Smoking Causes Coughing

Quentin Dupieux occupies a somewhat odd place in my brain. I’ve seen about half of his features now, and I’m not particularly a fan. Deerskin is a strange premise executed incredibly well, from an acting to a filmmaking perspective. But it’s the outlier for me. Rubber’s premise held a lot of promise, and contained an incredible amount of ideas, from commentary on the audience’s relationship with narrative to police response to senseless and excessive violence, but all of which failed to cohere into anything as good as the sum of its parts. And Mandibles is an alright starting point that just never really goes anywhere audacious enough to hit. Keep An Eye Out falls in that middle ground, in that it’s full of fantastically strong ideas which play even more boldly with the form and movie conventions and narrative structure, but doesn’t quite find the weight it’s going for.

Despite all that, he’d probably just miss making my list of favorite directors. As you can see, all four of those left me with a strong impression. They stood out amongst all the other weird stuff I’ve seen as the product of someone with a unique set of ideas and world view and thoughts on what movies and narrative can be. He doesn’t feel bound by traditional movie conventions, and trusts his audience will come along for the ride. And overall, I do enjoy his sense of humor, even if it misses on occasion.

Smoking Causes Coughing fits into this mold, albeit in a somewhat quieter way. The Tobacco Force is a group of superheroes who save the world from kaiju-like monsters and off-world threats, a la Super Sentai. But their group cohesion has been lacking lately, so their Chief Didier (Alain Chabat) sends them on a retreat to regroup before facing their biggest threat yet: Lézardin (Benoît Poelvoorde).

Of course this is a satire of superheroes, and done in Dupieux’s very distinct style. This isn’t some dark, bleak riff on how they’re all fascists or we’re stupid for liking them or whatever. No it’s just…odd. Its biggest point is that they’re just people like us, with all the same desires and fears and failings. But mostly it’s just an absurdist comedy where chance rules supreme. To that end, we know nothing of how they formed or where their powers come from or even if those powers are actually imbued by their suits. To say nothing of what the deal with Chief Didier is, a talking rat with green slime dripping from his mouth, or how he gets his information.

Because none of that is the point. The point is that you recognize these tropes, and he’s riffing on them. The group leader who only calls in and is seemingly their own thing, the helpers in odd positions, the strained group dynamics, the inter-group romance, the less than helpful robot. Everything comes across as a few steps off. Not only a little bit off, but not over the top bananas, either. Just quietly insane.

Much of their retreat is consumed by a scary story competition, with entries from Benzène (Gilles Lellouche), a little girl who’s run away named Josette (Thémis Terrier-Thiébaux), and a cooking barracuda. All three serve as their own little contained stories that simply feel like more ideas Dupieux had but couldn’t build a whole film around. They don’t really tie together narratively or thematically which makes the middle of the film feel inert, despite all them being quite unsettling and funny. In theory, the threat is Lézardin, but he’s more looming over the retreat than he is an active part of the movie.

That’s really all there is to it, unless you wanna hear me point at my favorite jokes. The robot’s actions throughout are wonderful, especially right when they arrive at the retreat and at the very end of the film. The randomness of the goo dripping from Chief Didier’s mouth is reminiscent of Rick from Rick & Morty. The whole story the barracuda tells is the right kind of messed up in order to be darkly comedic. Their power is to smother their target in the main chemicals in cigarettes, causing cancer in theory but explosions in practice, hence their name. And on and on.

This isn’t where I’d recommend you start diving into Dupieux if you don’t already know he’s for you. If you’re a fan, I’d suggest checking it out. No need to go out of your way; the subtlety definitely means its edges are nowhere near as sharp as some of his previous stuff. But it’s nothing special.