Rubber Johnny

Last updated

Rubber Johnny
Rubber Johnny.jpg
DVD cover art of Rubber Johnny
Directed by Chris Cunningham
Written byChris Cunningham
Produced byChris Cunningham
StarringChris Cunningham
Elvis the dog
Percy Rutterford (voice)
Edited byChris Cunningham
Music by Aphex Twin
Distributed by Warp Films
Release date
Running time
6 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Rubber Johnny is a 2005 British experimental short film/music video written, directed, and produced by Chris Cunningham.

Contents

Plot

The film, entirely presented in infrared vision, begins with an out-of-focus closeup of Johnny (played by Cunningham) babbling incomprehensibly while being interviewed by an unseen man. At one point, Johnny mumbles the word "ma-ma" twice, after which the man asks if he wants his mother to come in. This causes Johnny to start breathing erratically and lose control, so the man gives Johnny a sedative injection to calm him down.

The video cuts to a fluorescent light turning on, a mouse crawling over a press-sticker credits list, followed by the title, "Rubber Johnny", which is shown written on a condom in a backwards-playing shot of it being pulled off a penis.

Johnny sits recumbent in his wheelchair with his oversized head hanging over the back of it. He starts dancing to the Aphex Twin track "Afx237 v.7" [1] while his chihuahua watches. His dancing involves him performing balancing tricks with his wheelchair and deflecting light beams with his hands. A door opens and Johnny is interrupted by an aggressive male voice. During this, Johnny is sitting upright in the wheelchair. The voice yells at him indistinctly, a slap to Johnny's face is implied, and the door is slammed shut.

Johnny snorts a large line of cocaine. [1] He screams in the dark and then hides behind a door, avoiding white light beams. Johnny's face smashes repeatedly into a glass surface, and each time chunks of his face articulate the vocals in the song. He is interrupted a second time by the voice, after which Johnny once again reclines back in his wheelchair and babbles at his chihuahua.

The credits roll over a night scene of a train passing in the distance.

Production

Shot on DV night-vision, the film was made in Cunningham's own time as a home movie of sorts. After filming began in 2002, Rubber Johnny took three and half years of weekends to complete. [2]

Cunningham explained that the effect of an exploding head was made using "just a tangerine and Plasticine with a banger inside it". He created some effects in his own kitchen instead of relying on CGI. [2]

Release

Home media

Rubber Johnny was released on DVD by Warp on 20 June and 12 July 2005. The latter release included a book on the film containing 40-odd pages. [3] [4]

Reception

Pascal Wyse of The Guardian referred to it as "virtuosic grossness", stating, "there is more fleeting shock than real haunting. Perhaps, in all the synaptic mayhem, there is just no room for the viewer to contact their own demons." [5] Treble.com listed the film in its "10 Terrifying Music Videos", calling it "both hilarious and terrifying". [6]

Writing for The Telegraph , Chris Campion asserted that the video was "like a Looney Tunes short for a generation raised on video nasties and rave music". [2]

S. McKeating of Stylus Magazine awarded Rubber Johnny a 'B+' rating, lauding it as an "exceptionally entertaining odd short film" but only for viewers "with the right frame of mind". He additionally demanded that Cunningham "take it one step further and give us an hour and a half of warped material". [1]

Founder of fact-checking website Snopes David Mikkelson noted the circulation of claims that the film was a documentation of real happenings. He noted that the "film itself is difficult to describe in ordinary terms". [7]

Related Research Articles

Chris Cunningham is a British video artist and music video director who directed music videos for electronic musicians such as Autechre, Squarepusher, and Aphex Twin and Björk. Early in his career he worked as a comic book artist. He has created art installations and directed short movies. In the mid 2000s, Cunningham began doing music production work, and has also designed album artwork for a variety of musicians. Cunningham worked on a never completed movie adaptation of William Gibson's cyberpunk novel Neuromancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spike Jonze</span> American filmmaker (born 1969)

Adam Spiegel, known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes films, commercials, music videos, skateboard videos and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wes Craven</span> American filmmaker (1939–2015)

Wesley Earl Craven was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Amongst his prolific filmography, Craven worked primarily in the horror genre, particularly slasher films, where he mixed horror cliches with humor. Craven has been recognized as one of the masters of the horror genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warp Records</span> British record label

Warp Records is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon. It is currently based in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos Alazraqui</span> American actor (born 1962)

Carlos Jaime Alazraqui is an American actor. His extensive voice-over work includes the original voice of Spyro from Spyro the Dragon; Shameless O'Scanty, Leslie P. Lilylegs, Elliott Sampson and Tad Tucker on New Looney Tunes; the Taco Bell chihuahua in the Taco Bell commercials; Denzel Crocker, Juandissimo Magnifico, and Sheldon Dinkleberg on The Fairly OddParents; Rocko and Spunky on Rocko's Modern Life; Scooter on SpongeBob SquarePants; Lazlo, Clam, and other characters on Camp Lazlo; Rikochet in ¡Mucha Lucha!; Grandpapi Rivera in El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera; Carlos Casagrande, Sergio, Vito, and other characters in the franchise of The Loud House; Mr. Weed in Family Guy; and the Disney character Panchito Pistoles since 2001. He is a weekly contributor on The Stephanie Miller Show. In live action, Alazraqui is known for playing Deputy James Garcia on Reno 911!

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Vegas</span> English actor, ceramicist and comedian (born 1970)

Michael Joseph Pennington, better known as Johnny Vegas, is an English actor, comedian, director and writer. He is known for his thick Lancashire accent, husky voice, angry comedic rants, and use of surreal humour.

Warp Films is an independent film and television production company based in Sheffield and London, England, UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daran Norris</span> American actor

Daran Morrison Nordland, known professionally as Daran Norris, is an American actor. He has appeared or voiced characters in more than 400 films, video games, and television programs, including: Gordy in Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide; Cliff McCormack in Veronica Mars; the voices of Cosmo, Mr. Turner, Jorgen Von Strangle, and Anti-Cosmo in The Fairly OddParents franchise; Buddha Bob in Big Time Rush; Spottswoode in Team America: World Police, Knock Out in Transformers: Prime and Jack Smith on AmericanDad!. In anime, he is best known for his roles as Tasuki and Mercurymon in the English dubs of Fushigi Yûgi and Digimon Frontier respectively.

<i>Lost Horizons</i> (Lemon Jelly album) 2002 studio album by Lemon Jelly

Lost Horizons is the second studio album from the British electronic duo Lemon Jelly, released on 7 October 2002. Released by XL Recordings and produced by Nick Franglen, the album generated two charting singles in the UK, "Space Walk" and "Nice Weather for Ducks"; the latter has often been called the album's stand-out track. The album, which is built around a mix of organic instrumentation and idiosyncratic samples, was met with largely positive reviews by music critics, although it was somewhat criticised due to its near-constant mellowness.

<i>Walk the Line</i> 2005 film by James Mangold

Walk the Line is a 2005 American biographical drama film directed by James Mangold. The screenplay, written by Mangold and Gill Dennis, is based on two autobiographies by the American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash: Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words (1975) and Cash: The Autobiography (1997). The film follows Cash's early life, his romance with the singer June Carter, his ascent in the country music scene, and his drug addiction. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Cash, Reese Witherspoon as Carter, Ginnifer Goodwin as Cash's first wife Vivian Liberto, and Robert Patrick as Cash's father.

<i>Monster a Go-Go</i> 1965 film by Herschell Gordon Lewis

Monster a Go-Go! is a 1965 American science-fiction horror film directed by Bill Rebane and Herschell Gordon Lewis. The film is considered to be one of the worst films ever made.

Alex Rutterford is a British director and graphic designer working mostly on music videos.

Aaron Lohr is an American actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beau Billingslea</span> American actor (born 1944)

John "Beau" Billingslea is an American actor, known as the voice of Jet Black in the critically acclaimed anime Cowboy Bebop, Ogremon in Digimon and Homura and Ay, the Fourth Raikage in Naruto Shippuden. In addition to voice acting, he appeared in many television shows and some films including North and South Book II: Love and War, Just Jordan, The Hannah Montana Movie and Star Trek Into Darkness.

<i>Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins</i> 2000 American animated film by Tad Stones

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins is a 2000 animated science fiction comedy film directed by Tad Stones, who is also the producer with Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley. It serves as a spin-off of Pixar's Toy Story franchise and released on direct-to-video in the United States on August 8, 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Wyse</span> American musician

Chris Wyse is an American bassist and vocalist. He is best known for his performances with The Cult, Ozzy Osbourne, Ace Frehley and Hollywood Vampires. He is also the vocalist and bassist for Owl, a band he founded in 2007.

<i>Terrifying Girls High School: Lynch Law Classroom</i> 1973 Japanese film

Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom is a 1973 Japanese film in the sukeban subgenre of Toei's "Pinky violence" style of Pink film. The second in the Terrifying Girls' High School series, this was the last entry in the series directed by Norifumi Suzuki and to pair Reiko Ike and Miki Sugimoto. It is notable as the first film to depict an omorashi fetish scene to a theatrical audience, in which a girl is forced to drink a lot of water and then is denied permission to go to the toilet, forcing her to wet her skirt in class.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maury Sterling</span> American actor

Charles Maury Wallace Sterling is an American actor. He is known for playing Max Piotrowski in Homeland, Rafferty in the comedy film Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and Lester Tremor in the action film Smokin' Aces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Knoxville</span> American stunt performer and actor (born 1971)

Philip John Clapp, known professionally as Johnny Knoxville, is an American stunt performer, actor, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known as a co-creator and star of the MTV reality stunt show Jackass (2000–2001) and its subsequent movies.

"Come to Daddy" is a track by the British electronic music producer Richard D. James, released under his main pseudonym Aphex Twin. It was released as a single through Warp Records on 6 October 1997, coinciding with the lengthier extended play release of the same name. A music video for the song was released, which ranked at number one on Pitchfork's Top 50 Music Videos of 1990s list. In October 2011, NME placed the song at number 42 on its "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years" list. The song peaked at number 10 on the Danish Singles Chart and number 36 on the UK Singles Chart.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Rubber Johnny - Movie Review -Stylus Magazine". 17 May 2005. Archived from the original on 16 February 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Campion, Chris (28 May 2005). "Cheap but never cheerful". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 22 June 2018.
  3. ↑ "Rubber Johnny (2005) - Chris Cunningham". Allmovie.com. Allmovie. Archived from the original on 19 November 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  4. ↑ "Electric Proms - New Music Shorts Labels". 2008. Archived from the original on 24 February 2020.
  5. ↑ Wyse, Pascal (27 April 2010). "Chris Cunningham". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  6. ↑ "10 Terrifying Music Videos". Treblezine. 27 October 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  7. ↑ "Rubber Johnny". Snopes.com. Archived from the original on 28 March 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.