Smoking Causes Coughing (2022) Review

Quentin Dupieux has come a long way from being the guy who made the catchy song for the jeans advert in 1999 to the creative filmmaking force that wrote, directed and edited 10 feature films.

The common thread through all of his work is his insane invention and eye for the surreal. From creating the strange dog like yellow puppet that featured in the video for Flat Beat and became the star of various Levi’s campaigns to 2022’s Incredible But True “a sweetly surreal tale of the sadness of ageing, weaving together the complexities of forgotten dreams and desires with ants and.. a robot penis.”

Smoking Causes Coughing is no exception. Part Sci-Fi kids TV satire, part potmataue campfire ghost story, part warped comment on the superhero genre it is all entertaining, packing an awful lot of into its brief 1 hour 15 minute run time.

The film opens with a gore-tastic battle between the heroic Tobacco Force and Tortusse a giant evil turtle, which they win by combining their powers of Benzène, Méthanol, Nicotine, Mercure and Ammoniaque and giving the monster cancer until he explodes all over a family who are watching nearby.

After being hosed down by their emotionless robot assistant Norbert 500 they are contacted by Chief Didier, a green goo dribbling rat who is also there boss. Worried the vigilante squad is lacking team spirit the Chief sends the five-some on a enforced retreat to invigorate their cohesion as a crime fighting force.

Finding that they enjoy the peace and quiet of their mandatory break the Tobacco Force also start to bond by telling each other scary stories. Sadly their R & R is radical cut short when they are informed that Lézardin (Man Bites Dog’s Benoît Poelvoorde) plans to annihilate the Earth.

Filled with strange scenes and mad ideas it is impossible to predict what will happen next in Smoking Causes Coughing and a lot of the comedy comes from the normalisation of these mad moments. From the fridge that contains a supermarket and cashier to Lézardin’s family dinner you have no idea where you are going one moment to the next and that is refreshing especially for what is fundamentally a super hero film.

With colourful costumes, crazy puppets, bodged together sets and badly done monsters who are obviously just guys in suits, Smoking Causes Coughing appears at first to be a parody of Power Rangers the hugely popular children’s action Sci-Fi series that has run form 1993 till now and was inspired by the Japanese Tokusatsu shows such as Kamen Rider and Super Sentai.

Dupieux’s take is most definitely not for youngsters. Taking a tip from Troma his movie features barrels of blood and guts and the five heroes swearing constantly. Scenes such as the disgusting hand puppet Chief Didier commenting on one of the teams tits in his first video call and Norbert 500 committing suicide in a lake when his replacement is ordered are hilariously incongruous given the surroundings and set up.

With Jean-Pascal Zadi’s Mercure more concerned with seeing his family than hanging out with his mates, Anaïs Demoustier Nicotine’s uncomfortable obsession with her slobbering rodent leader and the whole groups total emotional breakdown when the end of the world is announced, in many ways the point is that this super powered gang is very human. They laugh, they argue and they often don’t know what the hell is going on just like the audience.

Rather than stick to one straight story Dupieux decides to throw in three others as Gilles Lellouche’s Benzène, a strange little girl and a talking Barracuda all taking turns to tell the most frightening tale to the team. There is a surreal slasher short involving two couples on holiday who find a 1930’s Thinking Helmet, an brief eco message and a ultra dark comedy about a young guy stuck in a wood chipping machine.

As proven in his brilliant B-movie Rubber about a sentient killer tire with psychic powers, Dupieux knows horror and all of these mini-movies are unexpected and excellent. That said with the short run time I couldn’t help be disappointed to cut away from the main concept and the world of the Tobacco Force as the potential for even crazier villains and silly situations seemed endless.

Unpredictable and at times unbelievable, Dupieux further proves his creative genius and many would see his failing to stay with one thread long enough as a strength that protects ideas becoming played out. A laugh out loud genre jumping trip Smoking Causes Coughing will keep you guessing and serves as a welcome tonic to the super hero cycle we are currently entrenched in.

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