Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING [Cannes Film Festival 2022]
The aspect of satire as an approach to absurdism depends on the director of a film. With "Smoking Causes Coughing" [Out Of Competition/Midnight], director Quentin Dupieux creates a play against pop culture with an almost 70s kitsch. Granted the film makes the play in reference to the Power Rangers of the 90s but the team here is the Tobacco Force where they use different smokes and elements for their powers to thwart their enemies. The tropes the film examines have a charm to them but it is the integrated "scary stories" per se that very much are the highlight of the romp. To give away the texture of them would betray their inventiveness as well as the tragic comedy that expounds from it. The inevitability of stakes are also thrown on their head because the progression points to a calamity but it all reflects back to the different team members and their hang-ups whether it be social, sexual or simply ignorance. The metaphor of course hangs in all three.
The play on "Hitchhiker's Guide" with the robot, again working in tandem with the goals of the team, plays well because the crux of the film rests at times on him and yet the behavior exhibited makes him seem like the least. The element that was the most cringy for the audience was The Chief who again is a play on such team building elements like "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". Dupieux knows that he can push his audience as long as they understand the tone, which despite the absurdity of the narrative elements, doesn't waver in its intent. This seems to be more reflexive in terms of the inevitability and continuing nature of existence in all its forms. The entire construct is about the notion of a waiting room (in this case, a team building retreat). It becomes apparent these five would-be heroes will never quite see eye-to- eye and cannot really save the world but believe their own hype even if they tell their admirers something different. In that way, "Smoking Causes Coughing" gets its texture right because it realizes that the most obvious answer might not be best one but at least it can get the job done. B+
By Tim Wassberg
