50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

Pre-Rubber, the height of absurd, experimental sci-fi cinema of the noughties was probably Daft Punk’s Electroma, a long walk through the desert that attracted about as many viewers as Quentin Dupieux’s opus. Despite not garnering much of an audience on release, though, Rubber has stood the test of time as an indie darling and a yardstick for weeding out the proper film fans from the posers.

Dupieux gives us Robert, a sentient tyre with telekinetic abilities, who embarks on a killing spree out in the Californian desert, enacting his vengeance against those who have wronged him and his kind. But when Robert encounters a woman who his powers don’t work on, he develops a rapid onset obsession that threatens to lead to his own demise.

Lieutenant  Chad (Stephen Spinella), who is at the same time character, narrator to an in-film audience, and narrator for the film itself, purports that the movie is working from a point of nihilism, claiming to be telling a story with no larger meaning and purpose, that is nought but an homage to “no reason”. But to take him - and therefore Dupieux - at his word is to fall into the trap. Rubber is, in fact, a biting critique of Hollywood excesses, built in the vein of Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, but with the satisfying thrills and spills to keep us coming back time and again.