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“God is a smoker of Havanas,” intones the musical intro over the credits of Smoking Causes Coughing (now streaming on Hulu). It’s a perfect entrée into a world that is begging you not to take it seriously. The comic stylings of French enfant terrible are at their most outlandish in this film that intersects with the superhero genre but has no interest in watching its heroes battle with a menacing villain over a mysterious shiny thing.
SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: A child in the backseat of a car driving alongside a rural road in France demands his parents pull over. He’s just seen the coolest Avengers in the world – the Tobacco Force. Despite their name, these Power Rangers-esque figures channel the negative energy from tobacco as a weapon to suffocate adversaries until they die.
After defeating a giant turtle, the group must take a mandatory retreat to regain group cohesion after their boss, a puppet rat named Didier, examines the metadata of their mission logs and sees them becoming too individualistic. The stories fly during their time off, both from members of the group as well as from a barracuda being grilled for dinner. All the while, the threat of their next foe – Lézardin, an intergalactic menace – looms large in the background.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Think Mystery Men, Team America: World Police, or Kick-Ass – any kind of irreverent send-up of superhero conventions.
Performance Worth Watching: This is a true ensemble film shared by the Tobacco Force, but among the group, the greying Gilles Lellouche as de facto leader Benzène is the standout.
Memorable Dialogue: “Life is really crazy,” an aunt says to her nephew who’s little more than floating lips in a pile of blood after a meatgrinder accident. “You don’t need socks now.” That’s just a flavor of the absurdity here.
Sex and Skin: There’s talk of sexual activity but no action, save for some foreplay between a human and a puppet rat near the close.
Our Take: There is something noble in Quentin Dupieux’s egalitarian approach to the superhero movie. Smoking Causes Coughing centers storytelling and feeling from the Tobacco Force members, going on wild tangents that often have little to do with the “main” forward-moving storyline. It’s the cure for the common MCU movie, to some extent. The film can feel a bit too loosely assembled at times, and at 80 minutes, all these incidental comic bits and anecdotes can struggle to cohere into something more than the sum of its parts. But that’s a small sacrifice of time for something where individual moments of gonzo filmmaking can justify the watch.
Our Call: STREAM IT! While Smoking Causes Coughing does feel a bit more trifling than recent Dupieux outings like Deerskin or Mandibles, it’s still a unique comic vision from a director who is confidently vibrating to the singular beat of his own drum. From structure to substance, nothing about this comedy feels familiar. If you’re OK with being destabilized and getting entertainment delivered in unconventional packaging, this is just the thing for you.
Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based freelance film journalist. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared on Slashfilm, Slant, The Playlist and many other outlets. Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.
