‘Smoking Causes Coughing’ movie review: a quintessential Quentin Dupieux experience
In recent years, the discourse surrounding contemporary cinema has mostly morphed into endless unproductive shit-flinging contests on Twitter and semi-funny memes about the messianic status Christopher Nolan’s rabid fandom has bestowed upon him. Amidst this constant chatter about the death of cinema and the tyranny of Marvel, Quentin Dupieux has been continuously working on a new kind of cinematic experience that redefines the medium itself.
Having developed a significant cult following due to the niche appeal of his surreal romps, such as Rubber and Deerskin, Dupieux has embarked on a fascinating trajectory in the world of modern cinema. Always bold and uncompromising in his vision, the French auteur has refused to cave in to the inescapable demands of the mainstream. Fortunately, this is also the case with his latest project – Smoking Causes Coughing.
The superhero genre is obviously in a crisis right now, battered by the unavoidable symptoms of a dead culture that is eating itself from the inside out. While shows like The Boys and Invincible have tried to weaponise their own critiques of the genre, it all inevitably turns into post-ironic self-criticism. Smoking Causes Coughing does not exist within that extensive dichotomy, which is why it is free enough to do whatever the hell it wants and create an alternate form of expression in the process.
Dupieux’s new venture is an interesting comedy anthology revolving around a team of five superheroes called the Tobacco Force, who are named after the individual toxic parts of cigarettes. Starring the likes of Vincent Lacoste and Adèle Exarchopoulos, it’s a film that refuses to take itself seriously which is always refreshing to see when the premise involves adults running around in tights. Dupeiux leans into this direction to revitalise the genre, incorporating wildly innovative ideas that can only come from his mind.
The aesthetic frameworks of superhero films have naturally become highly codified, resulting in the regurgitation of the same representations. Interestingly, Smoking Causes Coughing calls back to the schlocky sci-fi pornos from the 1970s that used cheap practical effects and strange humour to lighten people up when they needed it the most. In doing so, Dupieux liberates it from the uniform visual logic that most other superhero flicks automatically adhere to.
Previously, Dupieux’s surreal journeys have worked so well because they have been uninterrupted descents into insanity. In this project, the filmmaker decided to make the narrative fragmented by stringing together short doses of madness in the form of mini-narratives. Ranging from a batshit crazy story about a sentient bucket of blood and mangled organs to an anecdote about a woman who becomes homicidal after discovering a helmet that isolates her from the world, it’s a collection that will make you think about questions you didn’t know existed.
Even though the narrative flow is impeded by this structure, Smoking Causes Coughing is original and funny enough to transcend those minor limitations. Using omnipresent themes like the threat of an impending apocalypse, Dupieux creates one of the strangest ecocritical commentaries in recent memory and reimagines the archetype of the hero. As far as Power Rangers parodies go, this might be one of the very best.
