SUNDOWN (B+) - Tim Roth is compelling as a catatonic rich man whiling away his time on a beach in Mexico, ignoring a family crisis back home in London. Like the fish gasping for air on a boat in the opening scene, Roth's Neil is suffocating under weight of his family and wealth and perhaps other concerns.
When a family matriarch dies, Neil conveniently misplaces his passport and must send his family members back to London without him. He proceeds to hole up at a seedy hotel, dip his toes in the water and start sleeping with a local bodega proprietor. He makes no effort to return for the funeral.
When the family (and the family lawyer) eventually return to retrieve him, our perspectives have shifted about what exactly is going on. (There will be a final dramatic twist (among others) near the end -- explaining Neil's state of mind -- but it is pretty well telegraphed in one of the first scenes.) Roth is delightfully numb and pretty heartless; he plays well off of Charlotte Gainsbourg as Alice, who is beyond frustrated with Neil.
Some viewers might tune out, lacking the patience for this poor little rich boy experiencing his first-world problems while the working class serves him buckets of beer or shares his bed. But there's something compelling about this relentless bout of depression, and it's intriguing to watch two heavyweight actors spar together. And the final third features some clever, compact storytelling -- and gritty photography -- from Mexican writer-director Michel Franco in what feels like a breakthrough for a relatively young filmmaker.
FAST FORWARD THEATER
RUBBER (D+) (2011) - There's a fine line between absurd and stupid. This warped satire, which stars a loose tire, is mo' meta than meta.
Of course, this quirky concoction from Quentin Dupieux ("Keep an Eye Out," "Deerskin") can't just offer your ordinary average anthropomorphic whitewall -- no, this discarded hunk of rubber must also boast psycho-kinetic powers that it uses to blow up humans and various creatures. Cool.
And this is not just a traditional story about a little tire that could, but there is a self-referential B-plot involving an audience out in the desert watching the tire's journey. And then there's another meta layer on top of that featuring lectures on film history.
There are occasional amusements that you'd get out of any weird prop puppet -- the tire stops off at a motel and watches race-car driving on the television; it takes a shower. But none of the humans stand out. The police come off about as marginally funny as the C-team from "Reno 911." I fast-forwarded through some of the scenes of the tire just a-rollin' down the road, like a cowboy riding the trail in a spaghetti Western (an obvious influence here).
You could possibly spot potential in such an arch idea, perhaps a shot at clever absurdism, but the execution is flat and pointless.
BONUS TRACKS
From "Rubber," this R&B nugget, "Just Don't Want to Be Lonely" from Blue Magic:
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