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Smoking Causes Coughing is ostensibly a riff on Power Rangers/Super Sentai, Ultraman, and other tokusatsu-style media in which spandex-clad superheroes battle intergalactic monsters, but — as is the case with writer-director Quentin Dupieux’s entire filmography — his latest genre-bending slice of French absurdity is predictably unpredictable.

The Tobacco Force is a team of avengers in which each of its five members represents a different chemical found in cigarettes: Benzene, Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra). When they’re unable to defeat an enemy in hand-to-hand combat, they call upon their powers — which only work when they’re sincere — to infect their foe with cancer to the point of bodily combustion.

The Tobacco Force has a mentor in Chief Didier. He’s a wise, mutant rat, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‘ Splinter, except Didier is a womanizer that drools green goo. The team is...

Ok, I know that I'm almost one month late. After all, the list of the candidates for the Best Male and Female Hopes has been public knowledge since November 25. Anyway, I just want to post the information since I'm a lover of French culture. Enjoy.

The 2010 César for the Best Female Hope:

Marie-Julie Baup in Micmacs à tire-larigot

Astrid Berges Frisbey in Un barrage contre le Pacifique

Agathe Bonitzer in Un chat un chat

Sophie Cattani in Je suis heureux que ma mère soit vivante

Judith Davis in Je te mangerais

Anaïs Demoustier in Sois sage

Mati Diop in 35 rhums

Pauline Etienne in Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront

Alice de Lencquesaing in Le père de mes enfants

Florence Loiret-Caille in Je l’aimais

Sara Martins in Mensch

Lola Naymark in L’armée du crime

Vimala Pons in La Sainte Victoire

Soko in A l’Origine

Christa Theret...

• The film's opening first scene announces that there will be buckets of saliva used, and perhaps other specimens as well. Raging with hormones, low grade humor and charisma, Riad Sattouf's Les Beaux Gosses (Beautiful Kids) is an instant crowd pleaser and should perform well in France, but I don't think it will make its way in territories where French is not a mother tongue since every one has got a Napoleon Dynamite already. Obsessed with first base all the way till homeplate, this is the antithesis of Cannes' big winner last year in The Class. Not that the kids in this film aren't authentic, the pairs trio (two buddies and the femme fatale) are non actors who sort of have a natural appeal - but are inserted in a comedic land where the other characters feel like caricature inserts. Not a film that I would have programmed in

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