''Smoking Causes Coughing'' () is a 2022 French

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

film written, shot, edited and directed by

Quentin Dupieux Quentin Dupieux (, born 14 April 1974), also known by his musical stage name Mr. Oizo (), is a French electronic musician, record producer, songwriter, and filmmaker. Dupieux is credited with his legal name for his films, while the name "Mr. Oiz ...

. It stars an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to the po ...

, led by

Gilles Lellouche Gilles Lellouche (; born 5 July 1972) is a French actor and director. He was nominated twice for a César Award; in 2006 for Most Promising Actor and in 2011 for Best Supporting actor for his performance in '' Little White Lies'' (2010). Earl ...

Vincent Lacoste Vincent Lacoste (born 3 July 1993) is a French actor. Most know for his works with auteur filmmakers, such as '' Eden'' (2014), '' In Bed with Victoria'' (2016), '' Sorry Angel'' (2018), ''Amanda'' (2018) and '' Lost Illusions'' (2021). For the ...

Anaïs Demoustier Anaïs Aude Marie Michèle Demoustier (; born 29 September 1987) is a French actress. She was nominated for Most Promising Actress twice at the César Awards, in 2009 for '' Les Grandes Personnes'' and in 2011 for '' Living on Love Alone''. In 2 ...

Jean-Pascal Zadi Jean-Pascal Zadi (born 22 August 1980 in Bondy) is a French director, actor and rapper. In 1999, he founded a rap group, La Cellule, with his brother Alain and his friend Stéphane. In 2021, he received the César Award for Most Promising Actor ...

and Oulaya Amamra, featuring ,

Adèle Exarchopoulos Adèle Exarchopoulos (; born 22 November 1993) is a French actress. She had her career breakthrough starring as Adèle in the romance '' Blue Is the Warmest Colour'' (2013). At the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, she became the youngest person in the ...

, ,

Doria Tillier Doria Tillier (born 27 March 1986) is a French actress. Life and career She was born to a mathematician father and a mother who restores paintings, and she was a student in one of the oldest and most prestigious French high schools, Lycée Condo ...

Jérôme Niel Jerôme Niel (also known as Jérôme Puydebat, born on 14 June 1985) is a French humorist, choreographer, writer, comedian and video producer working among other things for the French cable TV channel Canal+. Background Niel was born in Trapp ...

Blanche Gardin Blanche Gardin (; born 3 April 1977) is a French comedian, actress and screenwriter. She became known to the general public through her participation in the ' and for her role in the television series ' on Canal+, and then became popular with h ...

Alain Chabat Alain Chabat (; born 24 November 1958) is a French actor, comedian, director, screenwriter, producer and television presenter. Originally known for his work in the comedy group Les Nuls, including as the co-writer and lead actor of ''La Cité de ...

and

Benoît Poelvoorde Benoît Poelvoorde (, ; born 22 September 1964) is a Belgian actor and comedian. Early life His mother was a grocer and his father a driver, who died when Poelvoorde was still a minor. He attended the Collège Saint-Paul (Godinne), Jesuit Boar ...

. The film follows a team of five superheroes (Lellouche, Lacoste, Demoustier, Zadi and Amamra) who go on compulsory retreat in order to strengthen cohesion within their group until an enemy named Lézardin (Poelvoorde) interrupts the retreat to destroy the planet Earth. ''Smoking Causes Coughing'' had its world premiere at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

on 21 May 2022 to the non-competitive Midnight Screening section. It was released in France on 30 November 2022 by Gaumont. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Dupieux's writing and direction, cast performances and humor. Several French critics cited ''

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (''TMNT'') is an American media franchise created by comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Donatello (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), D ...

'', ''

Choudenshi Bioman is a Japanese tokusatsu science fiction television series; Toei Company's eighth installment in the Super Sentai metaseries. Its 51 episodes aired on TV Asahi from February 4, 1984, to January 19, 1985, replacing ''Kagaku Sentai Dynaman'' and was ...

'', ''

Tales from the Crypt Tales from the Crypt may refer to: * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s ** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...

'', ''

Power Rangers ''Power Rangers'' is an American media franchise created by Haim Saban, Shuki Levy and Shotaro Ishinomori built around a live-action superhero television series, based on the Japanese tokusatsu franchise ''Super Sentai''. It is currently ow ...

'' and '' Les Nuls'' as inspirations for the film.

Premise

After a devastating battle against a diabolical giant turtle, the Tobacco Force is sent on a mandatory week-long retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion. Their sojourn goes wonderfully well until Lézardin, Emperor of Evil, decides to annihilate planet Earth.

Cast

Release

''Smoking Causes Coughing'' premiered at the midnight section of the

on 21 May 2022. It was released theatrically in France on November 30, 2022.

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

assigned a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 74 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The French cinema site

AlloCiné AlloCiné is an entertainment website founded by Jean-David Blanc in 1988, then joined by Patrick Holzman. It has belonged to the company since 2013 Webedia. which specializes in providing information on French cinema, mostly centering on nove ...

gave the film a rating of 3.3/5 stars based on 34 reviews. Valerie Complex of ''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. It is updated several times a day, with en ...

'' wrote that "The director's stories know how to take extreme violence and turn it into sarcasm and comedy, often using inanimate objects to reflect humanity's shortcomings." Guy Lodge of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote that "In this amiably trollish throwaway, Dupieux invites his characters and audience alike to chill out and take things as they come, preferably with a smoke in hand." Martin Kudlac of ''

Screen Anarchy ScreenAnarchy, previously known as Twitch Film or Twitch, is a Canadian English-language website featuring news and reviews of mainly international, independent and cult films. The website was founded in 2004 by Todd Brown. In addition to films, ...

'' wrote that Dupieux "approaches the rabbit hole of meta-fictional narration with a

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

verve." Tim Grierson of ''

Screen Daily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'' wrote that "It's all fairly obvious, but also pretty consistently funny."

References

External links

* * {{Quentin Dupieux 2022 comedy films 2022 films 2020s French films 2020s superhero comedy films Films directed by Quentin Dupieux French anthology films French comedy films French splatter films Gaumont (company) films