"Rubber" may be many things, but one thing it probably isn't is something like anything you've seen before.

Whether that's good or bad will have to be decided by the individual viewer. What to make of a movie that opens with a man addressing the camera directly with a soliloquy about the unifying principle of life and movies being that everything happens for no reason, and then sitting down an audience in the middle of the desert to watch the movie within the movie that we're watching before poisoning them all to death? What to make of a movie about a tire that comes to life and uses its telekinetic powers to make people's heads explode? Is this movie a cautionary environmental tale, a sort of revenge-of-the-trash horror film? Is it a deconstruction of the slasher/splatter genre? There are enough references to classic movies (and the film's structure itself is already reflexive) to suggest that "Rubber" is a riff on or homage to something, but what that something is I'm not sure.

"Rubber" isn't quite good enough to rise above film-stunt status; you can too often practically hear the people behind the camera congratulating each other on their own cleverness. But it is often quite funny, mostly thanks to Stephen Spinella, as the police officer who serves as both our guide and the chief of police on the trail of the killer tire, and Jack Plotnik, as the chief's geeky right-hand man. If it left me somewhat baffled, it also left me thinking about it for a long time afterward, and even now I think back on certain moments in the film with a chuckle.

Grade: B+

Sigh... I've been really looking forward for this one. And the premise makes 'Rubber' sound almost irresistible. But there are two ways of killing off a smart movie idea: 1.) Believe that the idea works so well with the audience that it won't notice inconsistencies and bad acting. 2.) Constantly remind the audience what a smart idea it is watching.

Unfortunately, 'Rubber' succeeds in both: the only saving grace in terms of acting is Wings Hauser, the other leads make you seriously ponder an early leave. And what's with the pompous speeches? To be sure, 'Rubber' is not about taking you out or into a moment. It's about constantly reminding you that this moment isn't really happening. For some, that might be a nice existentialist twist. For others, like me, such ambition is completely out of place in a film about a tire blowing people's heads up.

If you'd edit this down to five minutes, you'd get a seriously hilarious short, though.

As for more rewarding options in the 'weird French horror film with excellent cinematography' section, I suggest 'Amer' (2009). It's equally pointless but delightful eye-candy (in the literal sense of the word).