Rubber (2010 film)
Encyclopedia
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
.
, sometimes participating in the narrative action and sometimes commenting on it.
Meanwhile, an accountant is ordered by his master to feed the audience a poisoned turkey, but the man in a wheelchair survives, as he doesn't eat any of the turkey, so the accountant tries to poison him with more food. When the food is turned down, the accountant eats it himself, and dies from the poison.
In the end, the tire is destroyed, but then reincarnated as a tricycle, and destroys the man in the wheelchair, causing him to explode entirely. The tricycle recruits several tires and rolls to Hollywood, where the film concludes.
After the film was shown at Cannes, it was picked up for US distribution by Magnet Releases. Rubber has its premiere outside of France on July 9, 2010 at the Fantasia Festival
.
Rubber was shown at the Sitges Film Festival where it had a positive reception. 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."
The DVD
and soundtrack were made available to purchase from March 14, 2011 from Ed Banger merchandise website coolcats.fr. The DVD and Blu-ray were also made available to pre-order from other online retailers such as Amazon
, to be released June 7, 2011.
Rubber has made over $92,000 in domestic theatres on a limited release as of 6/10/2011.
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." 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." 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."
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". 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."
2010 Cannes Film Festival
The 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 12 to May 23, 2010, in Cannes, France. The Cannes Film Festival, hailed as being one of the most recognized and prestigious film festivals worldwide, was founded in 1946. It consists of having films screened in and out of competition during the...
.
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 psycho-kinetically causing people's heads to explode. Settling into an obscure, desert town, the tire finds a woman that he is interested in. A sheriff investigating the murders is inside and outside the diegesisDiegesis
Diegesis is a style of representation in fiction and is:# the world in which the situations and events narrated occur; and# telling, recounting, as opposed to showing, enacting.In diegesis the narrator tells the story...
, sometimes participating in the narrative action and sometimes commenting on it.
Meanwhile, an accountant is ordered by his master to feed the audience a poisoned turkey, but the man in a wheelchair survives, as he doesn't eat any of the turkey, so the accountant tries to poison him with more food. When the food is turned down, the accountant eats it himself, and dies from the poison.
In the end, the tire is destroyed, but then reincarnated as a tricycle, and destroys the man in the wheelchair, causing him to explode entirely. The tricycle recruits several tires and rolls to Hollywood, where the film concludes.
Cast
- Stephen Spinella as Lieutenant Chad
- Jack PlotnickJack PlotnickJack Stuart Plotnick is an American film and television actor.Born in Worthington, Ohio, Plotnick is based in Hollywood...
as Accountant - Roxane MesquidaRoxane MesquidaRoxane Mesquida is a French actress and model based in Los Angeles.Mesquida grew up in Le Pradet, a little town located in South of France. Her mother, writer Françoise Mesquida, is French/Spanish and her father is Italian/American but Mesquida never got to know him...
as Sheila - Wings HauserWings HauserWings Hauser is an American actor, director and film writer.-Life and career:Hauser was born Gerald Dwight Hauser in Hollywood, California, the son of Geraldine and Academy Award-winning director and producer Dwight Hauser...
as Man in Wheelchair - Ethan CohnEthan Cohn-Movie:Cohn starred in the films Cry Wolf, Rubber, The Experiment and Lady in the Water.He portrays Owen Kellogg in Atlas Shrugged , the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's novel of the same name.-Television:...
as Movie Buff Ethan - Charley Koontz as Movie Buff Charley
- Hayley Holmes as Cindy
- Haley RammHaley RammHaley Michelle Ramm is an American actress. She played a young Jean Grey in X-Men: The Last Stand and appeared in multiple episodes of the CBS drama Without a Trace throughout 2007 and 2008.-Early life:...
as Fiona - Daniel QuinnDaniel Quinn (actor)Daniel Quinn is an American actor.-Biography:Daniel Quinn is from Milwaukee, where his father Roger worked for Pabst Brewing Company and his mother Rosemary owned and operated an employment agency. He was raised in Wisconsin with his two older sisters, Kathleen and Colleen. He began performing at...
as Dad - Devin Brochu as Son
- Tara Jean O'Brien as Martina the Cleaning Lady
- David BoweDavid BoweDavid Bowe is an often seen but rarely recognized character actor in American movies and television. His best known role is that of "Weird Al" Yankovic's sidekick, Bob, in 1989's UHF...
as Mr. Hugues - Remy ThorneRemy ThorneRemington Hunter "Remy" Thorne is an American actor.-Personal life:Thorne was born in Miami, Florida, and now resides in California. He has three sisters: Bella , Dani , and Kaili .-Career:...
as Zach - Cecelia Antoinette as Woman
- Thomas F. Duffy as Deputy Xavier
- Blake Robbins as Deputy Luke
- Pete Dicecco as Deputy Pete
- Courtenay TaylorCourtenay TaylorCourtenay Taylor is an American actress.- Acting career :...
as Deputy Denise - James Parks as Deputy Doug
- Gaspard Augé as Hitchhicker
- Pedro WinterPedro WinterPedro Winter aka Busy P is a French electrohouse DJ, producer, manager and owner of the Ed Banger Records label. Pedro Winter manages Cassius, Cosmo Vitelli, artists on his Ed Banger Records label, and managed Daft Punk from 1996 to 2008.-Life:...
as Tire Burner - TireTireA tire or tyre is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground...
as Tire
Release
The film was shown on May 15, 2010 at Cannes Critic's Week.After the film was shown at Cannes, it was picked up for US distribution by Magnet Releases. Rubber has its premiere outside of France on July 9, 2010 at the Fantasia Festival
Fantasia Festival
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996...
.
Rubber was shown at the Sitges Film Festival where it had a positive reception. The film was shown in Toronto at the After Dark Film Festival. Fangoria
Fangoria
Fangoria is an American magazine devoted to horror and exploitation films, which has a number of associated brands:* Fangoria Comics* Fangoria Films* Fangoria RadioFangoria may also refer to:* Fangoria , a Spanish electro pop band...
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."
The DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and soundtrack were made available to purchase from March 14, 2011 from Ed Banger merchandise website coolcats.fr. The DVD and Blu-ray were also made available to pre-order from other online retailers such as Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, to be released June 7, 2011.
Rubber has made over $92,000 in domestic theatres on a limited release as of 6/10/2011.
Reception
The film received mixed reviews. On Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
it received more positive than negative reviews, currently holding a 68%. indieWire
IndieWire
indieWIRE is a daily news site for the independent film community. It covers indie, documentary and foreign language films, as well industry news, film festival reports, filmmaker interviews and movie reviews...
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." The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
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." Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
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."
Outside Cannes, the film received positive reception at other film festivals. Twitch Film
Twitch Film
Twitch Film, also known simply as Twitch, is an English language Canadian website featuring news and reviews of mainly international, independent and cult films. The website was founded in 2004 by Todd Brown, a cinephile with personal interests in arthouse and grindhouse cinema...
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". The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
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."