Ever know a movie entirely by its reputation? That’s more or less what I had on the bizarre “horror” film Rubber, where a sentient, killer tire was using psychic powers to blow up people’s heads for…reasons. I knew it was weird, meta, and possibly intentionally bad.
That more or less describes the movie as a whole.
The movie opens with Lieutenant Chad (Stephen Spinella) explaining to the audience that many things in movies are done for “no reason”. Some of these things actually have reasons, and some are immaterial. Why is E.T. brown? No reason. Why does JFK die? No reason. That sort of thing. Chad explains that sort of thing continues into the real world, and then a group of people show up, are given binoculars, and get to watch the movie happening somewhere over a nearby desert ridge. That would be where a tire pops up out of the sand and starts rolling around. The tire seems hostile as much as any tire can seem hostile since, you know, it doesn’t talk. But every so often, it will stop and vibrate a bit, and then something will explode. He does it to a tin can first, and then a rabbit and a crow. Eventually, the tire spots a woman (Roxane Mesquida) driving down the road. After a failed attempt to get to her, it starts to follow her. The tire spies on her in the shower at a motel, watches her swim in a pool, and when it isn’t doing that, it’s watching TV in a room of its own.
Oh, and if anyone comes along, the tire makes their head explode. Why? No reason is given. What is clear is the spectators with the binoculars are basically “the audience,” and as long as they keep watching the action, the movie will keep going no matter how ridiculous or nonsensical it is. And there’s one man in a wheelchair (Wings Hauser) who is, for some reason, really invested in this story. To the point where even Chad and an accountant representing the filmmakers (Jack Plotnick) really don’t understand why.
So, yeah, that’s Rubber in a nutshell. Does it explain much of anything? Not really. It’s incredibly self-aware. Chad for one is well aware that he’s an actor/character in a fictional world. The movie is about a killer tire. That’s stupid on so many levels, but the thing is the movie does not for a minute pretend it isn’t. This movie knows the idea of a killer tire is dumb. It doesn’t try to be anything other than dumb. It doesn’t explain anything. It just keeps going as long as the man in the wheelchair keeps watching.
So, sure, it’s a metaphor for the real audience at home. No movie exists in a sense unless someone is watching it. Characters only exist when they are in a place where an audience can see them, and the man in the wheelchair is actually rather picky in the grand scheme of things. So, sure, the tire (named “Robert” in the closing credits) may watch mournfully (?) at a tire fire, and the tire may or may not be stopped at the end of the movie. But it keeps going. Is it scary or funny? Well, not really. It’s more like commentary on having an audience, and if that’s your thing, well, this may work for you.
Grade: C+
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