White Noise

A direct adaption of Don DeLillo’s 1985 book of the same title, White Noise is a black comedy starring Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig and the delightful Don Cheadle. The story sees college professor Jack Gladney and his family’s comfortable suburban life thrown into turmoil when a nearby chemical explosion causes a life-threatening “Airborne Toxic Event” that results in the evacuation of their town. The freak accident triggers a series of questions and emotions in the family, leading Jack down an avenue he thought his moral compass would never allow him.

Laid out in chapters much like the book, Noah Baumbach explores themes of death, marriage, consumer culture, academia and religion in this pill-popping suburban universe, and the language and dialogue follow suit. Each scene is thoughtful and provocative, with high intellect debates unravelling much like they do in the novel – but the question that begins to plague this rollercoaster movie is: does it actually go anywhere or does it just mindlessly meander? Staying fairly true to the original text poses problems for Baumbach and his talented cast to tackle, but Driver, Gerwig, Cheadle and co navigate these choppy waters relatively decisively when the script doesn’t, although it does take a few scenes to decipher whether they are acting a sketch from Saturday Night Live or really are truly invested in their own performances.

White Noise is bursting with symbolism and we are constantly reminded of it, but what is the narrative? It has to be said the book does a far greater job at delivering an actual story, and when transferred onto the screen in the way it has been, it’s hard to know how seriously any of it is supposed to be and how much we as the viewer are meant to play along with it. The viewer is left as a helpless observer, with the movie never getting under your skin and infecting you with a sense of wonder but rather a wearying confusion as you are told more than you are shown and moments of suggestion never actually lead anywhere.

Comparisons aside, White Noise the movie is a visual fantasy with transitions that work and superb cinematography from Lol Crawley. The characters are human, but the world itself is frankly absurd, and Baumbach has produced a film far different to that of its predecessor, Marriage Story – it is quite a wonder how he has managed to go from that to this. The budget was reportedly $80 million and every last penny has been spent on making the movie look its sci-fi best. Include a Danny Elfman score and White Noise might just have been worth the wait.

Guy Lambert

White Noise is released in select cinemas on 2^nd December and available on Netflix on 30^th December 2022.

Watch the trailer for White Noise here: