Smoking Causes Coughing (2022)

September 18, 2023 8:03 AM

A group of vigilantes called the "tobacco-forces" is falling apart. To rebuild team spirit, their leader suggests that they meet for a week-long retreat, before returning to save the world.

I'd describe this as absurdist/comedy/horror which is a strange mix.
At no point could I predict what was going to happen next in this film but it was certainly entertaining. Ostensibly about a team of superheros, whose boss is a Rat, on a retreat, telling each other stories, Scheherezade style, as the end of the world draws near.

Guardian Review:

there are few directors so uniquely attuned to the serious business of silliness as the French auteur of the absurd Quentin Dupieux. His movies have a preposterous plausibility. Take Deerskin, a thriller about a man whose jacket talks him into going on a killing spree, or Mandibles, a sad-sack buddy movie about two losers who find a giant fly in the boot of a stolen car, which also serves as an oddly touching study of male friendship.
...Unpredictable, digressive, looping and parenthetical in structure, Smoking Causes Coughing is one of the most formally daring and unexpected films of the year.

posted by vacapinta (8 comments total)

This was such a weird watch, like I hadn't seen the animé or TV show it was based upon (as far as I know there is no such show). In the end though I was thoroughly entertained. Confused, but entertained.
posted by Molesome at 8:36 AM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Quentin Dupieux? Okay, I'm in.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:04 AM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

Dupieux is the king of taking the stupidest idea totally seriously and running it to its logical conclusion.
posted by mrphancy at 10:19 AM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

Wait. The guy behind Rubber and Mr. Oizo? huh, ok, I'll put it in the queue.
posted by Kyol at 9:21 AM on September 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm always down for Dupieux. Putting this on my watchlist.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:40 AM on September 19, 2023

So it turns out this is already on my watchlist, but I forgot. (My list is over 400 movies long so...it happens.) But I discovered it's on hulu! So I know what I'll be doing tonight.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:43 AM on September 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

I absolutely adored this bit of lunacy, and the closing themes of unresolved endings and incomplete narratives absolutely cracked me up with how deliberately infuriating it was. Also, everyone is horny for some phenomenal wet puppet action straight out of Meet the Feebles.
posted by FatherDagon at 4:10 PM on September 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

I finally watched this and it's amazing. Per the post above, lunacy is the correct word. Whenever it gets too stupid or too weird, it just switches gears and you're like, oh, OK, until it starts to get too stupid or too weird again. Lather, rinse, repeat. And it's compelling the entire time! The actors have this perfect natural style that makes their asinine dialog feel real. I read a review that said this was just a shaggy dog movie made of shaggy dog stories, and yes, that's exactly the vibe.

The purposely protracted non-ending was hilarious, and I waited through the credits, because I was like, this movie is totally going to do something stupid after them, and YES! They did exactly the same joke as before the credits! The joke was on me! Well played, movie!
posted by mrphancy at 11:39 PM on April 13