Eccentric French director Quentin Dupieux is totally dégagé about the ludicrous lameness of his latest comedy.
Notably fond of deadpan dada and off-the-wall gore, director Quentin Dupieux (Rubber, Deerskin) delivers these by the bucketload in loony Super Sentai pisstake, Smoking Causes Coughing.
Tobacco Force are a group of vigilantes who fight monsters by giving them cancer, and discourage the youth from smoking. They’re sent on a retreat to improve group cohesion by their boss Chief Didier, a talking rat puppet who drools green ooze but is somehow a sex god, irresistible to human females.
On their getaway, Tobacco Force take turns telling scary stories. These vignettes make up the bulk of the film – one about a woman whose nephew gets stuck in a woodchipper is particularly funny and gruesome. Fairly disconnected and chaotic, though fun, these Treehouse of Horror stories seem like bits from the cutting room floor stitched together into a weird patchwork, for which the Tobacco Force are the amusingly underdeveloped vehicle. But the film, totally dégagé about its own ludicrous lameness, really doesn’t give a fuck.
Just as they’re getting into the swing of it, Lézardin, Emperor of Evil (Benoît Poelvoorde), decides to annihilate planet Earth – naturally, the gang freak out and chainsmoke. With echoes of Ninja Turtles, Thunderbirds and Star Trek, Dupieux regurgitates his influences, covered in slime and with gleefully filthy, absurdist Eurotrash humour.
Little White Lies is committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them.
Published 4 Jul 2023
This sounds utterly bonkers, even for a director known for his utter bonkers-ness.
Incongruous, mad and gross, but never dull.
Certain to put you off cigarettes, so there’s that…
Jean Dujardin becomes dangerously obsessed with a deerskin jacket in Quentin Dupieux’s slighter-than-slight comedy.
Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. Combining cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism, we’ve been described as being “at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement.” Our reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience. We believe in Truth & Movies.
