Smoking Causes Coughing review: a cure for predictable superhero movies

Just minutes into Quentin Dupieux’s Cigarette Smoking Can Cause Coughing, it becomes obvious that something isn’t right about its team of faux Power Rangers. Tobacco Force’s five-member superhero squad dispatches a giant rubber turtle monster. It does this by spraying it with concentrated cigarette smoke. This gives the creature such a severe case of cancer, it explodes in an extended, long-lasting blaze of blood. Drenched in the kaiju’s greasy blood and guts, Tobacco Force celebrates another win. It looks like just another 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 Tobacco Force, all named after elements of cigarette smoke — Benzene, Nicotine, Ammonia, Mercury, and Methanol — promptly report back to their boss, Chief Didier. He turns out to be a ratlike puppet that looks like a cigarette left unchecked and burning down to ash, and he’s constantly drooling green goo on himself. It’s suddenly dreadfully clear that Dupieux has dressed up an absurdist comedy in the costume of a tokusatsu superhero series. Another sign of this absurdity? One Tobacco Force agent has a deeply unrequited relationship with the womanizing, slobbering and red-eyed rat.

The world gets more bizarre from here.

Image: Magnet Releasing

Cigarette Smoking Can Cause CoughingIt is masking as a joke about superhero TV shows Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Kamen RiderWith a villain-of-the week bad guy, and an looming intergalactic menace. But the heroes of Tobacco Force are tasked with an atypical mission: When Mercury experiences performance anxiety and can’t produce smoke on demand, Chief Didier mandates recuperation time for the whole team. To address the group’s disintegration, Chief Didier says that forced-fun retreat is needed.

Dupieux creates a world that is both bizarre and small-scale for his retreat. The team is delighted to see a lake when they arrive at their underground bunker home. This rare find in the world makes it a very special place. They marvel at amenities like seawater showers, hard titanium beds, and a refrigerator that’s just a doorway to a fully stocked grocery store, staffed by a friendly woman who’s ready to bring the team whatever they need. The Tobacco Force costume is worn by the team as they go to sleep and swim.

It is best to keep the next scene, in which Tobacco Force members deal with their personal problems and attempt to bond by sharing bizarre stories among themselves, untouched. Dupieux doesn’t disappoint, filling the film with bizarre twists and turns. It’s impossible to predict what will happen next in Cigarette Smoking Can Cause CoughingDupieux is against superhero stories and favors whiplash-inducing story options.

Dupieux’s characters tell funny, bizarre, and violent stories. The writer-director — best known for his 2010 film Rubber, about a possessed, murderous rubber car tire — delivers some shocking violence and gore, but with the most laid-back and calming direction. One of the film’s grisliest, most difficult-to-watch moments is delivered with such remarkable nonchalance that it makes the whole of Cigarette Smoking Can Cause CoughingWorth watching.

In the movie’s production notes, Dupieux says his superhero movie “never imposes any big speeches, and there is no moral of the story,” claiming that it is simply “an unabashed source of inconsequential entertainment.” That’s certainly true — this is a low-key hangout movie with remarkably minimal stakes and no big resolution. (Stick around for the post-credits scene for a final gag that just underlines Dupieux’s dedication to not wrapping up a story.)

Gleichzeitig, Cigarette Smoking Can Cause Coughing’s lightness and amorality is difficult to square with its themes of environmental collapse, pollution, and societal disconnection. Dupieux may have misdirected all those thoughts. Although his movie looks nostalgic, it is not a serious film. The film becomes a joke on the viewers. However, this feeling becomes less real the more you dive into it.

At one point, Dupieux does flirt with a morality message, when Tobacco Force leader Benzene tells a starry-eyed fan of the team that smoking is an unhealthy habit that will destroy his body and won’t make him look cool. Our heroes are forced to chain smoke when they face imminent death. They also have to reflect on their life and the mistakes that led them there. If there’s one takeaway from Cigarette Smoking Can Cause Coughing, it may be that: Life is short and illogical, and it often feels like one big joke that’s just a beat away from a punchline.

Cigarette Smoking Can Cause CoughingIs currently playing in Film release limited to theatersIt is also available to rent out or buy. Amazon, VuduOther digital platforms.