White Noise review: Noah Baumbach’s adaptation is a dense and thrilling experience – FNC 2022

White Noise Review

Following up 2019’s acclaimed Marriage Story, writer-director Noah Baumbach is back with White Noise, a dense and thrilling adaptation of Don DeLillo’s “unfilmable” 1985 novel of the same name.

A massive film unlike anything Baumbach has attempted up to this point, White Noise focuses on a family (including Adam Driver and Baumbach’s frequent star Greta Gerwig) dealing with the after-effects of an “Airborne Toxic Event.”

After a train accident unleashes a toxic chemical over their town, Jack Gladney (Driver) and his wife Babette (Gerwig) are forced to confront their fear of death while trying to find inspiration to live amidst the chaos spurned by the accident.

A deft satire of academia and ’80s self-centered culture, Baumbach brings the winding monologues of DeLillo’s book to the screen while adding an almost Spielberg-like sense of wonder, especially in the film’s terrifying accident sequence.

With riveting performances from Driver and Gerwig and co-star Don Cheadle and a sprawling structure reminiscent of the best Robert Altman films, White Noise is an overwhelming cinematic experience that probes life’s biggest questions. (It also features a vibrant musical dance sequence set to a thumping new LCD Soundsystem track.)

It may not be for everyone, but Baumbach is vibrating at an exciting frequency here and easily demonstrates that he can handle material as challenging and uncompromising as this.

White Noise arrives in select theaters on November 25, 2022, before hitting Netflix on December 30.