Last August, writer and director Quentin Dupieux screened one of the quirkiest films at Arrow Video FrightFest, Incredible But True. Now, just a few months later, Dupieux joins the line-up for the Glasgow portion of the festival with an even more bizarre movie, Smoking Causes Coughing.
It is hard to know exactly where to start or how to begin to explain the plot of Smoking Causes Coughing. If a house with a portal that possessed the ability to both travel twelve hours into the future, and de-age a person by three days wasn’t odd enough, Smoking Causes Coughing follows a group called Tobacco Force. Clad in what appear to be prototype Power Ranger costumes, the group fight monsters for a living. In a strange way, Smoking Causing Coughing could be viewed as an alt-world, grown-up version of Power Rangers, the film chronicling a potential future for the team.
At the point of introduction, the team are not as unified as they once were and in a bid to have them bond once more, their boss sends them on a retreat. This sabbatical removes them from harm’s way and allows them to talk. Their conversations quickly turn to story-telling and each team member has a go at telling the strangest story they can; cue a plethora of wacky tales brought to life.
As enlightening as these stories are, the film is at its most entertaining when the team are in battle mode. For anyone that grew up watching the likes of VR Troopers, Beetleborgs, and Power Rangers on a Saturday, these scenes will spark a heavy wave of nostalgia. Not only are the Tobacco Force dressed in knock-off outfits from any of those shows, but the ‘monsters’ are just as kitsch as anything that Rite Repulsa or Lord Zedd ever sent down unto Angel Grove. The creature work doesn’t stop with these beasts though as Tobacco Force’s boss is a rather promiscuous rat. The blending of puppets and people further solidifies the Saturday morning television vibe and is a wonderfully odd trip down memory lane.
Far more bizarre than Incredible But True, Smoking Causes Coughing embraces its zany nature. By leaning so heavily into its absurd comedy, some of the core plot elements and thematics get a little lost. What made Incredible But True so compelling was that, amongst the weirdness, there was a brilliant analysis of vanity and ageing. Here it’s a little harder to work through the density of the abstract creations on screen to get to the crux of the story. Nonetheless, Dupieux’s latest film remains an incomparable feat that once more affirms him as a mad scientist of genius.
Smoking Causes Coughing
Summary
Relive the golden era of Saturday morning television with Quentin Dupieux’s latest cinematic oddity of weirdly charming science-fiction.
Smoking Causes Coughing was reviewed at FrightFest Glasgow 2023.
