White Noise (2022)- BFI London Film Festival 2022

Review

136min

Genre:       Comedy, Drama, Thriller

Director:     Noah Baumbach

Cast:         Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Raffey Cassidy…and more

Writers:     Noah Baumbach and Don DeLillo

-Synopsis-

A quirky academic and his anxious wife struggle to lead their paranoid young family through the turmoil of everyday life in suburban 1980s America, only to be forced onto a darker road by a local disaster and its effect on the public, as they pull on a thread in their marriage which threatens to unravel everything in this adaptation of the 1985 cult novel by the writer/director of ‘Frances Ha’ and ‘Marriage Story’.

After making his name with frank human dramas and charming explorations of the human condition as a stalwart of the indie movie scene over the last twenty-five years, Noah Baumbach turns up the dial on surrealism and quirkiness and takes a trip to the darker side of the road, flirting with Wes Anderson and Coen Brothers territory as he reunites with Netflix and reaches into their deep pockets to bring some large scale big screen perspective and his personal touch to a notoriously difficult-to-film acclaimed novel by Don DeLillo.

Adam Driver stars as idiosyncratic 1980s middle-aged patriarch and suburbanite professor of Hitler studies ‘Jack Gladney’, married to loving but anxious mother with a secret ‘Babbette’ (Greta Gerwig), both raising a young brood of hyper-aware disaster addicts including teens ‘Denise’ (Raffey Cassidy) and ‘Heinrich’ (Sam Nivola), and analysing life’s intricacies with locals like fellow academics ‘Murray’ (Don Cheadle) and ‘Winnie’ (Jodie Turner-Smith). But when catastrophe strikes and sends the town into a panic, all their fears are justified and amplified, as they head down a comically dark path which threatens their family . . . but could also bring them together in begrudging acceptance of our collective fate.

There are several reasons why Don DeLillo’s cult novel has long been considered unfilmable, not least of which is the structure of the story which is told in first person through the perspective of the ‘Jack Gladney’ lead character placing the reader in his convoluted mind, not to mention it essentially being moved along with humour and philosophical dialogue almost throughout from Jack. Without narration or access to his lead character’s mind, Baumbach spreads the complex dialogue around and relies both on straight (albeit slightly surreal) storytelling along with spectacle and a destination to move the film along . . . not to mention plenty of eccentricity of course.

Despite being written nearly four decades ago, the core social themes in ‘White Nosie’ of rampant consumerism and corporatisation—not to mention our general desensitisation to life fuelled by unchecked sensationalist media—are as timely as ever. But there is weight to the argument that Baumbach’s Hollywood version of the story only ever brushes against them, albeit in style, but they’re ultimately overshadowed by the dazzling nature of the film which has a bigger focus on spectacle and even action set-pieces than both the book and the director’s previous work. But that’s to be expected from a film adaptation with only just over two hours to make its mark, and the effect of a 21^st century perspective.

Baumbach can be forgiven for adapting the narrative to resonate with a 2022 audience, particularly with the understandable parallels to the COVID-19 pandemic, its effect on society, and our disparate reactions to it. Yet the writer/director still has plenty to say himself, amplifying other elements of the novel and adding his two cents to ponder over paranoia and anxiety in the west.

This is also clearly a comedy of catastrophe mixed with the mundane, peppered with philosophical exchanges and often overlapping stream of consciousness dialogue blended with the grind of everyday family life, regularly delivered with delightful deadpan precision and whimsical wackiness. It’s also in part a satire on academia, taking aim at certain pompous professors who sometimes bury themselves under so many layers of their own nonsense that they start to believe it—becoming preachers of their own perspectives.

Yet at its core, this ‘White Nosie’ is a quirky and darkly comical, occasionally absurdist character piece and dysfunctional family drama about our preoccupation with and fear of death—particularly our own—and the change of tone and loss of momentum in the crucial third act is noticeable. Particularly when the tale returns home from its American road movie detour, shifting into a family discontent drama and marital strife story which just doesn’t feel as delightfully droll or compelling as what comes before. But Baumbach largely keeps this train on the tracks, thanks in no small part to an ensemble cast on form led by a talented leading man who continues to make bold choices.

Adam Driver is reliably excellent and more whimsical than ever as the most well-adjusted member of the family who is transformed into its most neurotic by circumstance, making light work of colourful and verbose dialogue, including some mirthful monologues waxing lyrical about the early life of ‘The Führer’. He’s well supported by co-stars who all deliver, like queen of quirkiness Greta Gerwig who goes humorously darker than usual as the obsessive matriarch struggling to keep things together while dealing with the family trait of a death fixation. Some of the younger stars are equally impressive, with Raffey Cassidy proving the rational heart of the piece (if there is one) as the elder daughter, while Sam Nivola as the eldest son excels as the family’s observant catastrophe encyclopaedia, and Don Cheadle proves the most memorable non-family scene-stealer as a wacky pop culture icons professor and general state-of-society commentator.

Baumbach wraps up his idiosyncratic package in a bow of style with a colourful 1980s palette and costume aesthetic, mixed with a few more ominous night-time flourishes which help ‘White Nosie’ flirt with psychological horror/thriller without truly crossing over the line, all vividly captured by cinematographer Lol Crawley (Hyde Park on Hudson, Vox Lux). And if you need the sound to match the film’s tonal blend of whimsy and darkness mixed with hope, there’s no more experienced composer to go to than Danny Elfman, as he blends his creation with a soundtrack including tracks from ‘LCD Soundsystem’ to give it a distinct yet subversive 1980s feel.

The Bottom Line…

A delightfully droll, neuroses-packed quirky period dramedy rumination on a society losing its way, and an absurdist family drama meditation on mortality and our obsession with it, ‘White Nosie’ may stumble and wallow slightly through its third act but Noah Baumbach’s take on a notoriously complex cult novel is an alarmingly prescient, thoroughly entertaining, and curiously hopeful adaptation with his signature etched deeply in it—proving that a family which catastrophises together, stays together.

‘White Noise’ is available on Netflix from the 30th of December.

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