First it is called a plume of smoke. Subsequently, TV and radio speak of apoison cloud, to eventually switch to an ‘airborne toxic event’ (where poisonis spread through the air). But whatever may be going on just outside theborder of his college town, Jack Gladney won’t be fooled. He explains to hischildren that cities are built in such a way that the better neighborhoods,like theirs, remain unaffected by disaster. ‘It doesn’t get to here. It’s justnot happening.’
And so says the professor who appears in Noah Baumbach’s wonderfully elusivenew film white noise is presented as eminent expert in Hitler studies. A manwho therefore knows how dangerous it is to bury your head in the sand, and wholikes to describe the family institution as ‘the cradle of disinformation’.While the sirens wail outside, the same Jack Gladney (Adam Driver, withreceding hairline and ostentatious tummy) sits imperturbably at his supper.
Mischief and media, disaster and indolence, consumerism as an anestheticagainst terror: in this Netflix adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel of thesame name, the big themes collide like cars, according to Gladney’s friend,media teacher and Elvis connoisseur Siskind (Don Cheadle). ) in Hollywoodmovies – enthusiastically, joyfully. And as government instructionscontinually change as the severity of the catastrophe becomes clearer, so toodoes it white noise one surprising, not to say alienating, turn afteranother. With the heavenly white supermarket as a recurring haven.
Take Jack and wife Babette (Greta Gerwig), disturbingly phlegmatic andsporting a voluptuous head of curls; that haircut alone makes clear that_white noise_ set in the 1980s). Baumbach introduces the two and theirchildren as a chattering jumble of perspectives, but meanwhile there is alsoplenty of existential unrest.
1980s style
While Babette becomes increasingly forgetful and secretly takes scary pills,Jack dreams at night that he is being strangled in bed by a stranger (or is ithimself?): a well-directed nightmare scene that briefly steers the familycomedy into pure-blooded horror territory. The dialogues, largely taken overfrom DeLillo’s novel, sound musically theatrical and rhythmic: a musicalitythat is only released during the credits, in a grandiose show ballet betweenthe supermarket shelves.
Who would have thought that of Baumbach, who made his name with broodingtragicomedies like Frances Ha (2012) and herself with the wedding portrait_Marriage Story_ (2019) from his most sensitive, realistic side. Especially inthe middle part of white noise , when the film becomes an absurd-apocalypticspectacle in the eighties style that also links up with the corona pandemic,Baumbach seems to be reinventing himself as a filmmaker. Very nice, thatclose-up of Jack during the refueling while the toxic cloud passes above him,like the black-red shadow of death.
Where is all that going? Does the film veer hopelessly out of control or doesit just kick life on its tail in all the chaos? Hard to say. But watch howsmoothly and pleasantly Driver and Gerwig move with every extreme registrychange, and you just want to do the same.