The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Cannes Film Festival 2022

Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer Fait Tousser)

Cannes Film Festival 2022: Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer Fait Tousser) | Review
31 May 2022
Selina Sondermann
Avatar
Selina Sondermann
31 May 2022

Movie and show review

Selina Sondermann

Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer Fait Tousser)

★★★★★

Special event

Cannes Film Festival 2022

16th to 28th May 2022

Benzene, Nicotine, Ammonia, Mercury and Methanol make up the Tobacco Force, a group of avengers fighting crime, their squad literally smoking out the bad guys and killing them with cancer. In their personal lives, they tell a young fan who immediately recognised his favourite superheroes, they are against cigarettes, since they make you cough.

The troop is sent to a team-building retreat in the woods, where their telling of campfire stories turns into a fierce contest that almost makes them lose sight of their task to save the world from an intergalactic Lizardman.

If Quentin Dupieux presents another film at Venice this year (he’s possibly the only filmmaker eccentric enough to try) he could score a festival hat trick. 2022 started off strong for the French auteur, when his bizarre social commentary Incredible But True was part of the Berlinale Special section. Now the vastly different, but equally bonkers Smoking Causes Coughing premieres as a Cannes Midnight screening.

What both films also have in common are actors Anaïs Demoustier and Alain Chabat – the lead in the former feature voices the Tobacco Force’s rat puppet boss, who oozes green drool and causes heartbreak among the female group members. 

Another guest star in this mockery of superhero movies is Adèle Exarchopoulos, who takes on one of the characters in a story told about a deadly thinking helmet. 

These little tales that the characters narrate to each other are funny in their own right, but they don’t really tie into the film as a whole and disrupt any momentum the retreat could have built up. Apart from a suicidal robot and a talking fish frying in a pan, there are few surprises in the action.

While Smoking Causes Coughing is a perfectly amusing film to pass the time, it lacks the through-the-roof extremity and hilarity of much of Dupieux’s other work. 

★★★★★

Selina Sondermann

Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer Fait Tousser) does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival 2022 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.

Related Itemscannes film festivalfilm festivalreview

More in Cannes

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

“I think I’m kind of a drug addict for image and sound coming together! I’m always putting images to sound and getting high”: An interview with Hlynur Pálmason, director of Godland

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Leyla’s Brothers: An interview with Saeed Roustayi

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Plan 75: An interview with director Chie Hayakawa

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Falcon Lake: An interview with director Charlotte Le Bon

Selina Sondermann
Read More

“How to make a genuine portrait of life”: An interview with the stars of Leila’s Brothers

Selina Sondermann
Read More

“It’s never as I planned it to be, but that’s the point. I like that”: An interview with Marie Kreutzer, director of Corsage

Selina Sondermann
Read More

The Woodcutter Story (Metsurin Tarina)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Funny Pages

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Selina Sondermann

Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer Fait Tousser)

★★★★★

Special event

Cannes Film Festival 2022

16th to 28th May 2022

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • The Railway Children Return
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • “We really wanted to create a cabbage gun”: An interview with David Earl and Chris Hayward stars of Brian and Charles
    Cinema & Tv
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Viagra Boys – Cave World
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Ithaka
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Wayfinder
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Viagra Boys – Cave World
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • The Railway Children Return
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Adele lights up Hyde Park for BST Festival
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Cannes Film Festival 2022: The Woodcutter Story (Metsurin Tarina) | Review
“It’s never as I planned it to be, but that’s the point. I like that”: An interview with Marie Kreutzer, director of Corsage