Rubber
buckle up kids because this is gonna be a fucken' essay. it’s also obnoxious and dumb, so skip it if you were hoping to respect me at all after reading this.
i noticed this on max in the "hidden gems" section. saw the poster, read the one-sentence blurb. thought i'd go into it blind, didn't look up any reviews or anything, just went right into it.
from the very first frame, RUBBER blew my expectations out of the water.
everything about this is amateur. it's overfocused, overexposed. the dialogue's clunky and there's maybe two and a half solid performances out of the whole crew. a sense of stumbling experimentation pervades the film. and you know what?
it's fantastic.
RUBBER is creative, innovative, and new. it's a filmmaker with a good idea and a genuine love for the craft shooting in the dark, and sometimes they miss. and that's okay. because that's life, and that's learning. as an aspiring filmmaker, certified film-school asshole, and someone who's uncertain about his future in art, RUBBER is a beacon of hope. watching this film, being enraptured by it -- it warmed my heart because it made me feel like i could make art. i think as i wander, stumble, and misstep through my career and development as a filmmaker, artist, and person, my first viewing of RUBBER will remain a core memory for me. it gives me hope that someone with a story to tell -- someone with an insatiable creature in their mind that just wants to put art into the world -- can do it.
RUBBER is clumsy, artistic, lovable, disjointed, strange, creative, amateur, and perfect.
i hope i'm lucky enough and talented enough to make a film like RUBBER one day.