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Directed and Written by: Noah Baumbach
Based on the novel by Dom Delillo
Starring: Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Raffey Cassidy
Dom Delillo’s novels are the definition of unfilmable, to the point to where the most major adaptation of a book of his, Cosmopolis, was considered to be strange and polarising even by director David Cronenberg’s standards. The latest director to try and adapt it is Noah Baumbach, fresh off the acclaimed Marriage Story and a man known for grounded comedy dramas trying to tackle a set of different genres within both a familiar relationship drama story and a social commentary/disaster story. The result is certainly his weirdest film but an interesting one.
In 1983, midwestern town professor Jack (Adam Driver) and his family including wife Babette (Greta Gerwig) are forced out of their home once an accident that creates a toxic waste cloud occurs. Within this drama, Jack must confront issues regarding both his fear of death and his wife’s personal drama.
From the beginning, it’s clear that whilst Noah might have made changes to the book’s narrative, the offbeat language and tone has been retained, not to mention the generally unconventional structure. The central themes are death and how we deal with it, the concept of impending doom and trying to control your life. It’s a thoughtful film with a lot on its mind and the culmination is unexpected but interesting, even ending with credits that in any other movie might seem very out of place but here actually fit.
The dialogue takes a bit of getting used to but becomes generally understandable and not so unnatural that it made the characters unrelatable. The structure/genre handling of the film might divide people as it’s admittedly scattershot. The opening and third act have little to do with the toxic waste situation directly, the connection is more thematic and situational without a direct link.
But given how the personal drama is threaded all throughout, it is not a big issue when that comes centre stage. Plus, there’s a few different genres played with, but the film is never incoherent in its genre mixing as it’s understandable how it flows from one to the next. The structure is also fairly clear too and there’s only a few scenes that in hindsight could have been cut even if they were fine in the moment. Mainly a couple of moments that feel like non-sequiturs in the grand scheme.
Baumbach’s direction is the real star, as the film has excellent editing and sound mixing that makes the movie both engagingly weird and often tense. Any flow the film has is very much helped by the approach Baumbach brings and he does well in creating the panic and fear of the cloud scare as well as the moments of thriller/horror. The scene that shows the accident happening utilises great and powerful crosscutting and there are a lot of other scenes where the editing and direction brings them to life.
The acting is pretty good too, they deliver this strange dialogue naturally and bring these characters down to earth. They are hard roles to play, but Driver’s grounded and humanising portrayal of Jack makes a sometimes-frustrating character not overbearing. Same goes for Greta who in one confession scenes especially shows that she is still a valuable actress despite her switch to directing.
All in all, White Noise is an interesting career choice for Baumbach that might not be general audience friendly but is successful at conveying its thematic points with a deft technical hand, creating an experience that you do not usually get with a film. Chaotic but worthwhile.
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