and had its world premiere at the Critics' Week of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, where it received positive reviews from critics.

Plot

[edit]

A group of people in a California desert are gathered to watch a "film". A sheriff named Chad points out that many moments in cinema happen for "no reason", that life is full of this "no reason", and that this film is an homage to "no reason". In the commencing movie, Chad is sometimes participating in the narrative action and sometimes commenting on it. An accountant passes binoculars to the audience members and rides off on a bicycle, ignoring questions about the upcoming "film". The audience starts looking through their binoculars into the distance, waiting for the "film" to start. Throughout the movie, this group of people witnesses the narrative and display different reactions to what they're seeing.

Somewhere in the desert, a tire named Robert suddenly comes to life. After learning to stand and roll upright, he discovers he has psychokinesis and tests his newfound powers by making inanimate objects and animals explode. A woman drives by and Robert attempts to use his powers on her, but he only succeeds in making her car stall before he is run over by a truck. The woman manages to start her car and drive off. Robert follows down the road and kills the truck driver that ran him over.

Robert locates the woman at a nearby motel and enters the room next to hers. He kills the motel's maid after she throws him out of the room. The accountant, also residing in the motel, gets a call from someone he addresses as "master" and, after hanging up, starts butchering a turkey. Sheriff Chad arrives at the scene to investigate the string of murders. Meanwhile, the accountant visits the in-film audience and throws the cooked turkey towards them, who devour it aggressively, having been starved for two days. Later, all but the one spectator who did not eat any turkey begin to suffer intense abdominal pain. While questioning the motel owner, Chad suddenly stops upon hearing an alarm go off, stating to the motel owner that the audience has started to succumb to the poison and tells him to go home. He says this to his fellow police officers too and tries to convince them that nothing is "real" by having one of them shoot him and reveal the maid's corpse as alive, and while he does survive "fatal" shots accompanied with blood, the corpse is still dead and the accountant informs him of the one still alive spectator. As an embarrassed Chad resumes his investigation, he witnesses Robert kill the motel owner and leads the cops on a "tire hunt". The accountant attempts to persuade the wheelchair-using audience member into eating food, but becomes hungry himself, eats the poisoned food and dies.

Robert comes across a group of people burning a large pile of tires and goes on a 3-day killing spree. Chad lures the tire into a trap using dynamite on a mannequin dressed as the woman and equipped with a remote speaker the woman is speaking through in order to aggravate Robert. The wheelchair user demands a quicker ending to the "film" from Chad, who increases the trap's aggression; Robert blows up the mannequin's head, but the dynamite fails to detonate. The man who uses a wheelchair mocks the sheriff for the botched trap, leading Chad to destroy Robert with a shotgun off-screen and tossing the tire's carcass at the man, who continues to criticize him for the anticlimax. Robert is reincarnated as a tricycle and kills the man in the wheelchair before recruiting an army of tires on his way to Hollywood.

During the credits, the opening scene plays again, but this time from different angles, revealing that Chad is not speaking to anyone.

Cast

[edit]

Production

[edit]

The effects of the tire moving were done via practical effects such as remote controls.[3] Director Quentin Dupieux has noted that due to the inherent "emptiness" of a tire, making a remote-controlled tire was difficult as "you can't really hide the mechanisms well". CGI effects were used for the shots of heads exploding; during filming Dupieux used practical effects, but he was unhappy with the results.[3]

During the writing process, the tire, Robert, was designed solely as a bad guy with no redeeming qualities.[4] While shooting, however, Dupieux determined that this was the wrong approach realizing "there's nothing evil about a tire" based partly on early camera tests. Robert was reworked to be "more like a stupid dog".[4] The 2008 animated film WALL-E, specifically the first act, was also an influence on the character.[3]

The film begins with Lieutenant Chad making a speech about how events in movies often happen for "no reason". Dupieux has stated he was inclined to put that speech in because he was not interested in explaining how the tire came to life, although he knew such a setup would be expected.[3] The meta element of the film came organically, as Dupieux quickly grew tired of writing about a killer tire. He was partly influenced by an experience where he snuck into a theater playing his previous film Steak only to find that no one else was in the theater, which he noted was "kind of scary."[3]

Release

[edit]

The film was shown on May 15, 2010, at Cannes Critic's Week.[5] After the film was shown at Cannes, it was picked up for US distribution by Magnet Releasing.[6] Rubber had its outside-France premiere on July 9, 2010, at the Fantasia Festival.[7]

Rubber was shown at the Sitges Film Festival where it had a positive reception.[8] 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."[9]

The DVD and soundtrack were made available to purchase from March 14, 2011, and the DVD and Blu-ray Disc from June 7, 2011.

Reception

[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes it has 69% rating based on 87 reviews, with an average rating of 6.10/10. The site's consensus reads: "A clever premise gets plenty of comic blood and violence but it's hampered by some questionable storytelling techniques from director Quentin Dupieux."[10] On Metacritic it has a score of 59% based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[11] Eric Kohn of 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."[12]

Outside Cannes, the film received positive reception at other film festivals. Kurt Halfyard of 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".[13] Farihah Zaman of 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."[14] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian stated that, he "sensed something a little conceited" about the film, but considered it to be "a road movie with a difference".[15]

Sukhdev Sandhu of 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."[16] Leslie Felperin of 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."[5] Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter also gave a negative review, saying "While the filmmaking has a certain casual style and the special effects involving the tire are frequently more absorbing than the narrative, without any relatable characters, identifiable tone or real raison d'etre, Rubber just can't get any traction."[17]

Will Leitch from The Projector concluded his review by stating that Rubber is "a movie about how watching movies is stupid", giving the film a grade D.[18] Brent McKnight of PopMatters wrote "As the tire's tale becomes more bizarre and morbid, Rubber's purpose runs loses traction."[19] Nick Schager of Slant Magazine stated that, "any such gesture is negated not only by the incessant, overt proclamations of pointlessness, but more fundamentally still by the lifelessness of the film as a whole, which with uninvolving affectation manages only to spin its wheels."[20]

Gregory Bernard said of the film: "We're really blessed to have so much attention on such a small film. We both took risks – [Quentin] artistically, me in production – and the fact that we had, in general, a very positive response from the public; we've had audiences who really loved it."[21] Retrospectively, Roselyn Quill of Collider reviewed the film, and provided a positive review, saying: "Embracing a nihilistic mindset can lead to the birth of something entirely fresh and innovative. In this way, Dupieux sets the precedent for what film could be and thus creates an open invitation for others to follow in his footsteps towards "no reason"."[22]

Soundtrack

[edit]

The official soundtrack for the film Rubber, by Gaspard Augé and Quentin Dupieux (the latter under his stage name "Mr. Oizo"), was released on November 8, 2010, on Ed Banger Records.

Accolades

[edit]
Awards Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival 14–24 July 2011 Best of Puchon Quentin Dupieux Won [23]
Odesa International Film Festival 16–24 July 2010 International Competition – Golden Duke Quentin Dupieux Nominated [24]
Scream Awards 18 October 2011 Best Independent Movie[25] Rubber Nominated [26]
[27]
[28]
Sitges Film Festival 16 October 2010 Carnet Jove Jury Award – Official Fantastic Julien Berlan, Grégory Bernard, Josef Lieck and Kevin Van Der Meiren Won [29]
[30]
Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver – Official Fantàstic Panorama Selection Quentin Dupieux Won
Citizen Kane Award for Best Directorial Relevation Quentin Dupieux Won
Toronto After Dark Film Festival 13–20 August 2010 Most Original Film Rubber Won [31]
[32]
Warsaw Film Festival 8–17 October 2010 Free Spirit Award Rubber Nominated [33]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ Collis, Clark (4 March 2011). "'Rubber': Director Quentin Dupieux reveals all about his totally nuts killer tire movie". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  2. ↑ "Rubber (2011)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Archived from the original on 15 April 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Harley, David (29 December 2010). "Interview: 'Rubber' Director Quentin Dupieux!". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on 13 September 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  4. 1 2 Nemiroff, Perri (21 February 2011). "Interview: Rubber Writer-Director Quentin Dupieux". CinemaBlend. Archived from the original on 25 June 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  5. 1 2 Felperin, Leslie (16 May 2010). "Rubber". Variety. Archived from the original on 1 February 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  6. ↑ Mitchell, Wendy (20 May 2010). "Magnet burns US deal for Rubber with Elle Driver". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 23 May 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  7. ↑ Laperrière, Simon. "Rubber: International Premiere". Fantasia Festival. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  8. ↑ Hopewell, John; Mayorga, Emilio (11 October 2010). "'Neon,' 'Kidnapped' shine at Sitges". Variety. Archived from the original on 28 May 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  9. ↑ Parker, Trevor (24 August 2010). "Toronto After Dark Report: "Rubber"". Fangoria. Archived from the original on 14 August 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  10. ↑ Rubber at Rotten Tomatoes
  11. ↑ "Rubber Reviews". Metacritic.
  12. ↑ Kohn, Eric (17 May 2010). "Cannes Review : Bad Ideas In Close Up: Quentin Dupieux's "Rubber"". indieWire. Archived from the original on 21 September 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  13. ↑ Halfyard, Kurt (10 July 2010). "Fantasia 2010: Rubber Review". Twitch Film. Archived from the original on 29 July 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  14. ↑ Zaman, Farihah (12 October 2010). "2010 Fantastic Fest #2: Good Movies, Stupid Plots". HuffPost. Archived from the original on 17 October 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  15. ↑ Bradshaw, Peter (7 April 2011). "Rubber – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 25 December 2017. Retrieved 29 May 2026.
  16. ↑ Sukhdev, Sandhu (17 May 2010). "Cannes Film Festival: Quentin Dupieux's Rubber, review". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 10 October 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  17. ↑ Lowe, Justin (15 November 2010). "Rubber: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 22 June 2021. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  18. ↑ "Rubber Movie Review". Yahoo! Movies. 29 March 2011. Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  19. ↑ McKnight, Brent (7 April 2011). "Quentin Dupieux's 'Rubber' Doesn't Bounce". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2026.
  20. ↑ Schager, Nick (27 March 2011). "Review: Rubber". Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on 15 August 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2026.
  21. ↑ Johnston, Rich (12 April 2011). "On Rubber, Wrong And Reality - Producer Gregory Bernard Discusses Working With Quentin Dupieux". Bleeding Cool. Avatar Press. Archived from the original on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  22. ↑ Quell, Roselyn (1 May 2022). "'Rubber': An Ode to Nihilism and the Meaningless Void". Collider. Archived from the original on 26 June 2025. Retrieved 29 May 2026.
  23. ↑ "Puchon Fantasy Film Fest Gets Under Way". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 15 July 2011. Archived from the original on 29 May 2026. Retrieved 29 May 2026.
  24. ↑ Intn'l film festival wraps up in Odesa, The Voice of Russia Archived 2012-09-08 at the Wayback Machine, 24 July 2010
  25. ↑ "Scream Awards - Best Independent Movie". Spike TV. Archived from the original on 23 September 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  26. ↑ Boucher, Geoff (7 September 2011). "'Harry Potter,' 'X-Men: First Class' lead Scream Awards". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 13 October 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  27. ↑ Enk, Bryan (7 September 2011). "Spike TV Screams For 'Harry Potter' and 'X-Men'". MTV. Archived from the original on July 30, 2023. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  28. ↑ Harris, Scott (16 October 2011). "Winners and Losers At The 2011 Scream Awards". MTV. Archived from the original on 29 July 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  29. ↑ Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya (16 October 2010). "Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, by Jalmari Helander, wins the Best Motion Picture". Sitges Film Festival. Archived from the original on 21 October 2010. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  30. ↑ Pacheco, Jared (19 October 2010). "SITGES 2010: The winning films!". JoBlo.com. Archived from the original on 29 May 2026. Retrieved 29 May 2026.
  31. ↑ Fossen, Pam (29 July 2010). "Toronto After Dark Film Fest Lineup Announced!". Toronto Film Scene. Archived from the original on 7 August 2010. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  32. ↑ "Toronto After Dark Announces 2010 Lineup: HUMAN CENTIPEDES, Killer RUBBER Tires, Deadly ROBOGEISHAS!". Toronto After Dark Film Festival. 30 July 2010. Archived from the original on 11 September 2014. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  33. ↑ Kozlov, Vladimir (7 October 2010). "Warsaw Int'l Film Festival comes of age". The Hollywood Reporter. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 19 September 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2026.
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