Fantastic Fest: 'Rubber'

Nice treads!

Part post-modern meta-thriller, part audience-baiting, fourth wall obliterator, and chock full 'o Scanners-style erupting craniums, Schizopolistic dada panache, and mindfuckery galore, Quentin Depieux's pseudo-narrative feature is nearly as effortlessly mind-expanding as his once-upon-a-turntable Mr. Oizo persona.

But how best to encapsulate/explain the nature of a film that, by its own definition, strives to be unexplainable? Let's just say that Depieux, working with a team of actors including Wings Hauser and Thomas F. Duffy that have clearly taken the film's oft-repeated mantra of "no reason" to heart and possibly beyond, offers up a dreamily-shot vision that owes as much to Buñuel as it does to Beckett.

Duffy is Officer Xavier, a cop -- or maybe just an actor playing a cop -- who, within the context of Rubber's internal narrative, is on the hunt for a mysteriously sentient tire named Robert. Not so odd, you say? Huh. Robert the tire has developed his steel-belted mental acuity to the point where he (it?) can implode cans, crows, rabbits, and ultimately people. This is a tire in a vendetta kind of mood. And then, you know, things get weird.

Dupieux and his obviously game-for-anything cast use their film as both a mirror reflecting the popular idea of cinema and a way in which to redefine the stodgy idea of the linear narrative. Frankly, the less you know about Rubber going in, the more fun your going to have. Suffice to say you've never, ever seen anything like it.

Rubber screens Friday, Sept. 24 at 6:45pm and Monday, Sept. 27 at 9:15pm at the Alamo South Lamar 3.