After a devastating battle against a diabolical turtle, a team of five avengers – known as the "Tobacco Force" - is sent on a mandatory retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion. Their...
Devotees of the surrealist, absurdist style of writer / director Quentin Dupieux are going to find themselves smitten with his latest project, “Smoking Causes Coughing.” With his eccentric sensibilities and wry humor, Dupieux has created a totally odd film featuring an unexpected and wildly inventive blend of satirical comedy, science fiction, and horror, and it’s my favorite thing he’s done so far.
The film follows the misadventures of a team of five superheroes who call themselves the Tobacco Force, although they are staunchly anti-smoking (they in fact use negative energy from tobacco to destroy their enemies). Benzene (Gilles Lellouche), Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra) lose their mojo during a battle, which raises concerns within the group. This causes their commander, a drooling rat named Chef Didier (voice of Alain Chabat), to send the five to a mandatory weeklong retreat to strengthen their bond. They can only save the world from annihilation at the hands of the evil Emperor Lézardine (Benoît Poelvoorde) if they remain close knit, after all.
Dupieux crafts a wacky story and makes it even funnier by turning it into a campy superhero movie complete with corny B-movie costumes and cheesy puppetry. His trademark sick and twisted humor is dripping with French sensibilities, with a quirky, dry, and sarcastic spin that you’ll either find amusing or confusing. The film features exploding turtles, suicidal robots, talking fish, and even teases a bit of time travel gone wrong. If none of this sounds even remotely humorous to you, there’s no need to attempt to tackle this one.
Dupieux’s story veers off as the gang tell stories around a campfire at their retreat, each one more ridiculous than the next. There’s murder, mayhem, and pure insanity. The narrative does not fit within established parameters of coherent storytelling, nor is it logical in the least. But if you are on the same wavelength (or decide to throw caution to the wind and just go with it), there’s so much to love about the overall nonsense of “Smoking Causes Coughing.”
