I believe that it was the modern philosopher Francis Schaffer who believed that we are living in some Age of Non-Reason. If he was alive today, he probably would have cited the film Rubber as evidence of that.

Rubber is a film by Quentin Dupieux, and it is about a tire that comes to life and starts to kill things with some odd psychic power that makes its victims explode. It is like a slasher film, with no explanation as to why this is occurring. Most films would have used the set-up of a science experiment gone wrong, or something.

In fact, a character in the film (a typical small-town sheriff stock character) comes out at the beginning and claims that there is no reason for this to be happening, and goes on to explain that the best stories have no reason for occurring. I have to admit that there is a point there, but I generally think that films that try and penetrate that fragile fourth wall do it at their own risk.

Rubber even takes breaking through the fourth wall a step further by having an audience near the scenes to watch events of the film with binoculars. I still don’t know what to make of that, but these characters become involved in the film more than they should. I hope that doesn’t spoil anything, but I’ll take another chance and reveal that the aforementioned sheriff seems to believe that he is in a film. That could have been interesting if the film had developed that, but I’m not certain if this is what you would want for a film such as this.

All I really have to say about Rubber is that I admire a film that tries not to follow conventions of typical films. One of the reasons why I liked Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is because it didn’t feel like a typical movie as it focused a lot on scenes that most directors would have left out. Rubber, by another director named Quentin, tries far too hard to make a non-typical film that it ends up falling into conventions of most typical films. If you don’t believe me, watch it and the ending, and you’ll probably agree.