Rubber (C+)

As Lieutenant Chad says in the opening monologue of Quentin Dupieux's new film Rubber, many things happen in a film for no reason whatsoever. Why does E.T have to be brown? Why do aliens always have a need to destroy New York? Why do the characters in terrible romantic comedies always fall in love by the end of the film? No reason. In Rubber, Quentin Dupieux takes this idea of "no reason" and raises it to an all new level: If there isn't a reason to explain E.T's brownness, why does there have to be a reason to explain a killer tire with telepathic abilities who decides to use his powers to destroy humanity? Of course there shouldn't be a reason to explain how this murderous tire came to be, any backstory in this film would have defeated the entire purpose. But unfortunately, this movie simply has no reason to exist.

Let me make this clear: I enjoy the B-movie/softcore grindhouse genre (EX: Steven Spielberg's Duel), and I also enjoy the Sci-Fi movie of the week for "so bad it's good" entertainment. Rubber can easily fall into both of those categories, but my problem with the film is that by the 45 minute mark you've seen everything this film could possibly throw at you (besides the surreal/genius final ten minutes, which I am not going to spoil in this review).

Now this is the part of the review when I knowingly become a bit of a pretentious pseudo-intellectual when it comes to this film, but something needs to be said about the film's techno score. I know very little about scoring movies, but the score of this film is incredible. After watching the film, I immediately picked up two tracks from the soundtrack on iTunes. I'm not sure if it's on youtube (it probably isn't), but if it is you should check it out. Okay, my pretentious pseudo-intellectualness is now over.

Rubber is not a great film, but it's an incredible ode to "no reason." People die for no reason, inanimate objects have supernatural powers for no reason, and unless you want a fun first forty-five minutes and a hilarious twist there's no reason to see it.

Grade: C+