Rubber: Film Review

3:19 PM PST 11/15/2010 by Justin Lowe

With a homicidal tire as the main character, this spoof isn’t scary enough to qualify as horror and not nearly as amusing as a black comedy should be.

Somewhere in the California desert, a crowd gathers outdoors to watch the live enactment of a movie, peering through binoculars provided by a mysterious errand runner (Jack Plotnick). Training their lenses on the desert landscape, the audience members watch as a discarded tire (dubbed Robert in the credits) animates in a deserted dump, rising upright. Wobbly at first, it gradually gains balance and confidence rolling aimlessly around the landscape. Sound and visual effects indicate a degree of intelligence at about the housepet level -- which perhaps explains why the tire doesn’t have a speaking role.