In the wake of a viscera-spilling battle with a menacing foam-rubber turtle, the superheroic, hard-smoking members of Tobacco Force are ordered to undergo a week of team-building at a remote bunker. In lieu of trading punches with arch-nemeses, they exchange outrageous campfire stories about others’ misfortunes, each of which demonstrates that Quentin Dupieux’s absurdism has multiple registers. Alas, there’s no rest for the spandex-clad, as the reigning Emperor of Evil has spotted an opportune time to annihilate the universe.
Assembling a constellation of notable French stars (including Gilles Lellouche and Anaïs Demoustier), adorning them in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers knockoff costumes, and surrounding them with janky, outdated technology, Dupieux concocts the superhero sendup that we never would’ve believed that we desperately needed. Melding the altruism commonly associated with the cape-and-cowl genre with the inherent nihilism of the director’s outré oeuvre results in one of the year’s most sublimely ridiculous films.
Supported by
Media Partner
Quentin Dupieux
Gilles Lellouche, Anaïs Demoustier, Oulaya Amamra, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Alain Chabat, Vincent Lacoste, Jean-Pascal Zadi
France
2022
In French with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Art of Adventure
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.
Agatha's Almanac
Shot over six years on vibrant 16mm film, Agatha’s Almanac is an artful documentary portrait of filmmaker Amalie Atkin’s octogenarian aunt, who has fashioned herself an endearingly simple and self-sustaining lifestyle on her Manitoba farm.
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other
This intimate and candid film by a younger husband and wife artist team is a delicate and immensely moving dual portrait of two artists, husband and wife, together and apart, at that point in life when the end casts a shadow over even the sunniest day.
Image: © Manon et Jacob and Final Cut For Real
Credits
Producer
Hugo Sélignac
Screenwriter
Quentin Dupieux
Cinematography
Quentin Dupieux
Editor
Quentin Dupieux
Production Design
Joan Le Boru
Original Music
Quentin Dupieux

