Sunday, March 31, 2013

Rubber (2010)

Year: 2010

Director: Quentin Dupieux

Cast: Roxane Mesquida, Goodyear Tire

Country of Origin: France

Rating: R

Time: 82 mins.

I've never heard of Quentin Dupieux until recently when his much hyped and buzz-worthy film, Wrong was premiere at Sundance this year. And after discovering that Cinefamily was going to have showings of Wrong for the next couple of weeks, I decided to see what the fuss was about with Dupieux by watching his previous film, Rubber. And to my amazement, Rubber turned out to be an incredibly meta, absurdist, and cackling-inducing film about a tire that kills anything in it's way. Yes, you read that right and it does sound absolutely insane and it is. I was live-tweeting and could not believe what I was seeing. Don't let the serene and melancholy stills fool you because this film is downright certifiably cuckoo! What was psychotically enthralling about this film was it's refreshing take on a mundane subject that seems like it was freshly squeezed and beaten till it's most absurd content came spilling through. And somehow, IT WORKS. 

If you told me two days ago that I would be watching a film about a Goodyear Tire's journey, I would've told you that I would rather eat dog shit. And here we are. Two days later, baffled, stunned, and jolted by this little film that grew to be bigger than anything I've witnessed in the last two years. After further research on Dupieux (clearly French), I uncovered that he is also an electronic musician under the stage name Mr. Oizo. With track titles like "Bruce Willis is Dead" and "Gay Dentists," Dupieux embodies and exudes the idea of absurdism into every medium of his work. But in the music sense I enjoy listening to Hun (shown below) among other tracks. While I might be a bit hesitate to watch his current film, Wrong. I will be sure to keep my eyes and arms open to experience more of Dupieux's extraordinarily idiosyncratic pieces of work. Because OBVIOUSLY anyone who can create a film about a tire and make it undoubtedly hypnotizing is a GENIUS in my book. B-