Smoking Causes Coughing
Magnet Releasing | Release Date: March 31, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
89
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiMar 29, 2023
The cast is uniformly excellent and delivers enthusiastic performances, even the ones played by puppets, and the pacing is lively and not at all boring. Read full review
85
PolygonMichael McWhertorApr 4, 2023
If there’s one takeaway from Smoking Causes Coughing, it may be that: Life is short and illogical, and it often feels like one big joke that’s just a beat away from a punchline. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJul 7, 2023
It’s all so giddily bizarre, the film deserves a health warning of its own: will induce (entirely pleasurable) lightheadedness and shortness of breath. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyJul 7, 2023
Dupieux, as ever, writes, directs, shoots, and orchestrates the madness. This isn’t as conceptually neat as Deerskin nor as playfully intertextual as Rubber, but it’s consistently fun. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 5, 2023
The cumulative effect is very pleasurable. The film has got some Python, Douglas Adams, Charlie Kaufman and also John Waters and Ed Wood Jr in it; it’s also possible that Dupieux has seen Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in Stanley Donen’s Bedazzled. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid HughesJun 23, 2023
The portmanteau structure suits Dupieux’s demented sensibility, providing a wildly varied yet consistently entertaining dose of bafflement and bemusement. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayMar 31, 2023
It’s not a criticism to say that Smoking Causes Coughing doesn’t hold together, because cohesion isn’t what Dupieux is going for. He’s more about surprise and delight. Read full review
80
The New York TimesElisabeth VincentelliMar 30, 2023
Welcome back to the zany world of Quentin Dupieux, a French director who cranks out (his previous film, the time-travel fable “Incredible But True,” came out just months ago) low-budget absurdist comedies with preposterous premises that he always takes at face value, no matter how demented. His latest might be his funniest yet. Read full review
77
Paste MagazineJacob OllerApr 3, 2023
After half a decade focusing on high-concept silliness, like the giant-fly tragicomedy Mandibles and the leather-jacket thriller Deerskin, Dupieux follows his more ridiculous impulses by letting the midnight horror anthology stay up until Saturday morning, blending gore and guffaws in an amiable, breezy comedy. Read full review
75
IndieWireRyan LattanzioMar 31, 2023
It’s as consistently surprising and deranged a movie as any from his output, even if not for all tastes, which he knows. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsMar 31, 2023
Smoking Causes Coughing works because Dupieux’s already been here and done similar things before. This is just a superior collection of shaggy dog jokes. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineWilliam RepassMar 21, 2023
Smoking Causes Coughing isn’t just an anti-superhero superhero film, but, thanks to Tristram Shandy-like levels of discursivity, something akin to an anti-film. Read full review
75
The Film StageLeonardo GoiFeb 23, 2023
If Smoking may feel like an amalgam of leftover ideas, it finds a tenuous through line in the contagious love Dupieux imbues in the very act—and art—of bringing those fables to life. Read full review
75
The PlaylistElena LazicFeb 23, 2023
Although Smoking Causes Coughing isn’t as substantial or funny as some of his other films, it remains a breath of fresh air and contains enough moments of invention and flawless comedy to amuse and charm, particularly at a festival that has sorely lacked laughs so far. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearApr 3, 2023
Smoking Causes Coughing may or may not be designed as a straight parody of Power Rangers-style adventures and the sugar highs of such kid-friendly sci-fi/superhero entertainment. It most definitely is the sort of high-concept goof that, taken to such go-for-broke extremes, blurs the line between giggle-inducing absurdity and absolutely brilliant ridiculousness. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonFeb 23, 2023
The droll, slight Smoking Causes Coughing plays like a loose collection of Quentin Dupieux’s leftover ideas, but there’s ample charm in these surreal bits and pieces — especially for anyone already on the auteur’s cheekily bizarre wavelength. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeFeb 23, 2023
It’s a film of fragmentary but funny rewards — funnier still, most likely, if accompanied by smoking of a different kind. Read full review
60
Little White LiesSaskia Lloyd GaigerJul 20, 2023
The film, totally dégagé about its own ludicrous lameness, really doesn’t give a fuck. Read full review
60
EmpireJohn NugentJul 7, 2023
Madder than a bag of cats. Quentin Dupieux’s latest is even more absurd — and more pointless — than his film about a sentient car tyre. But it’s cheering to know he is still being allowed to make this sort of bollocks. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 23, 2023
The gimmick and the satiric target here are broader and the punches miss the mark far more often than they land. But if you’re blitzed enough… Read full review
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