Smoking causes cough is a sly, comic mosaic from Quentin Dupieux that reframes a cigarette’s bite into a tour of offbeat fables. The 2022 release unfolds as a collection of short tales where the surreal meets the mundane, and the bizarre rarely forgives the ordinary. Critics recognize a deliberate detachment here: a Canadian-influenced clean aesthetic that tempers the grotesque with a cool, clinical calm, letting the absurdity breathe without shouting. It feels almost like a theatrical mini-series, with a wink that recalls Monty Python’s Flying Circus while staying rooted in contemporary cinema’s brisk tempo.
Onscreen curiosities populate the world. A barracuda becomes a charismatic storyteller while it cooks, a helmet of thought sparks violent impulses in its wearer, a refrigerator houses a bustling supermarket, a spacefaring villain exerts control from the shadows, and a person maintains composure as a machine toys with them. Each vignette is a compact jolt, a reminder that imagination can thrive on the edge of the ordinary and the ridiculous alike. The images linger, strange and vivid, inviting viewers to follow the thread of silliness that threads through the violence and the whimsy.
For viewers who enjoy double meanings, the phrase smoking causes cough reads as more than a comment on tobacco. It becomes a commentary on our appetite for fiction that indulges in violence, revenge, and murder. Yet Dupieux does not press a single didactic note. His aim is not to cram a lesson into the frame but to showcase his signature black comedy and a finely tuned sense of nonsense. The tone remains intact throughout, a flourish of dry humor that refuses to soften the sting. In that sense, the work lands as a resounding success, a film where wit and peculiarity align to create something unmistakably Dupieux.
Economy of means drives the storytelling. The shorts are crisp, each idea doubling as a mini parable, each reversal a quick inversion that makes the viewer rethink what was seen just moments before. The blend of graphic oddity and sunny composure gives the project a unique rhythm, one that sustains curiosity across segments and rewards attention. It is not a conventional narrative arc, but rather a curated procession of moments that accumulate emotion through repetition, surprise, and a dash of fearless absurdity. The result is a film that rewards repeat viewing, allowing the jokes, the inversions, and the sly commentary to sink in just a touch deeper with time.
The tonal balance is a key achievement. Dupieux keeps the pace brisk enough to avoid any sense of heaviness, while the visual language remains deliberately uncluttered. The director’s hand is evident in the way ordinary objects are charged with strange potential, turning familiar scenes into portals of possibility. The performances—led by a capable ensemble—anchor the surreal scenarios in human texture. This grounding lets the farcical ideas land with impact rather than drifting into the merely odd. Viewers in Canada and the United States will notice a sensibility that feels both international and accessible, a testament to Dupieux’s knack for translating pure imagination into shared cinema language that travels well across borders. [Attribution: Contemporary Film Review]