Rubber, Somewhere, The Films of Frank Henenlotter

Just watched Rubber, it's a kind of absurdist comedy about a killer tire, written and directed by Quentin Dupieux. The slightly half arsed plot concerns Robert (pronounced 'rubber', clever huh?), a disguarded old tire who inexplicably comes to life and begins a journey of self discovery and murder along an American highway, eventually becoming transfixed by a mysterious young woman. Meanwhile, a group of people watch the story take place through binoculars (as a "film"). I guess that sounds like a Fellini rip off or something, but it's actually quite funny and not too pretentious. Although you can see the influences, the end result is quite original. I thought it was kind of awesome.








Another new film thats probably worth checking out is Somewhere by Sofia Coppola. It's a nice little mood piece/character portrait about a hollywood actor played by Stephen Dorff, and his relationship with his young teenage daughter played by Elle Fanning.














Frank Henenlotter made a series of 'out there' horror c-movies during the 80s, probably the greatest of which is Basket Case. It's about an ex siamese twin who carries around his deformed brother in a basket.



The other good one is Brain Damage. The young protagonist, Brian, discovers theres a parasitic talking worm living in his body. He supplies it with fresh human brains in exchange for endorphines that the worm injects into his own brain.