'White Noise' Review: (Un)Controlled Chaos

Cr. / Netflix © 2022.

Following the critically acclaimed Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach has decided to tap into a polar opposite genre and adapt Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel about a family navigating “white noise,” the background noise of brand-name consumerism. The film tells the highly complicated and constantly changing story of the Gladney Family, made up of Jack (Adam Driver), Babette (Greta Gerwig), Denise (Raffey Cassidy), Steffie (May Nivola), and Heinrich (Sam Nivola). The film features few other notable recurring faces except for Murray (Don Cheadle), a fellow teacher at the “College-On-The-Hill” who aspires to teach a course on Elvis Studies.

Cr. Netflix © 2022.

The biggest realization I faced while watching the film is that viewing it works best when used as the title, “White Noise,” played in the background. The most interesting part of the plot is sidelined a little over halfway through the runtime, at which point the film starts to spiral out of control as interest levels decline. That’s not to say that the film doesn’t have its moments here and there, but once you get halfway through the movie, everything starts to feel off as the plot takes a wild turn and evolves into a completely different story. If you look at the film under the light of being an 80s movie, that’s exactly what you get. The production and costume design feels spot on, and I can’t say that I’ve seen a more appealing supermarket before.

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The technical aspects of the film are impressive, with consistently appealing cinematography from cinematographer Lol Crawley (The Devil All The Time) and another fantastic score from Danny Elfman (Spider-Man, The Nightmare Before Christmas). The film makes the interesting choice to save its headline music track, “New Body Rhumba” by LCD Soundsystem, for the credits, a time when it will be underappreciated and heard less than it should be. At certain points, the editing feels overindulgent and excessive, making the effort to create unique visuals that don’t need to be there.

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The film features solid performances from Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, with Gerwig being the more noticeable of the two, while not giving any other performers the time to shine and choosing to focus on these two characters even though their story becomes less interesting. A supporting actor nod must be given to Greta Gerwig’s phenomenal wig, which is not only discussed throughout the film but is a perfect nod to the film’s setting. The lack of sense of story direction can be chalked up to Baumbach’s ambition and yearning for a broader scope, a scope that goes wide in the wrong direction.

In short, White Noise finds its faults in its lacking plot and its sense of direction. While it may not be the most structured film, it certainly features good laughs and moments of emotion, but ultimately needed a stronger script and more focused plot.

White Noise is now streaming on Netflix.