Smoking Causes Coughs Review: A Cure for Predictable Superhero Movies

Just minutes to Quentin Dupieux’s Smoking causes coughing, it becomes apparent that something is wrong with his team of fake Power Rangers. The five-man superhero group known as Tobacco Force takes down a giant rubber turtle monster by blasting it with a concentrated stream of cigarette smoke, causing the beast to develop a cancer so terrible it explodes in a long, sustained spurt of blood. Drenched in the kaiju’s greasy blood and guts, Tobacco Force celebrates another victory. It looks like a normal day at the office – in this case an empty quarry, the ideal filming location for spandex-clad kung fu antics and explosions.

The five members of the Tobacco Force, each named after the elements found in cigarette smoke – benzene, nicotine, ammonia, mercury and methanol – immediately report to their boss, Chief Didier. He turns out to be a rat-like puppet that looks like an unchecked cigarette burning to ash, and he constantly drools green goo on himself. Suddenly it becomes chillingly clear that Dupieux has put a farcical comedy in the costume of a tokusatsu superhero series. To further underscore this absurdity, a member of the Tobacco Force has a painfully unrequited crush on this effeminate, drooling, red-eyed rat-thing.

It only gets weirder from there.

Image: magnet release

Smoking causes coughing is being masqueraded as being broadcast by superhero shows like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers And Came Riders, with a monster of the week villain and a looming intergalactic threat. But the heroes of Tobacco Force are tasked with an atypical mission: when Mercury suffers from performance anxiety and can’t produce smoke on demand, Chief Didier dictates recovery time for the entire team. A forced, fun retreat, the Chief says, is necessary to address their faltering group cohesion ahead of a potentially catastrophic event.

Dupieux creates wonderfully bizarre microscale worlds for her retreat. Arriving at their second home, an underground bunker, the team members express their delight at seeing a lake, such an incredibly rare thing in this world that they have to comment. You’ll marvel at amenities like seawater showers, firm titanium beds, and a refrigerator that’s just a doorway to a fully stocked grocery store operated by a friendly woman willing to bring whatever the team needs. They sleep and swim in their full Tobacco Force costumes.

What happens next, as Tobacco Force members struggle with personal issues and try to bond by telling each other bizarre stories, is better left untouched. But Dupieux fills the fast 80-minute film with crazy swerves. It is impossible to predict what will happen next Smoking causes coughingbecause Dupieux rejects superhero storytelling templates in favor of whiplash-inducing story choices.

The stories Dupieux tells through his characters are funny, absurd and violent. The writer and director – best known for his 2010 film rubber, about an obsessed, murderous rubber car tire – delivers shocking violence and gore, but with the most relaxed and soothing direction. One of the film’s most gruesome and difficult-to-watch moments is delivered with such remarkable nonchalance that it makes the whole thing Smoking causes coughing worth seeing.

In the film’s production notes, Dupieux says his superhero film “never forces big talk, and there’s no moral to the story,” claiming that it’s simply “an unabashed source of irrelevant entertainment.” That’s certainly true – this is a low-key hangout film with remarkably low stakes and no great resolution. (Stay in the post-credits scene for one final gag that just underscores Dupieux’s commitment to not completing a story.)

Simultaneously, Smoking causes coughingThe lightness and amorality of is difficult to reconcile with the themes of environmental collapse, pollution and societal disconnection. But maybe all these ideas are just another dupe on Dupieux’s part. Sure, his film initially seems like a nostalgic superhero farce. Then it feels like a prank to the audience. But that feels less true the deeper you delve into it.

At one point, Dupieux flirts with a moral message when Tobacco Force leader Benzene tells a die-hard fan of the team that smoking is an unhealthy habit that wrecks his body and doesn’t make him look cool. But in the face of impending destruction, our heroes end up nervously chain-smoking anyway, contemplating the absurdity and missed opportunities of their lives. If there is a snack Smoking causes coughingit may be: Life is short and illogical, and it often feels like a big joke just a beat away from a punchline.

Smoking causes coughing plays now limited theatrical releaseand can be rented or bought Amazon, vuduand other digital platforms.