Smoking Causes Coughing

Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer fait tousser) is a 2022 French comedy anthology film written, shot, edited and directed by Quentin Dupieux. It stars an ensemble cast, led by Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Lacoste, Anaïs Demoustier, Jean-Pascal Zadi and Oulaya Amamra, featuring David Marsais, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Grégoire Ludig, Doria Tillier, Jérôme Niel, Blanche Gardin, Alain Chabat and Benoît Poelvoorde. The film follows the adventures of a team of five superheroes (Lellouche, Lacoste, Demoustier, Zadi and Amamra) who went on compulsory retreat in order to strengthen cohesion within their group until an enemy named Lézardin (Poelvoorde) interrupts this retreat by deciding to destroy the planet Earth.

Smoking Causes Coughing had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival 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, Choudenshi Bioman, Tales from the Crypt, Power Rangers 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.

Release
Smoking Causes Coughing premiered at the midnight section of the Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2022. It was released theatrically in France on November 30, 2022.

Reception
Metacritic assigned a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The French cinema site AlloCiné gave the film a rating of 3.3/5 stars based on 34 reviews.

Valerie Complex of Deadline Hollywood 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 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 wrote that Dupieux "approaches the rabbit hole of meta-fictional narration with a Lewis Carroll verve." Tim Grierson of Screen Daily wrote that "It's all fairly obvious, but also pretty consistently funny."