Quentin Dupieux has 3 movies streaming now: this is Rubber

 I like weird movies.

           

            I have no problem with weird movies. I enjoy most of David Lynch’s movies, and for the most part I’d consider his movies weird. The story . . . the characters . . . his movies are just weird, and like everything there’s a spectrum when it comes to weird movies and David Lynch pretty much owns it. You have Twin Peaks weird: weird characters but a pretty straight forward story, then you have his Inland Empire which is too weird for me, and in the middle of it all is Lost Highway, Eraserhead, etc. It’s a fine balance between story, characters, and style, and when they all click you get Eraserhead, even the Coen brothers’ movies like Raising Arizona, or Barton Fink, are weird movies that are perfect in every way.

So like I said, I like weird movies. I did not like Rubber –

I actually rated it on Netflix as hating it.

            Rubber starts off with a speech about popular movies and how they all have a thing; a character, a plot point that has no reason for being there. It’s a humorous speech, and it’s an interesting set up for a movie that is apparently centered on the whole “No Reason” thing of all movies. There’s no missing the point, what you’re about to see – a movie about a killer tire – is the epitome of “No Reason”. The main problem with the experiment (because that’s what this movie feels like, an experimental film) is that I began to wonder: Why watch the movie at all? None of it has a reason, none of it has a point, and in turn there is no reason or point in me watching this movie, other than to see a tire roll around killing things and people. I guess some may see that as a reason to watch a movie, and even though I did watch this movie, I fail to see the reason for me doing so (I did, so you wouldn’t have to).

            Of course it can’t just be a string of scenes of the tire killing people, so the movie mixes in other things, the only problem is that those other things are more interesting than the main plot of the movie.

            The group of people in the desert watching the tire, and their comments and the man hosting their viewing party are all much more interesting than the tire they are watching. A group of people in the desert watching horrible things happen regular people is an interesting set up, except that what they’re watching isn’t interesting.

            The movie is short but still not short enough, and I think that were this a short film it would be a lot better. The story is not something that could hold a whole movie, but somehow it got made, and for all the negative points about the movie the one positive is that it is original and pretty well made and the actors all do a pretty good job.

It’s an interesting first film, just not a good one,

but still I’d check out more from the people behind this one.