Rubber

August 5, 2012

We didn’t intend to watch this movie. I was scrolling through the guide one Saturday night, looking for something to watch and I paused on Rubber long enough to read the description. (Killer tire? Seriously?) The picture-in-picture indeed showed a tire rolling through the desert, so I clicked over, curiosity killed the cat…

The tire was rolling along in the desert and was crushing things. The tire came upon a bottle and wasn’t able to crush the bottle by rolling over it. The tire contemplated the bottle and started vibrating…and then the bottle exploded. When the tire came upon a bunny rabbit, I said, “If that rabbit doesn’t explode, then I’m changing the channel!” The rabbit exploded, so I didn’t change the channel…

Somehow, we got sucked in and ended up watching the whole damn movie. It didn’t make a damn lick of sense, but I kept on watching anyway. Why was the tire sentient? No reason. Why was the tire able to make things (and people’s heads!) explode? No reason. Why was there an audience with binoculars watching the tire kill things? No reason. Why was the tire in love with a girl? No reason. Why did the tire watch NASCAR? I DO know the reason – because there are other tires in NASCAR races.

I do know that the main reason I kept watching was the cinematography – it was enthralling. I also know that it’s a rare film that can confuse me and frustrate me and make me think. Rubber made me think hard…like a David Lynch movie – that kind of thinking hard. Go ahead and laugh at me for liking a French film about a murderous tire, but if you watch Rubber, I know you’ll never look at a tire lying on the side of the highway in quite the same way again…