UTTERMEDIA

The first review on IMDB for Rubber reads, in a positive light, the less said about this movie the better. They are right – you would find yourself going in circles if you over-analysed this 85-minute French experiment.

The first quote I saw for this movie called it “batshit”. Tongue in cheek, there really isn’t a more fitting word. It isn’t mad. It isn’t crazy. And it is not “rAnDoM”. It’s just absolute batshit. But it works, with me at least.

Rubber follows the brief adventure of a hellbent tyre (or tire, in the movies native tongue) assassinating various animals, people and objects in its path. It stops for nothing. It’s unassuming, cute and inquisitive. But it’s just a tyre.

However, we find ourselves, the viewer, viewing viewers. You very quickly learn that this films narrative has been turned on its head. And the prologue from our main protagonist, your perfect brash beige weathered-skinned high-trousers desert cop, tells us it’s for absolutely “no reason”. And for your own sake, just remember those two words throughout the movie, otherwise you will find yourself questioning why, how and what at every turn.

With the script jumping in and out of the storyline, you’re not left alienated or confused. The minimal dialogue is basic but bold, and the casting is I think what could easily have ruined Rubber. If the acting or delivery had been anything less than perfect, it would have been a cheap b-movie disaster. Roxane Mesquida is engaging and tough, with her razor-sharp jaged physique. Stephen Spinella is dusty, ageing and cocksure, yet loveable and calm too. But the solid-gold performance is from Jack Plotnick; awkward, greasy, nervous, I found myself laughing in pity at the poor guy.

No stranger to the strange, Dupiex is probably best known as the musician and producer behind Mr Oizo and his single, Flatbeat. The keen-eared of you will recognise those low-end electro glitches and blips straight away. Shot through the eye of a needle, the digital splendour of Dupeix’s camera-work utilizes the best in what looks like HDSLR and a rather sharp stock of shallow DoP lenses. A dozen macro shots and huge contrast between warm and cold grading, the storyboard seemed to survive intact with very little CG or after-effects.

There’s not a whole lot else you can say about the film… it’s different. It breaks the barrier between the viewers and the actors. With some sly Coen-esque dialogue, and the vivid over-bleaching of Robert Rodriquez, it changes your viewing perspective by pulling you right in to the atmosphere, yet pushing you right to the back of your understanding. The same way that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind messes with your psyche, and the same way that The Truman Show suddenly makes you question all those simple and mundance everyday surroundings.

The tyre takes you on the unrelenting journey of a maniac. Blood, sand, explosions and murder, all outro’d to a brilliant homage to 70s cop shows. Rubber isn’t unconventional. In fact, it has to follow our expected cinema conventions just to break out of them again. Rubber is the anti-movie. And it’s either right up your street, or straight over your head.