Rubber
Metascore
59 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 21
  3. Negative: 1 out of 21
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  1. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Karina Longworth
    Mar 29, 2011
    100
    An essay on storytelling and spectatorship within When Inanimate Objects Attack schlock - one infused with the haunting aura and disillusionment of a post–"Easy Rider" road movie - Rubber is some kind of miracle.
  2. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    Apr 14, 2011
    83
    Rubber is engaging, brisk and smart enough that the audience wins, too. It's grand, mindless fun that makes a thoughtful point.
  3. indieWIRE
    Reviewed by: Eric Kohn
    Mar 29, 2011
    83
    Dupieux's utterly zany slice of narrative subversion transcends that singularly goofy premise to create one of the more bizarre experiments with genre in quite some time.
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    Mar 31, 2011
    80
    If you meet the fiendishly deadpan Rubber halfway, its assured mix of cinephile artiness and grindhouse spoof will offer some oddball surprises.
  5. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    Mar 31, 2011
    80
    While it can be seen as an environmental horror movie (if you must), Rubber doesn't dig down but instead merrily rolls on, as Mr. Dupieux plays with narrative and form. In one wonderful cinematic coup the tire spots a crow and shifts toward the bird so that it's framed in the tire hole, an angle that turns the tire into a camera. Point. Click. Explode.
  6. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    Apr 14, 2011
    75
    Rolls straight over silly, smashing through stupid without stopping and then barreling into a kind of insane comic brilliance without so much as a speed bump to slow it down.
  7. NPR
    Reviewed by: Ian Buckwalter
    Apr 1, 2011
    75
    What sets Dupieux's film apart is its unexpected secondary dimension: an absurdist meta-commentary on cinema itself that hilariously articulates the notion that the movies stop existing the moment we stop watching, like the sound of an unobserved tree falling in the forest.
  8. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    Apr 1, 2011
    75
    Picture Monty Python writing an unusually odd "Twilight Zone" episode directed by surrealist Luis Buñuel. Or just empty your mind of all sense: This is Rubber.
  9. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Bill Goodykoontz
    May 5, 2011
    70
    Maybe Rubber is an homage, maybe it's a statement on horror films and their audiences, maybe it's a total goof.
  10. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    Mar 31, 2011
    67
    It is, in effect, a movie-house meta mirror, warped and weird, strange but true (except when it isn't). It's whatever you want it to be, which doesn't necessarily make it a great movie (although it contains moments of greatness), but it IS – by virtue of its premise alone – boldly unique.
  11. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    May 13, 2011
    63
    It's a fun one to talk about -- if only for the opportunity to shake your head in amused disbelief at what you just saw.
  12. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: Mark Keizer
    Mar 29, 2011
    60
    Where Rubber veers off the road is that for all its giggly moments and meta-whatever, it's never quite funny enough or scary enough.
  13. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    Apr 28, 2011
    50
    The carnage is cartoonishly graphic, but the onlookers watching through binoculars from a nearby sandy bluff are impressed.
  14. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    Apr 7, 2011
    50
    Though it's undoubtedly ingenious, for such a clever movie, it's a shame Rubber couldn't be more fun.
  15. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    Apr 3, 2011
    50
    Mostly it's got a barely tolerable level of metaness.
  16. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    Mar 31, 2011
    50
    Rubber has its share of jollies, at least when it isn't boring us to death with the fourth-wall-busting monkey business. Although I appreciate Dupieux's efforts at satire, the audience-interaction subplot goes nowhere fast.
  17. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    Mar 31, 2011
    50
    While it's admirably perverse for a "killer-tire movie" to be this snooty, it's about half as clever as it thinks it is.
  18. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Joshua Rothkopf
    Mar 29, 2011
    40
    To the movie's small credit, there's very little grasping for larger significance: It's a dumb horror film, complete with a sexy female lust object (Kaboom's Mesquida) undraping for a shower scene.
  19. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Justin Lowe
    Mar 28, 2011
    40
    With a homicidal tire as the main character, the film isn't scary enough to qualify as horror and not nearly as amusing as a black comedy should be.
  20. Variety
    Reviewed by: Leslie Felperin
    Mar 28, 2011
    40
    Neither scary, funny, nor anywhere near as clever as it seems to think it is, picture offers audiences few reasons to want to see it beyond its one-joke premise.
  21. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    Mar 31, 2011
    25
    Rubber could have been a modest horror novelty, a wicked, malevolent version of "The Red Balloon."

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.0 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 38 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 16
  3. Negative: 5 out of 16
  1. MatthewXploder
    10
    This movie is by far the most unique film I have ever seen. It was like a weird dream when I was watching it. It had some funny parts and most of the time it couldn't be predicted what would happen next. I would have to say this is a must see movie for those who admire uniqueness.… Full Review »
  2. ILHM
    7
    "And now for something completely different!" RUBBER follows Robert the tire as he takes off on a deadly rampage through the desert, crushing everything in his path and using his powers of pyrokinesis to destroy anything he cannot kill through conventional means. Meanwhile, a group of spectators watch from afar, occasionally commenting on the carnage. The point? To have no point. To be completely without reason. And RUBBER proves its point very well. In fact, it may even be the most pointless film ever made! The silly premise is much better suited for the short film format, where its punch line would go off without a hitch instead of dragging it on to feature length. It provides only momentary satisfaction when Robert inquisitively inspects his surroundings and blows the heads off of innocent desert creatures in a fit of gory rage. Quentin Dupieux opens the film with a pretentious monologue about the pointlessness of cinema that immediately establishes his sense of self-importance. In other words, he is telling the audience they are not intelligent enough to understand that this is satire, so he spells it out for them. That does not make RUBBER any less clever or entertaining in small doses, however. RUBBER is unique enough in concept to warrant a view.… Full Review »
  3. filmtrashreview
    8
    An amazing sense of style and wit rubber does what nothing before it has ever done, tries to make the worst film of all-time. Along the way the film about a killer tire redefines non sense by creating one of the smartest comedies ever. The sweat and sexy DSLR camera action also helps propel this indie to the next level. WARNING: The film is not for those that can't bare it's premise.… Full Review »
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